Mexico's Rurales: Reputation Versus Reality

ON show throughout the world, Mexico's rural police force, the famous Rurales, nearly always got top billing and an enthusiastic press. For example, after reviewing a contingent of Rurales at the World Exposition of 1901 in Buffalo, New York, an American newspaper reporter wrote that the Rurales were “somewhat similar to the old Texas Rangers, but even tougher than the Rangers. Bred from infancy among the hills and valleys of old Mexico and accustomed not only to the saddle but the most meager rations, well does the robber know that with these troops in pursuit, his game is up. It's due to the Rurales that interior Mexico is so free of crime. Rurales are all over Mexico.”