Blouin Beat: Politics:The less-than-glorious Che Guevara

The Less-than-Glorious Che Guevara
W. Alejandro Sanchez
Blouin Beat: Politics
October 8, 2013
Originally published: http://blogs.blouinnews.com/blouinbeatpolitics/2013/10/08/the-less-than-glorious-che-guevara/

October 8 marks the 46th anniversary of the death of Ernesto “Che” Guevara. The Argentine, a symbol of Latin America’s revolutionary movements in the Cold War, met his end in 1967 in the Bolivian highlands, where he was trying to jumpstart a popular revolution as part of his “foco” insurgency theory: creating a successful insurgent movement in one country would foment similar ones throughout Latin America).

Much has been written about Guevara’s life, partially because he was a prolific writer and extroverted individual himself. For example, his essays on guerrilla combat tactics were published as a single volume in 1969 called Guerrilla Warfare. The popular obsession with his life helped the The Motorcycle Diaries, become a success when it was released in 2004. Needless to say, Guevara has been a symbol of revolutionary idealism for the past decades, and even today new generations of Latin Americans (and others around the world) faithfully read his work and wear clothing bearing his image.

His accomplishments in the Cuban Revolution have been widely glorified, particularly his successes with Fidel Castro’s guerrillas in the Sierra Maestra Mountains, as well as the high-level status that he enjoyed in the Cuban government (i.e. as Minister of Industry and President of the National Bank). And it is precisely his decision to leave the Cuban government, where he could have enjoyed a comfortable (and probably well-paid) lifestyle in revolutionary Havana to go spread his vision of Communism throughout Latin America and the rest of the world that made him an icon to the masses at the time and for generations to come.

It is probably this glorification of Guevara that has concealed some of his other less-than-glorious moments. When discussing Che’s accomplishments, his supporters do not usually bring up the executions that he carried out when Fidel Castro’s guerrillas took control of the country and began punishing the supporters of the former regime of Fulgencio Batista. Moreover, as idealistic as Guevara was in his desire to go fight for the oppressed masses elsewhere, he never achieved the success that he had in Cuba. His time fighting alongside a guerrilla movement in the Congo in 1965 was a total failure. And, in spite of a somewhat promising start, his attempts to start an insurgency in Bolivia to overthrow then-President René Barrientos were similarly unsuccessful.

In the years after his death, several documentaries and scholarly works have appeared, explaining that Che’s guerrilla fighters in Bolivia were little more than a starving mob when the Bolivian soldiers of the U.S.-trained Second Ranger Battalion encountered them in 1967. (Published on July 2013, Hunting Che is a well-documented book that discussed the decisive role the U.S. military and intelligence services played in aiding the Bolivian military against Che — a review of the book by this author can be found here). Even though Barrientos and the U.S. government had fears that Guevara had an army of hundreds of Bolivian and Cuban fighters hiding in the highlands, and that Guevara was behind the major protests rocking Bolivia suffered at the time, considered on the evidence Guevara’s chances of success in the landlocked nation were always quite slim.

Upon being taken prisoner in 1967, Guevara was shot by Bolivian soldiers, as the government in La Paz saw him as too dangerous to keep behind bars and wanted to make an example out of him. In 1995, Bolivian General Mario Vargas finally revealed the location of Guevara’s remains which, along with those of six fellow guerrillas, were then taken to Cuba, where a mausoleum was built for him in the city of Santa Clara (the site of his most famous victory during the Cuban Revolution). Whether one sees this is a fitting symbol of the revolutionary glory or a reminder of the hollower parts of his legacy will depend, of course, on whether one owns the now-classic Guevara t-shirt (available the world over, thanks to globalized capitalism).

Book Review: Hunting Che

Hunting Che: How A U.S. Special Forces Team Helped Capture The World's Most Famous Revolutionary
Book Review
W. Alejandro Sanchez
Book review published in War Studies Publications
October 3, 2013
Originally published: http://warstudiespublications.wordpress.com/2013/10/03/hunting-che-how-a-u-s-special-forces-team-helped-capture-the-worlds-most-famous-revolutionary/

Reading Maurer and Weiss’s book was a pleasure, with its in-depth research, its enjoyable writing style, and spy-novel tone. Fans of Mark Bowden’s famous books Black Hawk Down: A Story of Modern War and Killing Pablo: The Hunt for the World’s Greatest Outlaw will enjoy the style of writing that Maurer and Weiss utilize.

The Plot

As the title entails, the book revolves around the hunt for the iconic Argentine revolutionary, Ernesto “Che” Guevara in the Bolivian highlands in 1967. Specifically, this work focuses on the role that the U.S. military (and intelligence operatives) played in aiding the Bolivian government and security forces in tracking down Che. Over the decades, there have been a plethora of conspiracy theories regarding just how involved the U.S. was in this endeavor. Investigative works as well as the release of classified documents confirm that, indeed, Washington had an important role to play: a number of U.S. Rangers trained Bolivian soldiers, transforming them, via an intensive training course, into a Ranger battalion in its own right. It is these Bolivian soldiers who were ultimately deployed to the area where Che’s guerrilla forces operated and were successful in tracking and eliminating them.

Part of what makes this book so fun to read is that it provides various points of view. This is not just a discussion of what role the U.S. had to play. The authors took the extra effort of trying to paint a picture of what Bolivia’s domestic situation was at the time of Che’s arrival, as well as delving into the contemporary state of  global geopolitics. For example, the authors explain how Bolivian President Barrientos was concerned that Che’s guerrilla movement could isolate towns and foment protests that could overthrow his government. When Barrientos went to the U.S. for aid, he related the gravity of the situation by saying that if Bolivia fell, Che’s “foco” insurgency could expand to other South American countries. For its part, the U.S. government wanted to avoid another Vietnam, but at the same time they did not want to send military personnel that would be actively fighting Che’s forces. The training of Bolivian troops was essentially a compromise.

Moreover, the book portrays differing points of views of Bolivian and American policymakers, military officers, rank-and-file troops, intelligence officers and even Bolivian peasants. The book is generally organized in a chronological order, beginning with the first ambushes Che carried out against Bolivian army patrols, the deployment of the U.S. Rangers, the training of the new Bolivian Second Ranger Batallion and Che’s ultimate defeat (and execution). However the book includes a good number of flashbacks in order to explain why a certain policymaker or soldier thought the way he did. In other words,Hunting Che provides an emphasis on the personal, not focusing on casualty statistics but instead on relating the stories of the individuals involved.

Not An Academic Book

Although Maurer and Weiss researched exhaustively, it must be stressed that this should not be regarded as a standard academic book. As previously mentioned, it reads more like a spy-action novel. For example, when discussing a shootout by Che’s guerrillas and a Bolivian army patrol, the authors write how “rounds sliced through the brush, wood slivers and mud flew upward and perfumed the air” (p. 12).

Moreover, Che is discussed throughout most of the book as almost an omnipresent and omnipotent figure, which is how he probably was viewed in 1967 Bolivia. No one (including the CIA) knew if he was in Bolivia or how many troops he had at his disposal (it was believed that he had hundreds of heavily trained guerrillas, both Bolivian and Cuban) – for some time it was not even clear if he was alive. The sporadic discussions of Che’s life throughout the book add to his omnipresence, and the iconic guerrilla only makes a grand entrance briefly towards the end of the book, when he’s captured.

Furthermore, the authors  also provide a strong background on the situation within Bolivia, Latin America and U.S. interests in the region, all placed in the wider context of the Cold War and U.S.-USSR (via Cuba) proxy wars. Nevertheless, the analysis is not put in a linear way. Moreover, there is not an introductory chapter that explains who was Che Guevara. There are paragraphs about his life and the actions he carried out during his time in Cuba scattered throughout the book, but Hunting Che almost assumes that the reader will have a general idea of who Guevara was before reading it. There is a memorable discussion between Guevara and his captors (U.S. and Bolivian) towards the end of the book (Chapters 22 and 23), but his background story does not read as easily unless the reader already knows some facts about his life (i.e. his role in the Cuban government).

Nevertheless, the authors excel when it comes to discussing Bolivian domestic issues and regional geopolitics in the 1960s, a daunting task for any historian. Maurer and Weiss correctly describe the highlights of Bolivian history, including the importance of the 1952 coup as well as the concerns for President Barrientos regarding the future of his presidency.

Moreover, while the authors try to be objective, readers will notice quickly that U.S. Rangers are slightly glorified (i.e. carrying out civic projects like rebuilding  a school besides training Bolivian soldiers, p. 96), while some U.S. diplomats are portrayed in a negative light. At the same time, the Bolivian military pre-U.S. training is constantly portrayed as backward, with its officers not being capable to adjust to a new style of war (from the traditional inter-state warfare to counterinsurgency), and its soldiers receiving poor training. Certainly, some Bolivian officers and soldiers (who were trained by the U.S. Rangers) are portrayed positively, with background stories which explained that they valued patriotism and honor, but these are exceptions to the rule.

The negative portrayal of the Bolivian military in the 1960s, while arguably true, still hints at a larger issue which the authors do not address head on: Could the Bolivian military have successfully defeated Che without having received training by the U.S. Rangers? This question would need another book to be properly answered.

 One Factual Issue

While the book is well researched, there is one issue that must be highlighted. While giving a quick overview of Bolivian military history, the authors explain that “a hundred years before, a fight with Chile […] had cost Bolivia its entire coastline. Thirty years later, Bolivia and Paraguay had sacrificed a generation of their young men in “the Chaco War.” (p. 20).

The first conflict that the authors refer to is known as the War of the Pacific, which pinned Peru and Bolivia against Chile (which had military aid from the British Empire). This war took place from 1879 to 1883. Meanwhile, the Chaco War between Bolivia and Paraguay occurred from 1932 to1935. In other words, there is actually a difference between these two conflicts of roughly fifty years, not thirty as the authors of Hunting Che explain. While this is a minor issue in the wider scope of the book, it should be noted.

Research Methods

While in graduate school, a professor once told me that the first thing a scholar should do when browsing through a new book (an academic/scholarly one), is to check its reference list in order to see what works the author(s) of the book consulted. Hunting Che has a good bibliography, which includes works by Fidel Castro, Gary Prado (a Bolivian military officer trained by the U.S. Rangers and who was ultimately responsible for capturing Che, making him a national hero) as well as one of Che’s publications.

Nevertheless, I will admit that at first glance, I was confounded as the reference list hints at works and document that are nearly all in English. However, the epilogue of Hunting Che explains how the authors interviewed individuals (Bolivian and American) who actually took part in the training of the Bolivian Rangers as well as Che’s capture. This exemplary use of both primary and secondary sources should be applauded by scholars and fans of Latin American history.

COHA: Violent Threads: From Routine Murder to High Fashion

Violent Threads: From Routine Murder to High Fashion
W. Alex Sanchez
Council on Hemispheric Affairs
December 6, 2012
Originally published: http://www.coha.org/violent-threads/

Pablo Escobar gained notoriety throughout the 1980s as the most powerful leader of the Medellin Cartel in Colombia.¹ His influence and brutality can be effectively contrasted with today’s infamous Mexican outlaw, Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, the leader of the Sinaloa Cartel. The Colombian drug lord’s reign came to a violent end in 1993 when he was shot to death during a police raid.  Today, almost 20 years after his death, Escobar’s son, Juan Pablo (who has now changed his name to Sebastian Marroquin), has launched a clothing line that includes t-shirts with photomontages of his infamous father. The son’s decision to make a profit out of his father’s violent and extravagant life has to be placed in a wider context of how Latin American society remembers the region’s violent period and the drug-generated celebrities of the 1960s to the mid 1990s that soaked the land with their blood. Such a discussion would necessarily have to include an inventory of the iconic characters that illuminated the period and gave it such infamy.

Escobar and Guevara Presente

At its most garish moments, clothing lines that immortalize individuals from Latin America’s tawdry epoch (such as the Argentine revolutionary Ernesto “Che” Guevara to the aforementioned Escobar) are one of the ways the region remembers how to celebrate its most notorious figures, and can profit from an unremittingly and profitable past. Other venues, through which the criminal, but glamorous, lives from that period are addressed, include the production of movies and soap operas.  The proper way to remember the period’s operatic past becomes a contemporary issue as new generations of Latin Americans grow up thrilled by these famous names but without having experienced the atrocities that made their ancestors household names. This is all the more reason why a properly balanced education makes this controversial history so necessary and compelling.

Violent Fashion

Clothes with pictures of iconic Latin American figures have become commonplace today. Perhaps the best-known example invokes the image of Ernesto Guevara, the Argentine revolutionary and a critical figure of the Latin American Cold War era that had his visage stamped on t-shirts and billboards (astride his motorcycle, on his way to some rendezvous with his fellow revolutionaries) for decades. Ironically, while the Argentine folk hero struggled to fight capitalism throughout the hemisphere for years (he spent some time fighting in Angola as well) capitalist entrepreneurs have been quick to profit from his image and his fiercely anti-capitalist persona. For example, the Che Guevara online Store (www.thechestore.com), has vended dozens of items with Guevara’s haunting face (ranging from t-shirts, headwear, personal bags to even Guevara bobble heads). Furthermore, his life, leading up to the advancement of the revolution, was portrayed in the major 2004 motion picture called Diarios de Motocicleta.² Guevara also evolved into being a prolific writer as he wrote numerous essays where he explained his ideology. Arguably contributing to his notoriety is the 1998 book Guerrilla Warfare, represents a compilation of some of his major communiqués.³

A more recent example of “violent threads,” is the aforementioned launch, by the son of Pablo Escobar, of a clothing line designed to honor his father, called Poder Poder (Power Power).⁴ The clothes that are being manufactured today include t-shirts with Escobar’s birth certificate and credit cards, along with photos depicting various stages of his life. One of the t-shirts even has the image of Escobar’s arrest warrant. The clothes are already available for purchase in several countries, including Spain and Guatemala.

It is worth mentioning that the Mexican drug cartels have yet to find occasion to jumpstart any self-promoting clothing lines. On the other hand, it has become increasingly usual for the members of cartels to place their organization’s logos onto different types of clothing and accessories. The El Paso Intelligence Center, which publishes unclassified reports of information recollected from a variety of security agencies such as the DEA and the Department of Homeland Security, published on January 2011 a report entitled, “Language of the Cartels: Narco Terminology, Identifiers, and Clothing Style,” that increasingly addresses the growing popularity and usage of the cartels’ logos.⁵ For example, regarding the infamous Zetas cartel, the report explains that:

[The] Zetas logo indicated their previous alliance to the Gulf Cartel; however, the Zetas are now currently using the Ferrari logo, as well. These symbols are not only seen on their vehicles, but also on their key chains, and on their clothing, as these logos are being placed on leather jackets and jewelry. In the wing of the “Hecho En Tamaulipas” logo, there will be a “Z” for Zetas.⁶

Remembering the Past?

How Latin American governments cope with their violent past, while simultaneously teaching new generations about these legacies, is an issue that is sure to grow in importance in the coming years. Whether it is past discussions regarding the ideological war between Washington and Moscow that generates proxy wars across the Western Hemisphere or expanding upon the legacies of a controversial individual like Pablo Escobar (who made a personal fortune and created an aura around himself thanks to his involvement in drug trafficking) the question will be: how will the region remember its recent and characteristically brutal history?  As previously mentioned, the Argentine insurgent leader Che Guevara has become a world icon and has become immortalized on t-shirts as well as wall paintings around the world. His popularity has been cemented on walls at home and abroad, as well as by his numerous public manifestations.⁷

Therefore another question that must be asked regarding the fate of the Colombian drug lord is whether he will be remembered in a dramatically similar way to how Guevara has been so heroically remembered. Factors that would aid this unwanted development include the Poder Poder clothing line and the controversial initiatives the Colombian drug lord carried out in poor communities in his native region of Antioquia. These projects included the construction of roads, as well as sports facilities, due to their connection with his hometown, in order to promote a positive image of himself while he was alive.

Nevertheless, it is critical to remember that “El Doctor,” as Escobar was also known, became infamous for the violent actions he took against his opponents as well as against innocent bystanders. While he wanted to portray himself to the public as some kind of Colombian Robin Hood or Emiliano Zapata, he instilled a reign of terror throughout the country in the 1980s. The question can be asked: should people really be wearing the clothes that will financially reward his son and immortalize his father, arguably in a positive way?  The crimes resulting from Escobar’s orders have been well documented and are universally known throughout Latin America. For example, the author of this commentary has been interviewed for an upcoming documentary entitled Uncensored, which discusses the violence that Colombian journalists chronically faced throughout the 1980s at the hands of criminal organizations, such as Escobar’s Medellin Cartel.⁸

However, new generations of Colombians are presently growing up without having suffered the milieu of Escobar-authored terrorist car bombs or reading about the assassination of politicians, police officers and journalists that occurred as a result of his orders. In regards to the generally positive image that the t-shirts have generated in respect to Guevara, it is debatable to what extent the Escobar legacy will be affected in the coming years as this apparel is circulated. Upon announcing the creation of the Escobar clothing line, his son explained that the clothes are “an auto criticism of my father’s history, and an invitation for the youth to be conscious of the dangers of entering the drug and drug trafficking world.”⁹

As previously mentioned, it is important to highlight that besides the recently introduced clothing lines and movies, there is a new popular way of portraying the narco/criminal life via exciting telenovelas (soap operas). For example, several Colombian novelas deal with the drug life, including “El Capo,” “Las Muñecas de la Mafia” and “Sin Tetas No Hay Paraiso.” Such productions have also come under scrutiny as they humanize – even glamorize – the narco life under a light of glamour that might make the violent organization appealing to young viewers.  Interestingly, the Latin TV station Telemundo has launched a soap opera entitled, “Pablo Escobar: El Patron del Mal” (Pablo Escobar: The Lord of Evil), which portrays the Colombian drug lord’s life.¹⁰

While freedom of expression should be supported and protected, it is a tragic development that a systematic murderer and assassin like Escobar has the potential to be immortalized, or remembered in any positive way, considering the loathsome actions he carried out throughout his life.  It is this kind of educational and social dilemma that several regional countries have generated and will likely continue to do so for decades to come.

Conclusions

How the average citizen of Latin America remembers the region’s violent past will become an increasingly important point of examination in the coming years. In regards to clothing lines, carrying the likes of the emblematic garbs of Che Guevara and Pablo Escobar throughout trade shops in the hemisphere, it is debatable to what extent these businesses, besides making a prodigious profit, are also promoting a positive image of the individuals they portray. In Guevara’s case, the combination of the publication of his memoirs, the 2004 biopic, and his camisetas have immortalized him as a positive, yet perhaps overrated, towering figure of the Cold War. According to some Latin American experts, Guevara is an irrelevant, romantic and colorful, if misguided, figure of the Cold War, whose commitment to the revolution has been based on geopolitical farrago and advancing pathological causes via extreme violence. Nevertheless, decades after his death in the Bolivian jungle, he remains a positive symbol for new generations.  It is still too early to tell if a similar development will occur with Pablo Escobar, which makes it even more important for the Colombian government to educate its youth regarding the country’s recent history, including the plethora of bloody deeds carried out by Escobar and his Medellín Cartel.

Despite ongoing elevated levels of violence in Mexico with the drug cartels, the Mara gangs in Central America and narco-terrorism in Peru and Colombia, an optimist could say that, hopefully, the region has managed to slowly turn a page regarding its violent past. Hopefully, we won’t see any more dirty wars, military dictatorships, or massacres, though this may just be wishful thinking. In any case, after having survived a particularly dark chapter of its history, Latin America can today better deal with addressing its often shameful past and how the region’s youth should be educated, including comprehending the significance of wearing a Guevara or Escobar t-shirt in some steamy last-chance hotel.

W. Alex Sanchez, Research Fellow at the Council on Hemispheric Affairs

Please accept this article as a free contribution from COHA, but if re-posting, please afford authorial and institutional attribution.

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¹ For a good history of Escobar’s life, see: Bowden, Mark. Killing Pablo: The Hunt for the World’s Greatest Outlaw. Penguin Books. April 2002.

² The Motorcycle Diaries (Diarios de Motocicleta).FilmFour / BD Cine. 2004. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Motorcycle_Diaries_(film)

³ Ernesto “Che” Guevara (Author) and Mac Brecker (introduction). Guerrilla Warfare. Bilson Books. First Edition. September 1998. http://www.amazon.com/Guerrilla-Warfare-Ernesto-Che-Guevara/dp/0803270755

⁴ Gamboa, Veronica. “Ropa creada por hijo de Pablo Escobar se vende en Guatemala.” Prensa Libre (Guatemala). September 3, 20 12. http://www.prensalibre.com/noticias/comunitario/Linea-Ropa-Pablo-Escobar-Guatemala-Sebastian_Marroquin-Gaviria-Henao_0_767323423.html

⁵ EPIC Intelligence Center. Language of the Cartels:  Narco Terminology, Identifiers and Clothing Style. Public Intelligence.net. January 2011. Available: http://publicintelligence.net/ules-lulzsec-release-epic-language-of-the-cartels-narco-terminology-report/

⁶  EPIC Intelligence Center. Language of the Cartels:  Narco Terminology, Identifiers and Clothing Style. Public Intelligence.net. January 2011. Available: http://publicintelligence.net/ules-lulzsec-release-epic-language-of-the-cartels-narco-terminology-report/  P.2

⁷ Guevara addresses the United Nations in 1961. Video http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=bufHojkoGtw

⁸ Uncensored. Website. Available: http://uncensoredthedoc.com/

⁹ “Presenta hijo de Pablo Escobar line de ropa inspirada en su padre.” Animal Politico. August 30, 2012.  Available: http://www.animalpolitico.com/2012/08/presenta-hijo-de-pablo-escobar-linea-de-ropa-inspirada-en-su-padre/#axzz2D9r9Kh5B

¹⁰ Pablo Escobar: El Patron the Mal. Website. Telemundo. Available: http://msnlatino.telemundo.com/novelas/El_Patron_del_Mal/

Bolivia adopta un Slogan Revolucionario

An English version of this commentary appeared in LatAmThought.org on March 25, 2010

Vía orden presidencial, el nuevo slogan del ejército Boliviano es “Patria o muerte, ¡venceremos!” adoptado de la Cuba revolucionaria y el icónico guerrillero argentino (se le ha identificado de varias formas) Ernesto “Che Guevara.”
Esta declaración ha traído análisis y discusiones por parte de especialistas internacionales. Analistas conservadores del Heritage Foundation han puesto en su blog que:

“en contraste con la historia Boliviana – de hecho fueron tropas Bolivianas que ejecutaron al violento homicida y líder de la Cuba Comunista Che Guevara en 1967 […] el Presidente izquierdista Evo Morales ha ordenado al ejército boliviano, adoptar un canto popularizado por Guevara y el dictador Cubano Fidel Castro”

Es imposible no notar alguno de los adjetivos usados para describir a Guevara.

Existe una gran cantidad de libros y hasta DVDs usados para analizar al Che, su ideología, sus acciones y su “lado oscuro” (descrito así por el blogger de Heritage). Sin embargo, las comparaciones entre Morales y el Che tal vez comiencen a estar de moda. En el 2007, el Presidente boliviano se declaró un admirador de la Argentina. También llevo un pastel a Camilo Guevara, el hijo del Che, por el aniversario número 78 del nacimiento del Argentino.

Ciertamente, un tema que debe ser analizado (en vez de buscar nuevos adjetivos para describir a Guevara) es hasta que punto la admiración de Morales acerca del Che está afectando las decisiones del jefe boliviano en temas de política doméstica y política exterior. Hasta el momento, el presidente boliviano parece estar haciendo nuevos enemigos dentro de las Fuerzas Armadas. Se conoce por reportes que algunos jefes militares no están felices con el cambio del slogan.

Asímismo, soldados retirados que pelearon en la guerra de Ñancahuazú , en la que el Che fue eventualmente capturado, no fueron invitados a marchar en el desfile cívico-militar de Marzo 23, el Día del Mar (durante el cual el nuevo slogan fue usado) por primera vez en 19 años. Un veterano que peleó en la guerra que terminó con la vida del Che explicó que “Patria o muerte, nosotros ya lo aplicamos en combate y vencimos a esas personas que han venido a Bolivia, a esos mercenarios que han venido para generar miedo y violencia”.

¿Es que Morales quiere convertirse en la versión democráticamente electa del Che?

Una cosa es cierta, a mediados de Marzo el general retirado Gary Prado, quien capturó a Guevara en 1967, fue llamado por las autoridades bolivianas que investigan un posible golpe contra el Presidente Morales. También fue llamado el hijo de Prado, que es candidato para la alcaldía de Santa Cruz.

Bolivia tiene una rica historia de golpes militares. Morales, aun cuando es el Jefe de Estado democráticamente re-electo, tal vez no debería enfurecer innecesariamente a sus Fuerzas Armadas, considerando que el ejercito boliviano tiene problemas para mantenerse subordinado al poder civil.