José de León Toral

Who was José de León Toral?

José de León Toral, December 23, 1900 - Mexico City, February 9, 1929 was an anti-government Roman Catholic who assassinated general Álvaro Obregón, then-president elect of Mexico, in 1928.

León Toral was born in Matehuala, San Luis Potosí, into a family of Catholic miners. He moved to Mexico City during the Mexican Revolution and witnessed the then-Constitutionalist general Obregón closing churches and arresting priests who were suspected of collaboration with the dictator Victoriano Huerta. In 1920, he joined the League for the Defense of Religious Freedom, which opposed the governments of Obregón and Plutarco Elías Calles and reportedly was also involved in the Cristero movement.

During the Calles administration, oppression against the Catholic Church greatly expanded in 1926 under the Calles Law, which provided severe penalties for priests and individuals who violated the provisions of the 1917 Constitution. For instance, wearing clerical garb in public earned a fine of 500 pesos; a priest who criticized the government could be imprisoned for five years.

Some states enacted even more oppressive measures.