The "Sacrilegious Crime". The Assassination Attempt Against the Archbishop of Montevideo (1922)

Abstract

This article analyzes the coverage provided by the local press of the 1922 attack carried out in Montevideo’s cathedral against the archbishop. The study reveals three mayor axes: The reporting of the events themselves, including the controversy of the reaction of the congregation, the characterization of the prelate himself, and the third item of the research was the investigation into the personality of the assailant Jose Benigno Herrera Salazar. The analysis shows aspects such as the rationality of the act itself, the tension between the characteristics attributed to the archbishop and to Herrera Salazar, accused of having an ideological motive, because he was described as an anarchist militant and allegedly abnormal.