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Silencing Rebellious Priests: Rodolfo Escamilla García and the Repression of Progressive Catholicism in Cold-War Mexico

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 March 2022

Jaime M. Pensado
Jaime M. Pensado*
Affiliation:
University of Notre Dame Notre Dame, Indiana jpensado@nd.edu
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Abstract

This article examines the silencing and repression of rebellious priests in Mexico from the 1940s to the mid 1970s and places the divergent actors that composed the Catholic Church during this period as key players in the Cold War. It examines the web of personal and organizational connections of a single emblematic individual whose transnational history has been mostly absent from the accounts of the era: the Jesuit priest Rodolfo Escamilla García. Founder of the Catholic Workers’ Youth (JOC) in the late 1950s, he championed the radical “See, Judge, Act” method that politicized thousands of people across Latin America during the 1960s, when liberation theology emerged throughout the continent and competing conservative authorities came together to repress it. In 1977 Escamilla García was brutally killed in Mexico City, likely with the approval of government security agencies. Yet, his brutal killing, and the murders and torture of other priests examined in this article, were never investigated by police authorities. Further, their silencing points to a moment in Mexican history when government leaders and iconic leftist intellectuals erroneously championed the idea that the nation was exceptional in the Latin American region, meaning less authoritarian and more democratic. The most influential ecclesiastical authorities overwhelmingly agreed. For them, maintaining a productive relationship with the state took precedence over the need to publicly condemn the assassination of rebellious priests. Instead, the loudest voices of condemnation came from progressive Catholics representing the Mexican Social Secretariat (SSM) and the National Center of Social Communications (CENCOS).

Keywords

Progressive CatholicismCold WarState Repression1968 Mexico
Type
Article
Information
The Americas , Volume 79 , Issue 2 , April 2022 , pp. 263 - 289
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Academy of American Franciscan History

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Footnotes

I thank Gema Santamaría and Luis Herrán Ávila for their patience, rich editorial comments, and careful readings of the various versions of this manuscript. I am also grateful to the Kellogg Institute for International Studies, which financed much of the research for this article.

References

1. “Carta de un sacerdote deportado,” SPES 1:2 (October 1969): 8–9.

2. Kunzle, David, Chesucristo: The Fusion in Image and Word of Che Guevara and Jesus Christ (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2016), 68Google Scholar. Many of these martyrs are listed in Lernoux, Penny, Cry of the People: United States Involvement in the Rise of Fascism, Torture, and Murder and the Persecution of the Catholic Church in Latin America (Garden City, NJ: Doubleday, 1980), 463–469Google Scholar.

3. “Ante el asesinato del P. Henrique Pereira Netto,” SPES 1:1 (September 1969): 6–7; “El martirio de Henrique,” SPES 1:2 (October 1969): 5; Carlos Gradín, “Ante el asesinato del P. Henrique,” Víspera 3:11 (July 1969): 21–24. See also Green, James N., We Cannot Remain Silent: Opposition to the Brazilian Military Dictatorship in the United States (Durham: Duke University Press, 2010), 108–110Google Scholar.

4. See for example the collection of essays in Pensado, Jaime M. and Ochoa, Enrique C., eds., México Beyond 1968: Revolutionaries, Radicals, and Repression During the Global Sixties and Subversive Seventies (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2018)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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7. In making this argument, I expand on the pioneering work published by Patricia Arias, Alfonso Castillo, and Cecilia López, Radiografía de la iglesia católica en México, 1970–1978 (Mexico City: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, 1981), 53–61.

8. Gladys I. McCormick, “Torture and the Making of a Subversive During Mexico's Dirty War,” in Pensado and Ochoa, eds., México Beyond 1968, 254–272.

9. The other four people I interviewed are Fr. Manuel Velázquez, director of the Secretariado Social Mexicano (SSM); the Dominican friar Miguel Concha, key leader of the human rights movement in Mexico; Laudelino Cuetos, Spanish Dominican friar and director of the Centro Universitario Cultural (CUC) in the 1970s; and Rafael Reygadas, former Marist priest and leading member of Sacerdotes para el Pueblo (SPP).

10. Based on real events, their self-representations of the past are often richer in detail than written documents. If read against the grain of the printed sources, they allow the historian to give voice to those who have been overshadowed in a scholarship that has overwhelmingly prioritized a secular perspective of the Cold War period. Most of my written sources come from four archives: the Archivo Histórico del Arzobispado de México [hereafter AHAM]; the Archivo del Secretariado Mexicano [hereafter ASSM]; the Archivo de la Acción Católica Mexicana in Mexico City [hereafter AACM]; and the Archivo del Secretariado Latinoamericano, Fondo Leonidas Proaño in Quito, Ecuador [hereafter ASLA-FLP].

11. Important exceptions incorporated in this article include Arias et al., Radiografía de la iglesia; Roberto Blancarte, Historia de la Iglesia católica en México (Mexico City: Fondo de Cultura Económica, 1992); Raquel Pastor Escobar, “Vaticano II en el laicado mexicano. José Álvarez Icaza y la puesta en práctica del Concilio Ecuménico” (PhD diss.: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, 2004; Ariana Quezada, “The Revolution in Crisis: A History of Human Rights in Mexico, 1970–1980” (PhD diss.: University of Oklahoma, 2016; José Israel Zárate Ortiz, “Las acciones y la represión de la Iglesia de los pobres en la diócesis de León, 1959–1969” (BA thesis, Universidad de Guanajuato, 2017); and Jesús García, “La Iglesia Mexicana desde 1962,” Historia general de la Iglesia en América Latina, Tomo V (Mexico City: Ediciones Paulinas, 1984), 361–493.

12. Unless otherwise noted, I have relied on the following sources for this short biography: Jesús García, interview with the author, Mexico City, March 7, 2016; García, “La Iglesia Mexicana desde 1962”; Manuel Velázquez H., interview with the author, Mexico City, June 18, 2012; Manuel Velázquez H., Pedro Velázquez H., apóstol de la justicia. Vida y pensamiento (Mexico City: Secretariado Social Mexicano, 1978); Moreira, José Aparecido Gomes, “Para una historia de la Juventud Obrera Católica (1969–1985),” Revista Mexicana de Sociología 49:3 (July-September 1987): 205–220CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Moisés Alejandro Quiroz Mendoza, “Memoria, identidad y participación de los jóvenes de la Cooperativa de Vivienda Palo Alto, Ciudad de Mexico” (MA thesis, Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, Azcapotzalco, 2019).

13. Velázquez H., Pedro Velázquez H., 49; Terence J. Fay, A History of Canadian Catholics: Gallicanism, Romanism, and Canadianism (Montreal: McGill Queen's University Press, 2002), 209–211.

14. Pedro Velázquez, “La iglesia presente en la vida social,” Comentarios (Madrid: Ediciones Pax Romana, 1949), 61–71, in ASLA-FLP, Fondo Pax Romana, Secretariado Latinoamericano. See also Armella, María Luisa Aspe, La formación social y política de los católicos mexicanos (Mexico City: Universidad Iberoamericana, 2013)Google Scholar; and Andes, Stephen J. C., “A Catholic Alternative to Revolution: The Survival of Social Catholicism in Postrevolutionary Mexico,” The Americas 68:4 (April 2012): 529–562CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

15. Velázquez, interview with the author.

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20. Velázquez, interview with the author.

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23. García, interview with the author.

24. Nessan, The Vitality of Liberation Theology, 33–36.

25. Movimiento Internacional de Estudiantes Católicos-Juventud Estudiantil Católica Internacional (MIEC-JECI), “La coyuntura del movimiento hoy,” Servicio de Documentación 1 (February 1972): 1–26.

26. Darío Miranda, letter to the Latin American Episcopal Council [hereafter CELAM], June 30, 1961, Darío Miranda, Memorándum sobre el IV Congreso Latinoamericano de Estudiantes (CLAE), July 10, 1961, and Darío Miranda, “Instrucción pastoral a los asistentes eclesiásticos de las organizaciones católicas,” September 15, 1963; all in AHAM, Fondo Episcopal, Caja Darío Miranda.

27. Samuel Silva Gotay, El pensamiento cristiano revolucionario en América Latina y el Caribe. Implicaciones de la teología de liberación para la sociología de la religion (Río Piedras, Puerto Rico: Ediciones Huracán, 1989), 29–72.

28. Lya Gutiérrez Quintanilla, Los volcanes de Cuernavaca: Sergio Méndez Arceo, Gregorio Lemercier, Iván Illich (Mexico City: La Jornada Ediciones, 2007).

29. García, interview with the author; Andes, “A Catholic Alternative to Revolution.”

30. A. Michel and P. Velázquez H., La lucha comunista contra la religión. El testimonio de la ‘Iglesia del silencio’ (1960), and “Normas para combartir la infiltración comunista” (1961), both in ASSM, Fondo Episcopado, Caja Correspondencia del Secretariado Social Mexicano.

31. Jean Meyer, “La Iglesia católica en México 1929–1965,” Documentos de Trabajo del CIDE, No. 30 (2005), 28.

32. Gomes Moreira, “Para una historia”; and María Susana Guzmán Triunfante, “El papel de los grupos católicos y su participación en el Frente Auténtico del Trabajo” (BA thesis: UNAM, 1996).

33. By contrast, its female counterpart, the JCFM, continued to thrive and reached its most successful years during the 1950s. See Gomes Moreira, “Para una historia,” 209; Aspe Armella, La formación social y política, 211–220; and Loaeza, Soledad, “Mexico in the Fifties: Women and Church in Holy Alliance,” Women's Studies Quarterly 33:3–4 (Fall-Winter 2005): 138–160Google Scholar.

34. Zárate Ortiz, “Las acciones y la represión,” 55–64.

35. García, interview with the author.

36. Velázquez, interview with the author.

37. Gomes Moreira, “Para una historia,” 217.

38. García, interview with the author; Guzmán Triunfante, “El papel de los grupos católicos,” 24–29.

39. Sonia Bravo, Marcel Uylenbroeck, and Rienzie Rupasinghe, Reporte Internacional de la JOC (1966), and CEP, “Reflexiones JOC: nueva sociedad y movilización popular,” (Lima, Peru, October 1971), both in ASLA-FLP, Fondo JOCI, Caja Mexico, Centroamerica y el Caribe.

40. Scott Mainwaring, “The Catholic Youth Workers Movement (JOC) and the Emergence of the Popular Church in Brazil,” Kellogg Institute for International Studies, Working Paper No. 6 (December 1983), 1–53.

41. García, interview with the author; Zárate Ortiz, “Las acciones y la represión de la Iglesia,” 81–96.

42. These sentiments were widely shared among different sectors of conservative Mexico. See for example Jaime M. Pensado, Rebel Mexico, Student Unrest and Authoritarian Political Culture During the Long Sixties (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2013), 201–234; and Ariel Rodríguez Kuri, “El lado oscuro de la luna. El momento conservador en 1968,” in Conservadurismo y derechas en la historia de México, Vol.2, Erika Pani, ed. (Mexico City: Fondo de Cultura Económica, 2008), 512–559.

43. La JOC como movimiento de Iglesia, sobre el movimiento estudiantil, September 1, 1968, AHAM, Fondo Episcopal, Caja Darío Miranda.

44. El movimiento estudiantil, la JOC mexicana y la jerarquía. Relación cronológica: agosto 68-enero 69, 1969, AACM, Fondo Asociaciones Católicas Relacionadas con la Acción Católica, Caja Juventud Mexicana de Acción Catolica.

45. JOC, Verdad, Justicia, Libertad, September 1, 1968, AHAM, Fondo Episcopal, Caja Darío Miranda.

46. Declaración del Comité Ejecutivo de la JOC Internacional, 1968, ASLA-FLP, Fondo JOCI, Caja Mexico, Centroamerica y el Caribe.

47. Gomes Moreira, “Para una historia,” 210–213; Zárate Ortiz, “Las acciones y la represión,” 87.

48. García, interview with the author.

49. Anselmo Zarza Bernal, letter to Darío Miranda, February 19, 1969, AHAM, Fondo Episcopal, Caja Darío Miranda.

50. García, interview with the author.

51. Concha, interview with the author, Mexico City, March 11, 2016.

52. Ernesto Corripio Ahumada, Mensaje Pastoral, October 9, 1968, AHAM, Fondo Episcopal, Caja Corripio Ahumada.

53. García, interview with the author; Velázquez H., Pedro Velázquez H., 77–103. On the Reflexión Episcopal Pastoral, see Blancarte, Historia de la Iglesia católica, 253–255.

54. Pastor Escobar, “Vaticano II en el laicado mexicano,” 155–157.

55. Escobar, “Vaticano II en el laicado mexicano, 222–226.

56. Escobar, “Vaticano II en el laicado mexicano, 226–262; Quezada, “The Revolution in Crisis.”

57. “CIA Involvement Hinted in Torture of Priests,” article translated from Excélsior, November 5, 1972. United States. Joint Publications Research Service (JPRS), Translations on Latin America, No. 822.

58. Pastor Escobar, “Vaticano II en el laicado mexicano,” 255.

59. Reygadas, interview with the author, October 30, 2020, Mexico City.

60. “CIA Involvement Hinted in Torture of Priests.”

61. “CIA Involvement Hinted in Torture of Priests.”

62. “México, ¿Se institucionaliza la tortura?” La Nación 1363 (November 16, 1972); “Father Velázquez views Church's Social, Political Mission,” article translated from por qué?, April 6, 1972. United States. Joint Publication Research Service Reports (JPRS), Translations on Latin America, No. 711.

63. Concha, interview with the author; Gerardo Fernández, “Cerca del mundo estudiantil: historia y presencia del Centro Politécnico de Proyección,” Signos de los Tiempos 50 (May-June, 1993): 32–33.

64. Fernández, “Cerca del mundo estudiantil,” 32; “Documentos Base del Movimiento Sacerdotes para el Pueblo,” Contacto, December 1972, 58–61; Laudelino Cuetos, interview with the author, March 10, 2016, Mexico City.

65. García, interview with the author.

66. Jo, Young-Hyun, “Movimiento ‘Sacerdotes para el Pueblo’ y la transformación socioeclesiástica en México,” Revista Iberoamericana 21:1 (2010): 81–104Google Scholar.

67. Arias, et al., Radiografía de la iglesia, 75–77; Blancarte, Historia de la Iglesia, 278–282.

68. García, interview with the author.

69. Reygadas, interview, in Pastor Escobar, “Vaticano II en el laicado mexicano,” 254–255. See also McCormick, “Torture,” 260.

70. Reygadas, interview with the author.

71. Reygadas, interview with the author; “CIA Involvement Hinted in Torture of Priests”; Pastor Escobar, “Vaticano II en el laicado mexicano,” 254–255.

72. García, interview with the author; Hugo Assman, “Los Cristianos Revolucionarios Aliados,” Contacto, January 1972, 23–42.

73. Rafael Reygadas, interview, in Pastor Escobar, “Vaticano II en el laicado mexicano,” 211–216.

74. Rafael Reygadas, interview, in Pastor Escobar, Vaticano II en el laicado mexicano, 211–216.

75. García, interview with the author. See also García, “La Iglesia Mexicana desde 1962.”

76. García, interview with the author. This argument is also made in Arias et al., Radiografía de la iglesia, 53–61; and Blancarte, Historia de la Iglesia, 311–314.

77. García, interview with the author; Blancarte, Historia de la Iglesia, 269–270.

78. Blancarte, Historia de la Iglesia, 313.

79. Jesús Antonio de la Torre Rangel, “Represión a los Cristianos en México,” (September-October 1977): 357–359. Caracas, Venezuela: Centro Gumilla, http://biblioteca.gumilla.org/cgi-bin/koha/opac-detail.pl?biblionumber=141574, accessed February 1, 2022.

80. De la Torre Rangel, “Represión a los Cristianos en México,” 357–359.

81. Arias et al., Radiografía de la iglesia, 57–59.

82. Arias et al., Radiografía de la iglesia, 53–57.

83. Jorge Puma Crespo, “Los maoístas del norte de México: breve historia de Política Popular-Línea Proletaria, 1969–1979,” Izquierdas 27 (April 2016): 211; Carlos Montemayor, Chiapas. La rebelión indígena de México (Mexico City: Debolsillo, 2008), 99–100.

84. Quiroz Mendoza, “Memoria, identidad y participación de los jóvenes,” 37–70.

85. Adela Cedillo, “The 23rd of September Communist League's foco experiment in the Sierra Baja Tarahumara (1973–1975),” in México Beyond 1968, Pensado and Ochoa, eds., 92–112.

86. “Misterio en el asesinato de un sacerdote en el D.F.,” El Informador, April 29, 1977; “Piden que aclaren el crimen,” El Porvenir, April 29, 1977.

87. Roberto Blancarte cites two exceptions, published in Contacto, in which the bishops of Cuernavaca and Chihuahua, Sergio Méndez Arceo and Adalberto Almedia, protested the assassination of Escamilla García, but these condemnations did not receive wide national attention. Blancarte, Historia de la Iglesia, 354–355.

88. “Identificado el asesino del cura,” Avance, May 3, 1977; “Represión sangrienta contra la Iglesia en Latinoamérica,” Avance, May 8, 1977; “Barriguete Sada mató al sacerdote Escamilla, porque éste quería el control absoluto el grupo subversivo,” Avance, May 12, 1977.

89. García, interview with the author.

90. García, interview with the author.

91. Arias, et al., Radiografía de la iglesia, 59–61.

92. Blancarte, Historia de la Iglesia, 354; “Police Raid Ecumenical Center in Mexico,” Latinamerica Press 9:30 (July 28, 1977): 1.

93. García, interview with the author. A similar conclusion is made by the progressive Jesuit, Martín de la Rosa in “La Iglesia católica en México del Vaticano II a la CELAM (1965–1970),” Cuadernos Políticos 19 (January-March 1979): 88–104.

94. See among others Enrique Maza, “Sacerdote asesinado en Chihuahua,” Proceso 21, March 1977; Alejandro Aviles, “Defensa de los derechos humanos,” Proceso 22, March 1977; Enrique Maza, “El asesinato,” Proceso 24, April 1977; Gaspar Elizondo, “Terrorismo de derecha”; Miguel Ángel Granados Chapa, “Documento No. 27,” Proceso 27, April 1977; and Enrique Meza, “Asalto policial a CENCOS,” Proceso 37, July 1977.

95. Blancarte, Historia de la Iglesia, 299–302.

96. García, interview with the author.

97. Pensado, Jaime M., “El Movimiento Estudiantil Profesional (MEP): una mirada a la radicalización de la juventud católica mexicana durante la Guerra Fría,” Mexican Studies/Estudios Mexicanos 31:1 (Winter 2015): 156–192CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

98. “‘Me iban a matar’, denuncia el padre Sebastián,” Proceso, June 6, 1977.