Benito Juarez Day - Masonic Influence On Mexico

The following was published in the local OJO magazine in 2014:

By Morgan Bedford

January 2014

https://www.chapala.com/elojo/139-articles-2014/january-2014/2350-masonic-influence-on-mexico

Would you believe that Free Mason Benito Juárez was the one who decapitated the Catholic Church’s control with his Reform Laws of 1859? Would you believe that Masonic Lodge Member and Free Mason Benito Juarez would become President of Mexico in 1861? Or that Mexico did not have another great president until almost a hundred years later, with the election of Free Mason Lazaro Cardenas? But before going further into the fascinating history of the Mason in Mexico, let’s find out who these mysterious Masons are and what they stand for.

A Mason is obliged to obey all moral law and believe in one supreme power. Atheists and agnostics need not apply. Free Masonary is open to men of different religions. Jews were in fact admitted not long after 1723, in the earliest days of Free Masonry. It is not necessary here to discuss initiations and recognition signals among the Masonic order, but to simply say that Nazis surpressed Free Masonry and to this day membership in the order remains illegal in many former communist countries. It is clear that the Masons, or builders, who term God “The Master Architect,” were Masters of their craft and no building has ever been constructed without a Master Mason. No one knows for sure, however, when the Mason´s order developed its religious overtones but there were rituals for initiation and legends connected with Hiram, Soloman¹s master mason. In John Huston’s great film of the Kipling classic, The Man Who Would Be King, the Masonic Emblem that Sean Connery is wearing (purportedly left behind by a tribe once allied with Alexander The Great) saves his life.

There are Masonic manuscripts preserved in the British Museum dated 1390 but the first formal merging of many types of Lodges occurred in England in 1717. Shortly thereafter, the first lodge was founded in Mexico City. The Spanish Inquisition started in Mexico in 1738 and by 1796, they had destroyed the Masons in Mexico. Free Masonery is still condemned in many Catholic-controlled countries, although an inquisition seems a rather strenuous way to express one´s views.

In 1825, American Ambassador Joel Poinsett (whose name the Poinsettia flower carries) founded five lodges in Mexico with the authorization of the Grand Lodge of New York. There was little agreement between the older Scottish Rites so in 1826 the National Mexican Rite was formed. Over the next 120 years, the Masons kept a relatively firm political grip on Mexico. The Masonic Presidents included Guerrero, Pedroza, General Bustamente, Santa Anna, Farias, Gil and Sales who reinstated the Constitution of 1824. Between February of 1857 and 1859, the new Constitution was put into effect by Juárez and the Catholic Church was out. The church then petitioned the European powers for help. Maximillian was the result. By 1868, Maximillian was with his maker though his wife Carlotta lived until 1927, finally dying in a mental asylum in Belgium.

Thus the enlightened hand of the Mason fell on Mexico. Absolute freedom of the press was instituted, along with the abolishment of all privileges of the clergy. Other measures struck hard at laws attributed to the clergy in respect to civil business; betterment of the moral state of the country came about with the  elimination of the monopoly of the clergy in public education; finally, capital punishment for all so-called political transgressions was done away with.

Nowhere, through revolution and inquisition, war and invasion, has Free Masonery had a greater positive impact than on Mexico and its people.

What a pile of BS!!

Only Free Masons can be good Presidents???

The author conveniently omits another Free Mason Mexican President, Porfirio Díaz. A dictator who threw literally millions of Mexicans out of their homes, suppressed civil liberties, silenced the free press and relied on voter fraud and the military to cling to his office.

"Freemasonry began admitting Jews as members in the mid-eighteenth century, first in England and then later in the Netherlands, France, Germany, and other countries. Nevertheless, European Freemasons tended to be ambivalent about who they allowed to join their organization. In some countries and in some locations, Masons allowed Jews to join their lodges. Other countries and other lodges, however, took deliberate steps to reject Jews from becoming members. The antisemitism that some Jews experienced while trying to join fraternal lodges was one reason for the creation of Jewish fraternal organizations, such as B'nai B'rith. German Jews founded the Berlin branch in 1885.

Most German Masonic lodges and their members affiliated with three Grand Lodges located in Prussia and known collectively as the “Old Prussian Grand Lodges.” These Grand Lodges and their subordinate lodges deliberately excluded non-Christians from membership. By 1922, they accounted for 70 percent of all Masons in Germany and numbered about 47,000 men. Six other Grand Lodges in Germany, including their subordinate lodges, were known as “Humanitarian” Lodges, because they accepted Jewish and Muslim males as well as Christians. Thus, a German Jew had to apply to a Humanitarian Lodge if he wanted to have any chance of joining a German Masonic lodge. In 1928, the Humanitarian Lodges had 24,000 members, and less than 3,000 of these were Jews."

The majority of Mexican Presidents were Freemasons as were most of the founding fathers of the United States and 33% of the American Presidents. The United States declaration of Independance and Constitution were written by many Freemasons.

In Europe many of the heads of states, Kings, etc. were also Freemasons in the 1700 and 1800 hundreds.

Another interesting and little-known fact:


Freemasons faced harsh persecution in Germany during World War II. Here's a breakdown of the situation:

Banned and Demonized: The Nazis outlawed Freemasonry in 1934, labeling it un-German and part of a Jewish conspiracy [Holocaust Memorial Day Trust]. Propaganda portrayed Masons as enemies of the state.

Persecution and Imprisonment: Thousands of Freemasons were arrested, imprisoned in concentration camps, and classified as political prisoners [Holocaust Memorial Day Trust].

Confiscation and Propaganda: Masonic lodges were forcibly closed, their assets seized, and their documents used to fuel anti-Masonic propaganda [United States Holocaust Memorial Museum].

Here is one article that touches on some of the details:

https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/freemasonry-under-the-nazi-regime