The Mazorca is the “red political police” of the Rosas regime: the force that hunts, imprisons and kills its political enemies, recognized by the color red and by the red list its men, the mazorqueros, carry openly.
| Type | Organization (political police / militia) |
| Serves | The Rosas regime |
| Members | Mazorqueros; also called Colorado del Monte |
| Known rank | Captain |
| Spanish entry | Mazorca |
Description
The red list is the register of politically wanted people and the Mazorca’s whole instrument: it works by list and patrols with it, and anyone on it is in effect already sentenced. Its men are also called Colorado del Monte and are “soldiers of the regime”.
Presence
It has territorial presence of varying density; in the region of these chronicles it is high (“there’s a strong mazorca here, man”). Travelers ask indirectly whether “there is a strong mazorca” around before choosing a road. It has its own base: “the camp of the Mazorca, one of the nastiest of the regime”, in the plains. It is actively searching and capturing; any citizen can “fall to the Mazorca”.
Methods and structure
“They set up slaughterhouses, commit violence, purge their enemies, cut throats.” It is state terror with method and a military chain of command. The rank of captain exists — “a captain of the militia guard of the Colorado del Monte turned Mazorca” — and a Mazorca captain is an autonomous power against whom a civilian has no recourse.
Bertrando Black deals with the Mazorca and instructs it on how to proceed.
Role
It is how the regime makes itself felt in daily life. The company of the gesta measures a person’s safety by whether they “fell to the Mazorca” or were helped not to. Where it is strong, people speak lower and walk differently.
Conflicting accounts
The records show three layers not fully unified: a secret police operating covertly; a militia with captains, affiliated with the Colorado del Monte, patrolling openly with the red list; and the camp in the plains.
- One version places the Mazorca itself camped in the plains as troops.
- In another, the speaker corrects himself to separate the Mazorca (secret police) from the rural militias in camp. The camp may be the Mazorca’s or an allied militia’s.
Open questions
- Uniforms, weapons and insignia.
- Whether Bertrando Black acts as informant, partner or superior.
- Numbers, number of camps, length of the red list and death toll are unknown.
- No command above captain is recorded.
- How a name enters the red list, and whether anyone leaves it other than through death, is not explained.
- Where exactly “the plains” of the camp are is not fixed.