Carney, James "Guadalupe" (1924–1983)

James "Guadalupe" Carney (b. 28 October 1924; d. probably 16 September 1983), U.S. Catholic missionary in Honduras, revolutionary priest. Carney, a native of Chicago, entered the Jesuit seminary in 1948 and was ordained a priest in 1961. He was sent to Honduras, where he served as chaplain for the National Association of Honduran Peasants (ANACH), championed land reform, and helped establish Christian base communities in the department of Yoro. Expelled from the country in 1979, he was assigned to rural Nicaragua, where he was impressed by Sandinista social programs. After writing his autobiography and declaring himself a Christian Marxist, he resigned from the Jesuits and then crossed into Honduras in July 1983 with ninety-six Honduran guerrillas. Although U.S. and Honduran authorities claim he died in the jungle from starvation, subsequent investigations have led some scholars to conclude that he had been captured, tortured, and executed by the Honduran military. His body was never found.

See alsoChristian Base Communitiesxml .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

J. Guadalupe Carney, To Be a Revolutionary (1985).

Donna Whitson Brett and Edward T. Brett, Murdered in Central America: The Stories of Eleven U.S. Missionaries (1988), pp. 38-66.

Additional Bibliography

Carías, Marcos. Vernon y James: Vidas paralelas. Tegucigalpa: Acción Cultural Popular Hondureña: Centro de Estudios Históricos de Honduras, 1992.

                                   Edward T. Brett