El Yunque (organization)

El Yunque
Organización Nacional del Yunque
Formation1953 (1953)
TypeSecret society
Purpose
HeadquartersPuebla de Zaragoza, Puebla, Mexico
Key people
  • Ramón Plata Moreno
  • Manuel Díaz Cid
Parent organization
Los TECOS

The Organización Nacional del Yunque (English: National Organization of the Anvil) or simply El Yunque (in English: The Anvil) is the name of an alleged conservative Mexican secret society whose existence was first claimed by journalist Alvaro Delgado in 2003.

Organization

Delgado described The Anvil as "ultracatholic, anticommunist, antisemitic, antiliberal and with fascistic traits".[1] He also claims that top members of PAN and former President Vicente Fox's cabinet are also members of El Yunque. The organization was allegedly formed in Puebla in the early 1950s.[2][3]

Since it is allegedly a secret organization, most reports about it come from its critics and alleged ex-members. One notable purported ex-member is the former mayor of Puebla, Luis Paredes Moctezuma, who has led demonstrations against the organization, demanding the expulsion of all heads of PAN who are also affiliated to El Yunque. Paredes Moctezuma has also explicitly pointed current party leader Manuel Espino Barrientos as a yunquista.[4] He has said that El Yunque played a role backing Vicente Fox's campaign in 2000.[5]

In 2007, Paredes claimed the group controlled four state governments in Mexico and that it established cells in the United States in the early 1990s, saying, "They're in Dallas, in Boston, in Washington, D.C., in Los Angeles, in Miami."[3] A poor quality video of what appeared to be a Yunque initiation ceremony featuring unidentified men and Yunque symbolism appeared on YouTube in which one man explains that the goal of the organization is to conquer Mexico and Latin America, but the video may have been staged.[3]

Paredes claimed The Anvil was formed in the early 1950s as a reaction to anti-Catholic sentiment under the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI).[3] He says it attracted religious students who sought to counter the leftist influence reflected in the Cuban revolution, maoist China and the Soviet Union.[3] He says the group opposed the presidential candidacy of centrist Felipe Calderón, and was thus in a poor position to influence him.[3]

According to its critics, the secret organization of El Yunque was supposedly paramilitary in nature, performing its actions (including political assassination mostly through a set of front organizations) and, according to the magazine Contralínea, this included the student organization MURO at the National Autonomous University of Mexico in the 1960s.[6]

Named members in the 2000s included: state governor Juan Manuel Oliva; Gerardo Mosqueda, his chief of staff; and local politician Alberto Diosdado. Representatives of all three men denied involvement.[3]

Skepticism

Members of PAN have condemned Delgado's claims as "pure fiction", comparing it to the mythical monster, the chupacabra, and saying that El Yunque has nothing to do with the party.[2] Delgado has been accused of inventing the organization in order to sway the 2006 Mexican elections.[2] A former PAN presidential candidate and party head, Luis H. Alvarez, said that he believed the organization was real but negligible.[2] One political commentator dismissed claims about the group as an easy way to smear political opponents, "I have never found anyone who admits to being a member of El Yunque. All I see are attacks from the left. It's an easy way to dismiss someone."[3]

El Yunque in Spain

In 2012, Delgado reported that El Yunque had spread to Spain, influencing the conservative People's Party.[7] He would later report a connection between El Yunque and the far-right political party Vox.[8] In early 2012, the newspaper El Confidencial suggested that the Organización del Bien Común (English: Organisation for the Common Good) was a front for a Spanish offshoot of the organisation.[9] Those implicated in the allegations started legal actions against publications reporting on the alleged group. The first was by Profesionales por la Ética against digital newspaper Forum Libertas and its editor Josep Miró i Ardèvol, which was dismissed later that year.[10] The second, by conservative organisation Hazte Oir against El Confidencial, was also dismissed in 2012.[11]

The third was brought by Hazte Oir against Fernando López Luengos a layman who had prepared a report called El Transparente de la Catedral de Toledo commissioned by the Spanish Episcopal Conference. In May 2014, a Madrilenian judge declared there was possibly evidence to show a relationship between members of the association HazteOir (HO) and El Yunque. However, she could not say with certainty that such an organization exists.[12][13] It has also been linked to CitizenGO,[14] a foundation created by HazteOir. (HO was later subsumed under CitizenGO.) In 2021, the foundation of conservative TV news channel 7NN was linked to El Yunque via the Francisco Franco National Foundation and Vox.[15][16][17][18][19]

Some bishops have commented on the potential offshoot of El Yunque in Spain. Cardinal Antonio Cañizares Llovera said in 2011 that he had assumed El Yunque were working behind the scenes, saying "They're no longer called El Yunque, but they're now the Asociación por el Bien Común."[20] Meanwhile, Joaquín María López de Andújar y Cánovas del Castillo, the bishop of Getafe, in March 2015 said, after learning of the connection, that he would not support members, and implored them not to attend his diocese.[21] His deputy, José Rico Pavés, said that "El Yunque exists, and that is not good for the Church."[22]

A 24 September 2016 article in El País linked El Yunque to the anti-vaxxer movement CitizenGo and HazteOir which are headquartered in Spain.[23]

El Yunque in Chile

It has also been alleged that El Yunque has had an influence in Chile since 2006, when Salvador Salazar, a politician from the PAN, founded the Muévete Chile movement.[24] At the end of 2016, an investigation unveiled the society's influence there, singling out José Antonio Rosas, the leader of the Academia de Líderes Católicos, as one of its figureheads.[25] Rosas admitted to having been a member of the group until 2014, however denied that El Yunque had ever infiltrated the Academia.[26]

References

  1. ↑ Santiago Jiménez, Mario V. (2016). "El Yunque de México: del periodismo a la historia". Nuevo Mundo Mundos Nuevos. doi:10.4000/nuevomundo.68832. ISSN 1626-0252. Archived from the original on 20 November 2017. Retrieved 20 October 2019.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Forbes, Michael (29 June 2007). "The Secret Society That Won't Go Away". Guadalajara Reporter. Archived from the original on 11 July 2011. Retrieved 4 February 2025.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Iliff, Laurence (11 June 2010). "Critics say secret society has infiltrated Mexican government". The Dallas Morning News. Archived from the original on 11 June 2010. Retrieved 11 June 2010.
  4. ↑ Noticias de Hoy / Partidos / PAN Archived 15 January 2007 at the Wayback Machine, "yoinfluyo.com", 2007/jan/12
  5. ↑ Mondragón, Alejandro. "Luis Paredes rompe el silencio, entra al caso Marín-Cacho". www.statuspuebla.com.mx. Archived from the original on 28 September 2007. Retrieved 4 February 2025.
  6. ↑ CARA, La Extrema Derecha de El Yunque Archived 23 May 2007 at the Wayback Machine "Revista Contralínea"
  7. ↑ "El Yunque se legaliza… en España". Archived from the original on 26 April 2014. Retrieved 26 April 2014.
  8. ↑ "Las conexiones de Vox con HazteOir, los 'kikos' y una docena de obispos españoles". Archived from the original on 27 June 2019. Retrieved 28 October 2019.
  9. ↑ Quijada, José Luis N (12 May 2017). "El Yunque rompe su silencio, pero continúa con la mentira" [El Yunque breaks its silence, but continues lying]. Conozca El Yunque (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 18 March 2025. Retrieved 4 February 2025.
  10. ↑ "Desestimada la demanda de Profesionales por la Ética contra Josep Miró y ForumLibertas". Forum Libertas (in European Spanish). 29 June 2012. Archived from the original on 18 July 2018. Retrieved 4 February 2025.
  11. ↑ "Desestimada la demanda de Hazte Oir contra El Confidencial" [Hazte Oir's case against El Confidencial dismissed]. Forum Libertas. 20 February 2018. Archived from the original on 20 February 2018. Retrieved 4 February 2025.
  12. ↑ Lobo, José Luis (30 May 2014). "Una jueza destapa los vínculos entre la secta secreta El Yunque y 'ultras' de Hazte Oír". El Confidencial (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 26 January 2022. Retrieved 4 February 2025.
  13. ↑ "Un tribunal considera "esencialmente veraz" la relación de algunos miembros de HazteOir con el Yunque" [A court considers the relationship between some members of HazteOir and El Yunque "essentially true"]. Forum Libertas. 16 February 2016. Archived from the original on 16 February 2016. Retrieved 4 February 2025.
  14. ↑ Gutiérrez, Alejandro (2 September 2016). "Asociación yunquista en España entrega firmas contra iniciativa de Peña sobre matrimonios gay" (in Spanish). Proceso. Archived from the original on 31 July 2019. Retrieved 23 February 2017. El documento que presentaron a la embajada mexicana tenía la portada el nombre de CitizenGo, una de las organizaciones que ofrece apoyo internacional al Frente Nacional por la Familia, en México, y que el periodista de Proceso, Álvaro Delgado identificó como una de los tentáculos de El Yunque español que están detrás de las movilizaciones en México
  15. ↑ "7NN: Resultados de la búsqueda". Oficina Española de Patentes y Marcas. Archived from the original on 7 February 2022. Retrieved 7 February 2022.
  16. ↑ "Mario Conde saldrá de la cárcel avalado por dos miembros de la Fundación Francisco Franco". Crónica Global (in Spanish). 15 June 2016. Archived from the original on 24 May 2024. Retrieved 4 February 2025.
  17. ↑ Lobo, José Luis (31 May 2014). "Testigos revelan en un juicio la identidad de los miembros de la secta secreta El Yunque". El Confidencial (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 16 July 2025. Retrieved 4 February 2025.
  18. ↑ "7NN launches in Spain". Advanced Television. 12 October 2021. Retrieved 4 February 2025.
  19. ↑ "La Fundación Francisco Franco, Vox y El Yunque detrás del nuevo canal 7nn" [The Francisco Franco Foundation, Vox and El Yunque behind the new 7NN channel]. Pandemia Digital (in Spanish). 19 September 2021. Retrieved 4 February 2025.
  20. ↑ Barbería, José Luis (20 November 2011). ""¡Dios, patria, Yunque!"". El País (in Spanish). ISSN 1134-6582. Archived from the original on 22 January 2025. Retrieved 4 February 2025.
  21. ↑ "Declaración del Obispado de Getafe sobre el encuentro entre el Obispo". Diócesis de Getafe (in European Spanish). Retrieved 4 February 2025.
  22. ↑ Álvarez, Inma (28 February 2015). "Obispo español: El Yunque existe, y no es bueno para la Iglesia" [Spanish bishop: El Yunque exists, and it's not good for the Church]. Aleteia (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 15 June 2025. Retrieved 4 February 2025.
  23. ↑ García, Jacobo (24 September 2016). "El lobby ultraderechista español que mueve los hilos del movimiento antigay en México: Consideradas la sucursal del Yunque en España, dos plataformas se movilizan para frenar la legalización del matrimonio homosexual de Peña Nieto" [The Spanish far-right lobby that pulls the strings of the anti-gay movement in Mexico: Considered the branch of the Yunque (Anvil) in Spain, two platforms are mobilizing to stop Peña Nieto's legalization of same-sex marriage]. El País (in Spanish). Retrieved 13 February 2025.
  24. ↑ ingenieroseo (21 June 2022). "Entrevista a Victoria Uroz (I): "El Yunque es el mayor problema al que se enfrentan los laicos católicos en España"" [Interview with Victoria Uroz: "El Yunque is the biggest problem that the Catholic clergy face in Spain"]. Forum Libertas (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 21 January 2025. Retrieved 4 February 2025.
  25. ↑ Neira, Dominique Soriagalvarro (27 December 2016). "La agrupación ultraconservadora que infiltró la Academia de Líderes Católicos". The Clinic (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 8 October 2024. Retrieved 4 February 2025.
  26. ↑ Vidal, José Manuel (2 January 2017). "José A. Rosas niega que la Academia esté relacionada con El Yunque". Periodista Digital (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 27 June 2024. Retrieved 4 February 2025.

Further reading

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