Garrido Canabal, Tomás

Garrido Canabal, Tomás

(tōmäs` gärē`thō känäbäl`), 1891–1943, Mexican caudillocaudillo
, [Span.,= military strongman], type of South American political leader that arose with the 19th-century wars of independence. The first caudillos were often generals who, leading private armies, used their military might to achieve power in the newly independent states.
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, governor of TabascoTabasco
, state (1990 pop. 1,501,744), 9,783 sq mi (25,338 sq km), E Mexico, on the Gulf of Campeche. Villahermosa is the capital. Tabasco is predominantly a tropical plain, once densely forested, that is broken by numerous rivers, swamps, and lagoons.
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 (1921–35). A fanatical anticlericalist, he enthusiastically supported CallesCalles, Plutarco Elías
, 1877–1945, Mexican statesman, president (1924–28). In 1913 he left schoolteaching to fight with Álvaro Obregón and Venustiano Carranza against Victoriano Huerta.
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's war against the Cristeros, largely peasant rebels opposed to the enforcement of anticlerical laws. He founded several Fascist organizations that terrorized Roman Catholics. Garrido Canabal was forced into exile in 1935, and his paramilitary groups were disbanded.