Visiting the Circular de Morelia Memorial Site (Sitio de Memoria Circular de Morelia), which is a memorial site dedicated to the victims of state terrorism perpetrated by the Mexican government during Mexico’s Dirty War.
This inconspicuous-looking building, located at Circular de Morelia No. 8 in the heart of Roma Norte in Mexico City, served as a government office and temporary forced detention centre for the Dirección Federal de Seguridad (DFS) from 1971 to 1985, during Mexico’s Dirty War.
The Dirty War (la Guerra sucia) was an internal conflict in Mexico between the Mexican Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), which was backed by the U.S. government, and left-wing student and guerrilla groups.
During the war, which lasted from 1964 to 1982, government forces carried out systematic torture, “probable extrajudicial executions”, and an estimated 1,200 disappearances.
Those taken were brought to this location, in the dead of night, often blind folded and in the trunks for cars.
Survivors recall with vivid detail the steep ramp which led from the entrance down into the basement.
The interrogation cells were on the 5th floor. On the rooftop were the temporary holding-cells. Many were from other cities across Mexico. Those familiar with Mexico City could identify the location due to the close proximity to Reforma, and Chapultepec Park.
Records document this property as the operational headquarters of the White Brigade (1976) and Grupo México (1978), both clandestine counterinsurgency groups dedicated to implementing extermination policies against guerrilla organizations.
From this location, detainees were registered, interrogated, and tortured before being transferred to other detention centres in Mexico City.
Many detainees were “disappeared”, either at El Campo Militar No. 1, or on flights out over the Pacific, where flight plans weren’t filed.
The Circular de Morelia Memorial Site is a memorial site dedicated to the victims of state terrorism perpetrated by the Mexican government.
The memorial site was inaugurated in 2019.
Here you will discover a darker side of Rome Norte, the colonia which is now so popular with gringos.
I visited with my wife in late August 2026, after quite a long time of having it on our “things to do” list.
We were very lucky to get an English-speaking guide, who explained the history of the DSF, the building and those who were murdered at the hands of the Mexican government.
Address: Circular de Morelia 8, Roma Nte., Cuauhtémoc, 06700 Ciudad de México, CDMX
The Sitio de Memoria Circular de Morelia acupies the basement, while the rest of the building houses the offices of the General Directorate of Strategies for the Attention to Human Rights of the Undersecretariat of Human Rights, Population and Migration of the federal government.
