THE SINARQUISTA MOVEMENT WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO THE PERIOD 1934-1944 BY HECTOR HERNANDEZ GARCIA de LEON A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED IN CANDIDACY FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY UNIVERSITY OF LONDON LONDON SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS AND POLITICAL SCIENCE UMI Number: U615531 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Dissertation Publishing UMI U615531 Published by ProQuest LLC 2014. Copyright in the Dissertation held by the Author. Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest LLC 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 T i - h f P 67 ^4-5 ABSTRACT The thesis has two principal objectives: firstly, to provide a systematic account of the evolution of the Sinarquista Movement in Mexico from 1934 to 1944 and, secondly, to evaluate the extent to which the Movement was instrumental in the shift to the right of the Mexican Revolution. The first part of the thesis outlines the historical and political context in which the Sinarquista Movement appeared. It argues that the modus vivendi that came out of the 1929 agreements between the Church and the State, which brought to an end the Cristero rebellion, was broken by the left-oriented government of Lazaro Cardenas, which alienated the Catholics and exasperated the propertied classes. Against this background took place the consolidation of Catholic organizations. The following three chapters then trace the evolution of the Sinarquista Movement from its inception in the Mexican political scene, to its apogee after the 1941 presidential elections and, to its collapse and fragmentation in 1945. Each chapter considers the relations and the perceptions of the Church, the Government and the United States. In each case, the analysis is organized around two critical developments: the changing character of the Mexican regime and, the growing concern of the Catholic conservative sector, the power behind the Sinarquista Movement, about the radicalization of the Movement, which threatened to compromise the Church. Part three seeks to evaluate Synarchist organization and ideology. It argues that the failures of the Mexican Revolution in agriculture and in education provided the conditions for the success of Synarchism among the poorest Mexican masses. It nevertheless also argues that because of the lack of alliances with other nationalist groups and of a precise programme of action, the fate of the Movement ultimately rested with the actors that manipulated it. 3 CONTENTS Page LIST OF ACRONYMS 8 INTRODUCTION 10 PART ONE THE HISTORICAL AND POLITICAL BACKGROUND 14 CHAPTER I THE CONFLICT BETWEEN CHURCH AND STATE 15 (1923-1934) I The End of the Cristero Rebellion 26 1 The Modus vivendi 26 2 Calles and the persecution of the 29 Church 3 The political nature of the Cristiada 30 4 Modus vivendi vs. modus moriendi 35 II The Presidential Election of 1934 52 1 Socialist education 57 2 Catholic reaction 61 Endnotes 74 CHAPTER II THE REGIME OF PRESIDENT CARDENAS 86 I The Organization of the Masses 89 1 The workers 89 2 The peasants 108 II Relations with the Church 117 1 Religious persecution 121 III The Rise of the Secular Radical Right 127 1 The Accion Revolucionaria Mexicanista 129 2 The CPRM 135 3 The CCM and the UNVR 136 4 Cedillo 139 IV Church-State Detente 142 Endnotes 147 4 Page CHAPTER III PRE-SYNARCHISM 159 I "La Base" 162 1 Objectives and tactics 165 2 Relations between the "Base" and 166 the League 3 Organization 169 i Regional division ii Sections iii The leadership of the Base iv The secret leaders 4 Activities 177 i "The spiritual reconquest of Tabasco" ii The Base and labour 5 The Decline of the legions 187 6 The birth of Synarchism 193 i The Manifesto of the organizing committee ii The UNS and the Base iii The rise of Synarchism iv The UNS and the 1940 elections Endnotes 220 PART TWO CHRONOLOGY OF THE MOVEMENT, 1934-1945 228 CHAPTER IV EMERGENCE IN THE POLITICAL SCENE 229 1939-1940 I The UNS and other Nationalist Groups 230 II Synarchism Survives the Elections 241 III The decline of the Nationalist Right 245 IV The leadership of Abascal 254 V Militaristic Organization 267 VI The Government's Response 273 Endnotes 279 5 Page CHAPTER V THE FALL OF SALVADOR ABASCAL 287 I Division in the UNS 287 II The Colonization of Lower California 289 III The Leadership of Torres Bueno 297 IV The Role of the American Clergy 308 V The removal of Abascal 313 1 The UNS, the Base and the American 313 Embassy 2 The UNS and the government 320 VI The Crisis of 1943 328 1 The "fatal blunder" 329 Endnotes 1339 CHAPTER VI DIVISION OF THE UNS 351 I The Collapse of the UNS 351 II The Split Between the UNS and the Base, 352 1945 1 The "dissidents" 360 2 Consequences 360 i Division and confusion ii Disorganization 366 III The Partido Fuerza Popular 366 IV The 1945 Elections 370 V Synarchism in 1947 373 Endnotes 382 PART THREE IDEOLOGY AND ORGANIZATION 385 CHAPTER VII IDEOLOGY 386 I The Synarchist Concept of the Ideal 386 Regime II The Synarchist Movement and the 391 Second World War 6 Page III Synarchism and the Mexican Political 409 System 1 The peasants against the official 417 agrarian policy 2 Synarchists and ejidatarios 419 IV The UNS and the Agrarian Problem 425 V Synarchism and Socialist Education 433 1 Synarchism and education 435 VI The Abandonment of Socialist Education 442 Endnotes 447 CHAPTER VIII ORGANIZATION AND MYSTIQUE 456 I Synarchist militia 456 II The Synarchist Movement and the 458 Cristeros III The Synarchist Organization 461 1 The committees 462 2 The leaders 466 3 Finances 469 IV The Synarchist Programme 472 1 Municipio 477 V Synarchism and Labour 481 VI Synarchism and Catholicism 486 VII Synarchism and the Defence of the 490 Church VIII Synarchism and Nationalism 499 1 Synarchism and the United States 502 2 The Synarchist mission 503 IX The Synarchist concept of the State: 504 Christian Social Order 1 An ideological framework 510 2 Hispanidad 513 Endnotes 517 CONCLUSION 525 BIBLIOGRAPHY 531 7 LIST OF ACRONYMS ACJM Asociacion Catolica de la Juventud Mexicana ARM Accion Revolucionaria Mexicanista CCM Confederacion de la Clase Media CGOCM Confederacion General de Obreros y Campesinos de Mexico CGT Confederacion General del Trabajo CNC Confederacion Nacional Campesina CPRM Confederacion Patronal de la Republica Mexicana CROM Confederacion Regional Obrera Mexicana CTM Confederacion de Trabajadores de Mexico LNDLR Liga Nacional Defensora de la Libertad Religiosa PAN Partido Accion Nacional PNR Partido Nacional Revolucionario PRI Partido Revolucionario Institutional PRM Partido de la Revolucion Mexicana PRUN Partido Revolucionario de Unificacion Nacional UNS Union Nacional Sinarquista UNVR Union Nacional de Veteranos de la Revolucion VNM Vanguardia Nacionalista Mexicana List of abbreviations used in the Notes AGN Archivo General de la Nacion, Mexico City. Followed by the section (ramo), series, file (expediente), and document number. FO The British Foreign Office Archive in the Public Record Office, London. Followed by the series and file number and the document reference in brackets. INAH Archivo Historico del Instituto Nacional de Antropologia e Historia. Followed by the series and microfilm number and the cataloguing number in brackets. 8 NAW The National Archive of the United States, Washington, D.C. Followed by the Record Group (RG) , Record of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) Number, and document number. 9 INTRODUCTION The purpose of this study is to examine the politics of Mexico over a ten year period, during which emerged a political phenomenon that in the first half of the twentieth century was common to all the Western World. This phenomenon was the rapid expansion, after the First World War, of popular, nationalist movements, which were authoritarian and without ideology, which can be collectively classified under right-wing radical movements. Until recently, historians of modern Mexico tended to neglect the years 1920 to 1940 and concentrate upon the first phase of the Mexican Revolution (1910-1920) or upon the deeds of Lazaro Cdrdenas (1934-1940). During the last ten years, however, an attempt has been made to rectify this imbalance. The most important contribution has been the remarkable account of Jean Meyer of the Cristero rebellion. Other examples are the Colegio de Mexico's Historia de la Revolucion Mexicana, especially volumes VII to XIX, and Campbell's study of the Mexican radical Right.1 Hence, understanding of the subject is still rudimentary and incomplete, and the knowledge that has been assembled in this regard is not sufficient to formulate more than a few tentative conclusions as to its true nature. Besides, its novelty suggests that an attempt to situate it in an historical perspective must, by necessity be tentative. In spite of this, it is hoped that this thesis will contribute towards a better understanding of the phenomenon. 10 Despite the assertions of those who saw Synarchism as a peripheral phenomenon in the contemporary history of Mexico, the history of the Synarchist Movement from 1934 to 1944 gives prominence to the significance of the role played by this movement in the political swing to the right of the Mexican Revolution since 1940. Very few studies have been dedicated to the Mexican Right, and even less to individual organizations. In Mexico, as in most other countries, the right had a negative appearance; more specifically, it emerged as a reaction to the Mexican Revolution and to the social changes that it promised, especially against the Marxist turn that the Revolution adopted in the thirties.