Commie Rule in Mexico

In 1926, Mexico actually had an anti-Catholic communist government under the iron-fisted revolutionary rule of Plutarco Elias Calles, a vocal atheist who had passed anti-clerical and anti-religious legislation, which then triggered the violent countrywide Cristero War. Under his regime, Mexico became the first country to allow an embassy for the young revolutionary government of the Soviet Union. Back then, Calles was the equivalent of Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez. As expected, his regime had many enemies both inside and outside the country. Strangely enough, the United States government maintained a neutral policy toward the Mexican government during this time.

General Calles

Calles was born Plutarcho Elias Calles in abject poverty in Mexico's Sonora region. As a young man, he enlisted in the Mexican army. After showing bravery in battles against conservative insurgents against Mexico's post-Revolution government, he rose to the rank of general. As military hero, he became popular enough to eventually become Mexico's leader.

To his many supporters, Calles was a reformer and man of the people. During the early years of his reign, he established banks in support of Mexico's peasant farm workers, or campesinos. He also changed the country's Civil Code to give the same citizenship rights to illegitimate children as to legitimate children in a very Catholic country. His most controversial legislation, however, was "The Law Reforming the Penal Code." These were laws enacted against the Roman Catholic Church as well as other religious institutions within Mexico, including levying fines against clergy wearing clerical garb, seizing church properties, and suspending voting rights for clergy. Predictably, these laws created enemies against Calles, in particular a large guerilla army called "Cristeros."

And so the bloody Cristero War began.

General Enrique Estrada

Chief among the Calles regime's enemies was former Mexican general and Secretary of War under the prior regime, Enrique Estrada, who was living in exile in Southern California. One of Estrada's strongest beliefs was that Calles was part of a secret high-level Freemason plot and had received a Masonic medal of merit for oppressing Catholicism in Mexico.

In 1926, on the American side of the border, Estrada cooked up an invasion plot with funding from anti-Calles supporters in Mexico and in Los Angeles. Soon, he had 400 rifles, 155,000 rounds of ammunition, two submachine guns, one armored bank truck, four airplanes, and 170 men in cars.

On April 19, 1926, Enrique Estrada and his men gathered at a remote part of the Mexican border near San Diego, but the FBI was waiting for them. They were tipped off by an informant. This event among others stirred the U.S. government to action.

Cristero War

Mexico's Cristero War lasted from 1910 to 1929, the year when the U.S. government under President Calvin Coolidge finally decided to intervene in Mexico's bloody politics and sent Ambassador Dwight Morrow to help negotiate a peaceful solution. Morrow succeeded and the bloodshed ended.

As a result, Plutarco Calles' leftist leanings tempered, especially since he had gained vast personal wealth during his reign and wanted to keep it.

In 1930, a mass demonstration led to banning the Communist Party in Mexico. As for Calles, he went with the political tide and took a sharp right-ward turn. In fact, he became an ardent supporter of Mexico's emerging fascist groups, particularly the Nazi Gold Shirts.

In 1936, with World War II on the horizon, Calles' rightist views became persona non grata in Mexico and he was deported to the United States, where he veered away from politics and atheism altogether - and became "spiritual."

In 1941, he died, leaving behind a mixed legacy on his country's history.

SOURCES:

"Enrique Estrada", FBI

"In Mexico", Time Magazine

"Plutarco Elias Calles", Wikipedia