Salvador Abascal

Background

Born in Morelia into a landowning family, Abascal was the fourth of eleven children. Partly educated at a seminary, Abascal was sympathetic to the Cristeros from an early age. Indeed, his father was a member of the Popular Union, the Cristero party. As a result of these sympathies Abascal passed through a variety of Roman Catholic counterrevolutionary organisations during the 1930s.

He would complete his education at the Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolás de Hidalgo where he graduated with a law degree, subsequently serving as a judge in Ayutla. He was dismissed as a judge in 1933 after falling foul of local bosses when he made judgements in favour of claimants to land.

UNS leadership

He was a founder member of the UNS in 1937 and became an organiser in Michoacán, before taking full charge of the movement in 1940 when it was at its peak with 500,000 members. Abascal succeeded Manuel Zermeño as leader, after Zermeño was removed from the movement for concluding an agreement with the government of Avila Camacho without securing approval of the UNS membership.

Accused of Nazism by opponents, Abascal officially denounced the system, although he was noted for his anti-Semitism. He was also noted for his opposition to electoral politics and rejected any attempts to convert the UNS into a political party. Instead Abascal called for 'Catholic social order' as the antithesis to his twomost hated ideologies - Marxism and liberal democracy - both of which he felt were closely related. He also resisted attempts by Manuel Gómez Morín to fuse the UNS with the National Action Party in 1939 as a result of these convictions.

Decline

An unpopular figure with moderates, he was replaced as leader by Manuel Torres Bueno in 1941 and left to set up a sinarquista commune in Baja California. The colony, known as Maria Auxiliadora, was initially made up of some 86 families (450 people). It has been claimed that Abascal, who stated that he was inspired by God and Thomas Aquinas in his actions, was driven by Millenarianism in leading his followers into what was a hostile desert climate. However the scheme proved unsuccessful, and by 1944, Abascal had been expelled from the sinarquista movement for clashing with its leadership over the failure of the colonisation.

Later years

He returned in 1947 and became something of a grand old figure in the movement, even being considered as a potential candidate for the presidency in 1955 (although he declined the offer). Increasingly drawn towards integrism, he set up the publishing house Editorial la Tradition in the late 1970s to produce works on this subject, as well as his memoirs Mis Recuerdos. He published his own newsletter, La Hoja del Combate, into the 1990s. The publication was noted for giving space to the ideas of the revisionist writer Salvador Borrego.

Personal life

Abascal married Maria Guadalupe Carranza Pulido. Their son, the late Carlos Abascal, was the Secretary of the Interior in the government of Vicente Fox whilst another son, Salvador Abascal Carranza also followed a career in politics, serving as a federal deputy from 1991 to 1994, both for the National Action Party.