Arenas Conspiracy

Arenas Conspiracy, a plot to restore Spanish rule in Mexico that was uncovered on 19 January 1827 in Mexico City. The instigator of the plot, a "royal commissioner," was never identified. First arrested was a Spanish friar, Joaquín Arenas, who revealed the conspiracy while attempting to recruit a military commander for the cause. The plan called for the arrest of President Guadalupe Victoria and General Vicente Guerrero on 20 January, the restoration of all Spaniards to their colonial posts, and amnesties and rewards for all who cooperated in the restoration of monarchical government. Only a part of the leadership, including the Spanish generals Gregorio Arana, Pedro Celestino Negrete, and José Antonio Echávarri, was discovered. In the Federal District, Puebla, and Oaxaca, at least sixteen individuals were arrested, five of whom were friars. Fourteen were executed between April 1827 and September 1829, including General Arana and five friars, thus circumventing corporate fueros. The trials became a cause célèbre, dividing the two major political parties, the Scottish-rite and York-rite Masons (Yorkinos and Escoceses), with the latter taking the offensive against the Spaniards. The plot spurred the effort of 1827–1834 to expel Spanish-born males from Mexico.

See alsoMexico: 1810–1910 .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

The major sources are Jaime Delgado, España y México en el siglo XIX, vol. 1 (1950), pp. 357-375; José María Bocanegra, Memorias para la historia de México Independiente, 1822–1846, vol. 1 (1892), pp. 414-440; Juan Suárez y Navarro, Historia de México y del general Antonio López de Santa Anna, vol. 1 (1850), pp. 79, 390-395, 417-436, 704-722; and Romeo Flores Caballero, Counterrevolution: The Role of Spaniards in the Independence of Mexico, 1804–1838, translated by Jaime E. Rodríguez O. (1974).

Additional Bibliography

Hale, Charles C. The Transformation of Liberalism in Late Nineteenth-Century Mexico. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1989.

Rodríguez, Jaime E.O, ed. The Divine Charter: Constitutionalism and Liberalism in Nineteenth-Century Mexico. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2005.

Thomson, Guy P.C. Patriotism, Politics, and Popular Liberalism in Nineteenth-Century Mexico: Juan Francisco Lucas and the Puebla Sierra. Wilmington, DE: Scholarly Resources, 1999.

Wasserman, Mark. Everyday Life and Politics in Nineteenth-century Mexico: Men, Women, and War. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2000.

                                      Harold Dana Sims