Miguel Pro by López-Menéndez Marisol;

Author:López-Menéndez, Marisol; [López-Menendez, Marisol]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lexington Books
Published: 2016-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

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Law and Martyrdom

One of the basic tenets of classic martyrdom is the existence of a legal system that finds the would-be martyr guilty and sentences him to death. Thus, martyrdom implies a clash between two moral orders which find themselves at odds with each other, as well as the existence of administrative-political machinery capable of controlling and exerting violence. The first necessity does not mean that these two moral orders are different. In many cases they are similar, like the two spades of church and state. On the contrary, what is at stake in martyrdom is not so much the moral identity of either of the two given social groups, but their political boundaries and identities. This chapter explores different issues in the relationship between the martyr and the law and legal-rational apparatuses. It offers three arguments, concerned with the differences between classic and modern martyrdom in their link with the law; with the clash between formal and substantive justice; and with the human rights “turn.”

Barrington Moore, Jr. argued that law and legal orders have been the source of social identities in Judeo-Christian societies. His analysis of the Ten Commandments makes a distinction between a new moral order, in which punishment meant social ostracism, and a traditional religious order which, if broken, meant divine condemnation. Ancient Hebrew law was antitraditional and had the purpose of setting aside the Hebrew people, underscoring its distinctiveness through its law (Moore 2000, 23–24). Violence is hence an important part of identity formation processes, since every group identity is liable to be formed in hostile competition with other groups” (Moore 2000, 26). According to Moore, Christianity took over ancient Hebrew intolerance and institutionalized it. Therefore, conflict among powers (i.e., a political conflict) crystallizes and gains a performative reality through martyrdom: it expresses itself by questioning the legitimacy of the legal order it opposes, and gives way to a new group identity—this was the case of early Christians—or strengthens solidarity ties in an already existing group. However, modern martyrdom has somewhat altered these presumptions, giving way to a discourse in which the law is legitimate, while the confrontation with hostile authorities arises from forms of illegality (arbitrariness) that actually undermines the political legitimacy of the regime at issue.

This was, indeed, one of the debates surrounding Miguel Pro’s execution. From very early on, some of his lay advocates denounced the absence of proper legal safeguards, especially those who were militants of the League and the ACJM. In fact, there was no trial. Unlike Jose de Leon Toral, the would-be assassin of President-elect Obregon in 1928 who had a spectacular trial, the men executed in 1927 were not so lucky. The only official document pertaining to the case that seems to have survived is a police report containing the depositions of Luis Segura Vilchis, Juan Tirado, Humberto, Roberto, and Miguel Pro, as well as all the police officers involved and some other detainees who were subsequently released.

In the report, Luis Segura Vilchis declared to have had

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