Mexico's truth commission reveals new evidence of ‘death flights’ during 1965-1990 'dirty war'

MEXICO CITY (AP) — More evidence has emerged that Mexican authorities disposed of the bodies of dissidents in “death flights” during the country's 1965-1990 “dirty war. ”

Mexico’s governmental Truth Commission said in a report Friday that recollections by witnesses and documents leaked over the years described the chilling last moments of the victims. The executions were part of an effort by the Mexican government at the time to eliminate leftist social and guerrilla movements.

The victims, who have not been identified or counted, were pulled one by one to a bench at a military airfield near Acapulco. They believed they were going to have their photographs taken, but were instead shot in the back of the head, and their bodies dumped by plane out in the Pacific ocean.

According to testimony by Gustavo Tarín, who served in a military police unit at the time, the same pistol was used so often in the killings that soldiers came up with a nickname for it: “the sword of justice.”