Latin America’s new war of religion
Blurring the separation between church and state
UNDER THE banner of “religion and traditional (ecclesiastical) privileges”, in 1858 Mexican Conservatives rose in arms against a Liberal constitution which declared freedom of worship and ended a rule preventing Catholic church property from being transferred to anyone else. After a three-year war, the liberal principles of religious toleration and the separation of church and state triumphed. In the following decades they spread across Latin America. Now, it seems, this 19th-century political battle has to be fought all over again.
This article appeared in the The Americas section of the print edition under the headline “A new war of religion”
From the February 8th 2020 edition
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