Спецназ Мексиканской Армии: История и Современность

The Special Forces Corps (lang es) are the special forces battalions of the Mexican Army. Formerly the Special Forces Airmobile Group (lang es) or GAFE, the SF corps has six regular battalions; plus four specialized units, one of those units is the Fuerza Especial de Reaccion, the other three remain secretive for the public; the motto of the SF Corps is Todo por México (Everything for Mexico). Within the SF Corps, there are regular, intermediate, and veteran service troops. The regular service soldiers usually operate as light infantry. The intermediate and veteran service soldiers (officers and sergeants) usually are instructors known as COFE or CSFE. Most of the veteran service soldiers of the Fuerzas Especiales del Alto Mando (FEs High Command) handle Black Ops missions.

GAFE was created in 1986 as the "Fuerza de Intervención Rápida" (Rapid Intervention Force) to provide security for the FIFA World Cup soccer games in Mexico City. France's GIGN trained the group in special weapons and counter terrorism tactics. On 1 June 1990, the group adopted its most known name, GAFE, becoming a Corps (with division sized formation) in 2013 as part of the expansion of the Army. It again changed its name from GAFE to Special Forces Corps in 2004. Eight years later (in 1994) the GAFEs saw action fighting EZLN guerrillas in Chiapas. There is scant public information about the operations in which they participated during that conflict. During the 1990s, the GAFE reportedly received training in commando and urban warfare from Israeli special forces and American Special Forces units, which included training in rapid deployment, marksmanship, ambushes, counter surveillance and the art of intimidation. It is also known that at some point several members were trained in the infamous US Army School of the Americas, in enhanced interrogation techniques and psychological warfare (Psy Ops). Nowadays the army special forces continue fighting the war against drug cartels in Mexico. They have successfully captured many big drug leaders such as Benjamin Arellano Felix of the Tijuana Cartel, Carlos Rosales Mendoza of La Familia Cartel and Osiel Cardenas Guillen of the Gulf Cartel.

In 1994 the EZLN guerrilla seized several towns across the southern state of Chiapas. The Mexican government sent in "GAFEs" to put down the insurgents. Within hours, 30 rebels were killed and others were captured. Later their bodies were disposed on a riverbank – with their ears and noses sliced off. In 1996, about 34 GAFE defectors were recruited to join the Gulf Cartel, serving as the cartel's armed wing which became known as Los Zetas. This group also recruited national and foreign military personnel (like U. S. Army soldiers and Guatemalan Kaibiles), corrupt police officers and street gang members, and used their knowledge of torture and psychological warfare to terrorize their rivals and innocent civilians alike. By 2011 only 10 of the original 34 zetas remained fugitives. Most of them have been killed or captured by Mexican Special Forces. It is alleged that on 2 October 2013 during a demonstration by so called "anarchist youth groups" to protest against the Mexican President and to commemorate the 1968 Tlatelolco student massacre, undercover GAFEs worked as agent provocateurs to disrupt the march and cause the riot police to crush it.

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