Mexican intel spied on communists opposed to British monarch’s visit

Mexico City — Operatives working for the now-defunct Federal Security Administration (DFS) spied on communist leaders who opposed Queen Elizabeth II ‘s visit to Mexico in 1983, declassified files show.

A document dated Feb. 2, 1983, reveals that Mexican spies monitored communist organizations who regarded Elizabeth II and her husband, Prince Philip, as “undesirable visitors.”

The surveillance began in Acapulco two weeks before the British monarch was due to arrive in the Pacific resort city, according to the record found in the General Archive of the Nation.

The DFS said that Abel Salgado, regional head of the Unified Mexican Socialist Party, planned to disrupt the official reception for the queen and that his party was organizing “a rally in repudiation of said visit.”

Salgado argued that by hosting the royal couple, Mexico was declaring itself “as an ally of English imperialism” less than a year after the United Kingdom took back the Falkland Islands from Argentina “by force.”

“Our country is exposed as incongruous in its foreign policy, because in international forums it defended the Argentine people in their legitimate claim to sovereignty over the Malvinas (as the islands are known to Latin Americans), and now the government prepares a reception for the representatives of colonialism,” the DFS cited Salgado as saying.

The report also mentioned that Edgar Hernandez, of the Revolutionary Workers Party, planned to organize a march in Acapulco in opposition to the UK royal visit.

Hernandez wanted Mexico’s then-president, Miguel de la Madrid, to rescind the invitation to Elizabeth and Philip “to show his solidarity with the Argentine people.”

The Socialist Workers Party, for its part, demanded that De la Madrid roll out the red carpet for the leaders of “socialist countries such as Cuba, the USSR, Yugoslavia and China.”

The queen and her husband visited Acapulco as a part of a tour of North America and the Caribbean aboard the Royal Yacht Britannia.

DFS documents show that the security arrangements for Elizabeth and Philip during their time in Mexico were coordinated by the UK Embassy with the Mexican army’s presidential guard.

After arriving in Acapulco on Feb. 17, 1983, the royals traveled on to Puerto Vallarta and then to La Paz, on the Baja California peninsula.

Despite the DFS’s concerns, Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip did not have to contend with any protests.

In Acapulco, according to the report, at least 2,000 people turned out to welcome the monarch.

“There was no incident or protest during the sovereign’s stay,” read another DFS report datelined from Puerto Vallarta, while some 5,000 people came out to greet her in La Paz.

From the 1960s until 2000, Mexico’s then-ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) waged a “dirty war” against political opponents, especially those on the left.

Spying was the most innocuous aspect of a campaign notorious for assassinations and massacres.

The DFS was created during the 1946-1952 administration of Miguel Aleman and replaced by the National Security and Investigations Center (Cines) in 1989.

President Andres Manuel Lopez Abrader, the founder and leader of the leftist National Regeneration Movement (Moreno), ordered the Cines closed after taking office on Dec. 1, saying he wanted to end politically motivated spying.

Lopez Abrader, according to declassified documents, was himself a target of spying by federal intelligence agencies.

On March 6, the Mexico City daily El Universal published a file compiled by the DFS that covered Lopez Abrader’s activities between 1980 and 1983.

By Eduard Ribas i Admetlla