Eclipse of the Assassins: The CIA, Imperial Politics, and the Slaying of Mexican Journalist Manuel Buendía

Eclipse of the Assassins investigates the sensational 1984 murder of Mexico’s most influential newspaper columnist, Manuel Buendía, and how that crime reveals the lethal hand of the U.S. government in Mexico and Central America during the final decades of the twentieth century.

The authors uncover new information about the U.S.-instigated “dirty wars” that ravaged all of Latin America in the 1960s, ’70s, and ’80s and reveal—for the first time—how Mexican officials colluded with Washington in its proxy Contra war against the Sandinista government of Nicaragua. They document the deadly connections among historical events usually remembered as separate episodes: the Iran-Contra scandal; the 1985 kidnapping and murder of U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration special agent Enrique (Kiki) Camarena in Guadalajara; Operation Trifecta, a major DEA sting against key CIA-linked Bolivian, Panamanian, and Mexican drug traffickers; the Christic Institute’s public interest lawsuit against twenty-eight Contra-related defendants on behalf of American freelance journalists Tony Avirgon and Martha Honey; and the CIA-orchestrated media savaging of investigative reporter Gary Webb for his 1996 exposé of Agency collusion with cocaine-trafficking Contra supporters in California.

Eclipse of the Assassins places a major political crime in its full historical perspective. It is the first book in English to recount the history of Cold War political violence in Mexico and to show how that history—in the post–Cold War era—segues into the current crime-driven state of societal collapse where growing areas of Mexico’s national territory are beyond the effective authority of the national government.

About the Author :
Russell H. Bartley is a professor emeritus of history at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee. He worked as a correspondent for the Mexico City daily newspaper unomásuno from 1980 to 1989. Sylvia Erickson Bartley is a historian, historical records archivist, and photographer. She worked as a photojournalist for unomásuno from 1984 to 1989.

Review :
"A compelling account of the thirty-year investigation by reporters Russell and Sylvia Bartley to unravel two of the most significant political assassinations of the twentieth century--the blatant 1984 slaying of Mexican journalist Manuel Buendía and the brutal 1985 torture-execution of U.S. DEA agent Kiki Camarena. Rather than finger-pointing, arm-waving accusations, the authors use these killings to plunge deep into the clandestine domain created by shipment of CIA guns south through Mexico to the Nicaragua Contras and smuggling of drugs north into the U.S., simultaneously compromising the Mexican state and corrupting U.S.-Mexican relations."--Alfred W. McCoy, author of Torture and Impunity: The CIA Doctrine of Coercive Interrogation
"An informed and informative expose of the dark underbelly of American political corruption that was well hidden from the general public by the presidential administrations that inflicted it. . . . Invaluable and highly recommended."--Midwest Book Review "Reflects a thirty-year investigation by the two reporter authors who examine two of the most important political assassinations of the 20th century: a Mexican journalist and a U.S. DEA agent. . . . No collection strong in international politics or espionage should be without this hard-hitting examination, which takes two seemingly isolated circumstances and connects a range of events."--Bookwatch "These events have been a taboo subject for mainstream media and most academics. Like a Russian novel, Eclipse of the Assassins has a vast cast of characters meshing together in a world where the murder is never perfectly solved but is finally understood."--Charles Bowden, author of Murder City: Ciudad Juarez and the Global Economy's New Killing Fields "Uncovers the authors' proposed motive for the Buendía assassination: his knowledge of Mexico's connection to the Iran-Contra affair. . . . Offers important insights into Mexico's dirty war and the US-Mexican relationship during the late Cold War. . . . Bartley and Bartley have uncovered a chilling transborder history of government collusion to silence criticism and subvert dissidents."--Hispanic American Historical Review