Camilo Torres Restrepo

Camilo Torres Restrepo (3 February 1929 – 15 February 1966) was a Colombian Catholic revolutionary, guerilla, priest, politician, author and a leader of the National Liberation Army (ELN). A major and highly influential figure of the ELN, during his life he attempted to reconcile revolutionary socialism and Catholicism, an ideology which became known as Camilism and would significantly influence the later Liberation Theology movement, as well as being adopted by the Montoneros. His social activism and willingness to work with Marxists troubled some.

As part of the academic staff of the National University of Colombia, he was a co-founder of the Sociology Faculty together with Orlando Fals Borda, as well as some intellectuals such as Eduardo Umaña Luna, María Cristina Salazar, Virginia Gutiérrez de Pineda, Carlos Escalante, Darío Botero and Tomás Ducay, in 1960.

His involvement in several student and political movements during the time won him a large following as well as many detractors, especially from the Colombian government and the church itself. Due to the growing pressure to back down from his radical politics, Camilo Torres requested to be and was laicized (although he never abandoned his faith and he remained a devout Catholic). He founded the socialist United Front, which lasted only a month. After the failure of the United Front, he joined the Marxist-Leninist ELN in Colombia.

He mostly served as a low-ranking member of the movement, to which he also provided spiritual assistance and inspiration from a Catholic point of view. After becoming a leader of the ELN, he was killed in his first combat engagement when the guerrillas ambushed a Colombian military patrol. After his death, Camilo Torres was made an official martyr of the ELN.

He is perhaps best known for the quote: "If Jesus were alive today, He would be a guerrillero". Despite being labelled a communist by the press, Torres, for at least the majority of his life, rejected that label, declaring instead that while he will fight with the communists for common goals, he does not want the press to identify him with the communists, while also declaring that he is not an anti-communist. Camilo Torres, along with Helder Camara and Des Wilson, is one of the most important figures in the history of liberation theology. He was a friend of fellow socialist Luis Villar Borda, Colombian writer Gabriel García Márquez and founder of Liberation Theology Gustavo Gutierrez. In the Dominican Republic in 1970, a revolutionary group that included Catholic clergy members and university students was founded under the name CORECATO, which stood for Comando Revolucionario Camilo Torres (Revolutionary Command Camilo Torres). In New York City, San Romero of the Americas Church-UCC has founded the Camilo Torres Project in 2009. This project works for social justice and peace for the people of the Washington Heights community. Provided by Wikipedia