Sociedad Popular Restauradora
The Sociedad Popular Restauradora (Spanish: Popular Restorer Society) was an Argentine security agency that worked for Juan Manuel de Rosas in the mid-nineteenth century. It is usually equated to the organization called the "Mazorca", which was actually the security and military force working for it.
It was created by Encarnación Ezcurra, Rosas' wife, during the Revolution of the Restorers, and disbanded by Rosas in 1846. It was focused in locating people (mostly Unitarians, but also opposing Federals) involved in conspiracies against Rosas. Modern historical investigations that set apart the executions performed by the Mazorca and executions carried out by other forces loyal to Rosas number those deaths at nearly 20 in 1840 and 20 more in 1842.
Although some thought that the word Mazorca derived from "más horca" (more gallows), the more sinister (and orthographically plausible) belief was that the mazorca (Spanish for "corncob") referred to their chosen instrument of rectal torture. As explained by General J.T. O'Brien (the Uruguayan Agent in England) for the benefit of the British Foreign Secretary Lord Aberdeen:
O'Brien, who claimed to have known Rosas for 25 years, added:
See also
Footnotes
References
- Di Meglio, Gabriel (2012). ¡Mueran los salvajes unitarios!: La mazorca y la política en tiempos de Rosas. Penguin Random House Group Editorial Argentina, 2012. ISBN 9789500739559.
- Hadfield, William (1854). Brazil, the River Plate and the Falkland Islands. London: Longman, Brown, Green and Longmans.
- Lynch, John (2001). Argentine Caudillo:Juan Manuel de Rosas. Lanham, Maryland: SR Books (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers Inc). ISBN 978-0-8420-2898-1.