Journal of Latin American Studies (2021), 53,1–24 doi:10.1017/S0022216X20001017 ORIGINAL ARTICLE From Comrades to Subversives: Mexican Secret Police and ‘Undesirable’ Spanish Exiles, 1939–60 Kevan Antonio Aguilar* Doctoral candidate, History Department, University of California, San Diego *Corresponding author. Email:
[email protected]. (First published online 16 November 2020) Abstract This article examines the Mexican state’s surveillance of Spanish political exiles. As the Mexican government publicly welcomed over 20,000 political refugees fleeing the Spanish Civil War (1936–9), its intelligence apparatus characterised anarchist and com- munist refugees as subversive threats to the Mexican nation. Despite these efforts, the Mexican secret police failed to prevent the emergence of new political bonds between the two countries’ popular classes. This article shows the consequences of the Mexican secret police’s campaign against radical exiles while also highlighting instances in which Spaniards evaded the state’s purview and contributed to revolutionary projects in Mexico, Latin America and Spain. Keywords: Mexico; Spanish Civil War; exiles; anarchism; communism; surveillance Introduction In the early hours of 20 September 1948, four members of the Juventudes Libertarias Mexicanas (Mexican Libertarian Youth, JLM) were detained by police as they carried a bucket of paste, paintbrushes and over 3,000 leaflets to the Zócalo, Mexico City’s historic centre.1 Since three of the detained youths were Spanish exiles, the Mexican state’s intelligence apparatus, the Dirección de Investigaciones Políticas y Sociales (Directorate of Political and Social Investigations, DIPS), launched an investigation regarding the JLM and its mem- bers.2 Unlike other Spanish political organisations in exile, which primarily focused 1Originating in Spain, the Federación Ibérica de Juventudes Libertarias was re-established by exiled Spanish youth who were among the 20,000 political refugees that fled to Mexico following the victory of Dictator Francisco Franco in 1939.