ABSTRACT

In the immediate aftermath of the war with the United States, governments at all levels of Mexican society—municipal, regional, and national—pursued the trial and execution of alleged traitors, collaborators, rebels, and ordinary criminals in hopes of reinforcing the peace, redressing wrongs, and assigning responsibility for the enormous suffering of the war. The chapter pays special attention to the efforts of General José Joaquín de Herrera’s moderado administration to bring to justice the notorious Mexico City felon Roque Miranda, who had also assisted U.S. forces as a member of the Puebla contraguerrillas (counterguerrillas). An examination of these judicial cases shows how Mexican civil and military leaders tried to impose narrative coherence on the chaotic experience of the recent conflict with the Americans, as well as the limits of these efforts, over time, in curtailing the banditry and violence that had afflicted the country since independence.