José de León Toral

José de León Toral (December 23, 1900 – February 9, 1929 in Mexico City) 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 supporting former president Victoriano Huerta. In 1920, he joined the National League for the Defense of Religious Freedom, which opposed the governments of Obregón (1920–1924) 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 (outside Church buildings) earned a fine of 500 pesos (approximately $250 US at the time); a priest who criticized the government could be imprisoned for five years, with no right to trial by jury.

Some states enacted even more oppressive measures. Chihuahua enacted a law permitting only a single priest to serve the entire Catholic congregation of the state. To help enforce the law, Calles seized church property, expelled all foreign priests, and closed the monasteries, convents and religious schools.

Obregón had been more lenient to Catholics during his time in office, but the Cristeros and almost everyone else believed that Calles was his puppet leader. In 1927, two of León Toral's friends Humberto and Miguel Pro were executed after having been wrongly convicted of plotting to assassinate Obregón. Thus, having been incited by a Catholic nun, Concepción Acevedo de la Llata (also known as Madre Conchita), he decided to assassinate Obregón, whom he blamed for the Mexican government's atrocities against the Catholic Church, if Obregón was reelected.

...
Wikipedia