View source for Camilo Torres Restrepo

{{Short description|Colombian revolutionary (1929–1966)}}
{{for|the early leader of Colombian independence|Camilo Torres Tenorio}}
{{other people|Camilo Torres}}
{{Infobox clergy
| honorific_prefix = 
| name        = Camilo Torres Restrepo
| honorific_suffix = 
| image       = Camilo Torres.jpg
| alt         =
| caption     = Camilo Torres
| birth_name  = Camilo Torres Restrepo
| birth_date  = {{birth date|1929|2|3|df=yes}}
| birth_place = [[Bogotá]], [[Colombia]]
| death_date  = {{death date and age|1966|2|15|1929|2|3|df=yes}}
| death_place = [[San Vicente de Chucurí]], [[Santander Department|Santander]], [[Colombia]]
| nationality = [[Colombian nationality law|Colombian]]
| parents     = Calixto Torres Umaña <br/> Isabel Restrepo Gaviria
| alma_mater  = 
| residence   =
| occupation  = *[[National Liberation Army (Colombia)|ELN]] [[guerilla]] (1965-66)
*[[Politician]] (1965)
*[[Priesthood in the Catholic Church|Priest]] (1954-1965)
| religion    = [[Christianity]]
| church      =[[Roman Catholic Church]] 
| ordained    = 1954 (priest)
|laicized=June 1965|writings=''Message to Christians''<br>
''Proclamation to the Colombian People''|Theology=}}
'''Camilo Torres Restrepo''' (3 February 1929 – 15 February 1966) was a Colombian [[Catholic Church|Catholic]] [[revolutionary]], [[Guerrilla warfare|guerilla]], [[Priesthood in the Catholic Church|priest]], politician, author and a leader of the [[National Liberation Army (Colombia)|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|Liberation Theology]] movement,<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Cancino |first=Hugo |date=2013-10-09 |title=Los Cristianos Revolucionarios en América Latina. En la senda de Camilo Torres: El caso chileno, 1966-1970 |url=https://journals.aau.dk/index.php/sd/article/view/921 |journal=Sociedad y Discurso |language=es |issue=24 |doi=10.5278/ojs..v0i24.921 |issn=1601-1686}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=COHA |date=2009-04-01 |title=Camilo Torres: Prayer Can’t Solve Poverty Alone |url=https://coha.org/camilo-torres-prayer-can%e2%80%99t-solve-poverty-alone/ |access-date=2025-11-05 |website=COHA |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Pérez-Bustillo |first=Camilo |date=2016-02-12 |title=Pope Francis, Mexico, and the Legacies of Liberation Theology and Camilo Torres |url=https://truthout.org/articles/pope-francis-mexico-and-the-legacies-of-liberation-theology-and-camilo-torres/ |access-date=2025-11-05 |website=Truthout |language=en-US}}</ref> as well as being adopted by the [[Montoneros]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hodges |first=Donald Clark |title=Argentina 1943 - 1976: the national revolution and resistance |date=1976 |publisher=Univ. of New Mexico Pr |isbn=978-0-8263-0422-3 |location=Albuquerque}}</ref> His social activism and willingness to work with [[Marxism|Marxists]] troubled some.<ref>Bushnell, David. "Camilo Torres Restrepo". Encyclopedia of Latin American History and Culture, v. 5, 258-59</ref> 

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.<ref>{{cite web |title=A 51 años de la muerte de Camilo Torres: "Insistamos en lo que nos une y prescindamos de lo que nos separa" (51 years after the death of Camilo Torres: "Let us insist on what unites us and do without what separates us") |work=Desinformémonos |url=https://desinformemonos.org/51-anos-la-muerte-camilo-torres-insistamos-lo-nos-une-prescindamos-lo-nos-separa/ |access-date=27 June 2022 |location=Colombia |language=Spanish |date=15 February 2017}}</ref>

His involvement in several student and [[political movement]]s 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 [[Political radicalism|radical]] politics, Camilo Torres requested to be and was [[Loss of clerical state|laicized]] (although he never abandoned his faith and he remained a [[Catholic devotions|devout]] Catholic). He founded the [[Socialism|socialist]] [[United Front (Colombia)|United Front]], which lasted only a month. After the failure of the United Front, he joined the [[Marxism–Leninism|Marxist-Leninist]] ELN in Colombia.
<!-- Deleted image removed: [[Image:CamiloTorres 2.jpg|thumb|Camilo Torres]] -->
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.<ref>Bushnell, "Camilo Torres Restrepo", 259.</ref><ref>SDS Regional Newsletter, Mar. 8, 1966, Vol. 1, no. 8 [http://www.oac.cdlib.org/view?docId=kt5x0nb165&chunk.id=d0e169&brand=oac4&doc.view=entire_text] Winter 1966 MFU Catalog [http://midpeninsulafreeu.com/images/4.pdf]</ref> 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 [[Guerrilla warfare|guerrillero]]".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Jiménez |first=Fiorella López |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0I3HtwAACAAJ |title="If Jesus Were Alive Today, He Would be a Guerrillero": The Impact of Liberation Theology Movements in Latin American Politics |date=2011 |publisher=Lake Forest College |language=en}}</ref> Despite being labelled a [[Communism|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-communism|anti-communist]].<ref name=":2" /> Camilo Torres, along with [[Hélder Câmara|Helder Camara]] and [[Des Wilson (Irish Catholic priest)|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 Gutiérrez|Gustavo Gutierrez]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Cellini |first=Jacobo |title=Universalism and Liberation: Italian Catholic Culture and the Idea of International Community (1963-1978)}}</ref> 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, Manhattan|Washington Heights]] community. 

== Biography ==
=== Childhood and education ===
[[File:Camilo Torres con Estudiantes.jpg|thumb|Camilo Torres (center, looking sideways) marching with students]]
Jorge Camilo Torres Restrepo was born on 3 February 1929 in Bogotá into a well-to-do family of the liberal bourgeoisie. His mother Isabel told him the story of Father Cuco (Juan de la Cruz Gaviria), a liberal businessman who financed the military campaigns against the conservatives in the civil wars of the 19th century.

His parents took him to Europe when he was only two years old.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.marxists.org/espanol/camilo/biografia.htm |title=Biografía política de Camilo Torres |access-date=30 September 2022|language=es}}</ref> He returned to the country in 1934. Three years later, in 1937, the couple separated, leaving Camilo and his brother Fernando at their mother's side. Expelled for his criticism of the teachers at the traditional [[Colegio Mayor de Nuestra Señora del Rosario]], he finished his baccalaureate at the Liceo de Cervantes in 1946 where he met and became friends with [[Luis Villar Borda]] and Ricardo Samper.

His sister Gerda Westendorp Restrepo, daughter of Isabel Restrepo's first marriage, was a medical student (the first woman in Colombia to pursue a university degree). Her brother Fernando devoted himself to medicine like his father and older half-sister, and settled in the [[United States]]. He was close to Camilo although their professions caused them to see each other sporadically.

Camilo Torres entered the Faculty of Law at the [[Universidad Nacional de Colombia]], where he would meet again with Villar Borda, and only studied there for the first semester. During this brief period Camilo and Luis edited the university page of the Bogota newspaper ''La Razón'', and on some occasions wrote criticisms against some university magazines that they considered radical.

Influenced by the social ideas of two French Dominican priests, Nielly and Blanchet, whom he met through the father of his girlfriend Teresa Montalvo, daughter of a prestigious Bogota family, the idea of becoming a priest began to take hold of Camilo, and to make this decision, he withdrew to meditate in the eastern plains. After breaking up with his girlfriend and despite the reluctance of his mother and father, Camilo entered the Conciliar Seminary of Bogotá of the [[Archdiocese of Bogotá]] (in agreement with his parents to avoid entering the [[Dominican Order|Dominican Seminary]] of [[Chiquinquirá]] which was in poor condition) where he remained for seven years, during which time he began to take an interest in social realities.

=== Priesthood and academic life ===
Poverty and social injustice attracted his attention and, together with his fellow disciple Gustavo Pérez, he created a social studies circle that functioned even after Torres was ordained a priest in 1954 under the direction of Jonatan Gómez. Camilo started social activities in the neighbourhoods surrounding the Conciliar Seminary, which were populated by displaced families from the countryside.

In 1955, in order to specialize, Torres travelled to [[Belgium]], to study for a few more years at the [[Catholic University of Louvain]]. The first months were very difficult for the Bogota priest because of the cold climate, Belgian food and the conditions of the boarding house where he lived with Gustavo; for this reason, at the end of the first semester, he moved with his mother to a flat. With a group of Colombian students at the university, he founded the ECISE (Equipo Colombiano de Investigación Socioeconómica) and came into contact with Christian Democracy, the Christian trade union movement and [[Algeria]]n resistance groups in [[Paris]]. He founded the Bogota, Paris and London sections of ECISE. In 1957 he met Marguerite-Marie 'Guitemie' Olivieri, a Frenchwoman of [[Corsica|Corso]] origin and bourgeois daughter of a doctor like Torres, who was to become his closest friend and secretary, and who by then was living in a poor neighbourhood of Paris, accompanying the pieds noirs in sabotage work against the French regime that was being imposed by force in Algeria.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.elespectador.com/politica/confidente-de-camilo-article-129628/ |title=Confidente de Camilo |access-date=30 September 2022|language=es}}</ref> In turn, Torres met Villar Borda again in [[Berlin]] and spent holidays in [[Belgrade]] where he unsuccessfully wanted to exercise his priesthood, or failing that in [[Prague]]. In 1958, the Belgian university awarded him the degree of [[sociologist]]. His doctoral thesis, ''Una aproximación estadística a la realidad socioeconómica de Bogotá'', a pioneering work in urban sociology in Latin America, was published in 1987 under the title ''La proletarización de Bogotá''.
[[File:PlazaCheoSantanderUNAL.JPG|thumb|Wall painting homage to Camilo Torres located at the National University of Colombia.]]

While studying, Torres also studied Marxism after being given a permission to do so by the Cardinal [[Crisanto Luque Sánchez]]. He was also exposed to the [[worker-priest]] movement; according to Walter J. Broderick, "Camilo came in on the tail-end of it and was enormously affected by the spirit of commitment to the working masses which this movement had aroused in the more generous elements of the French and Belgian clergy". The impact was profound, and Camilo would accompany a local priest, who adhered to the worker-priest movement, to the poor districts. Broderick recalls that Camilo "became engaged in activities with flesh and blood people. He rarely missed a chance to help out at weekends in a parish of coal miners not far from Louvain, and would go back to his books pondering on what he had seen and heard: the hardships of the miners’ lives, their pastor's anguish for them and his efforts to improve their lot. For the pastor of this mining town was a firm convert to the Priest Worker Movement."<ref>{{cite book |last=Broderick |first=Joe |year=1975 |title=Camilo Torres: A Biography of the Priest-guerrillero |publisher=Doubleday |isbn=0385087101 |pages=72–76}}</ref>

After witnessing the poverty of Belgian miners, and under the influence of the worker-priest movement and Marxism, Camilo became embarrassed at his own luxury, and decided to sell his car and live as humbly as possible. After Camilo informed his mother of his decision, she chastized him; Camilo responded that his 'bourgeois' status was preventing him from establishing a "real contact" with the workers, whom he came to see as the embodiment of "the person of Jesus".<ref>{{cite book |last=Broderick |first=Joe |year=1975 |title=Camilo Torres: A Biography of the Priest-guerrillero |publisher=Doubleday |isbn=0385087101 |page=77}}</ref> Torres also stayed in touch with his friends from Colombia through letters, who informed him of dissemination of communist guerrillas and movements in Colombia; Camilo's friend Miguel wrote to him: "In my free time I'm working with the workers, finally...! They have many needs of all kinds and we are going to see how we can organise them to solve them. [...] On the subject of the country [...] I can add that the guerrillas seem to be fuelled by communism, which has gained ground even against the president."<ref name=":0">{{cite journal |last=Paucar Bedoya |first=Laura Manuela |year=2020 |title=Ideologías de la Guerra Fría en la Iglesia latinoamericana (A través de cartas a Camilo Torres, 1954-1962) |url=https://cienciashumanasyeconomicas.medellin.unal.edu.co/images/revista-quiron-pdf/edicion12/N12-Ponencia-Memorias-del-XVI.-Ideologias-de-la-guerra-fria.pdf |journal=Quirón: Revista de estudiantes de Historia |language=es |publisher=Universidad Nacional de Colombia |volume=6 |issue=12 |page=57 |issn=2422-0795 |quote=Y en otra misiva sugiere incluso que Camilo Torres estuvo en Moscú “rezando ante la milagrosa tumba de nuestro padre Stalin”. Lo que mostraría además la circulación de ideas comunistas y sus conceptos. |trans-quote=And in another letter he even suggests that Camilo Torres was in Moscow "praying at the miraculous tomb of our father Stalin." This would further demonstrate the circulation of communist ideas and concepts.}}</ref> Camilo Torres' fascination with Marxism led him to visit the [[Soviet Union]] at the time and praise [[Joseph Stalin]]. Camilo's friend who became a communist, Jaime Díaz, praised Camilo for going to Moscow and "praying at the miraculous tomb of our father Stalin".<ref name=":0" />

In 1959, when he returned to Colombia, Camilo felt compelled to actively support the cause of the poor and the working class. That year he was appointed auxiliary chaplain of the [[National University of Colombia]], in Bogotá. The following year, in 1960, he participated along with [[Orlando Fals Borda]], Carlos Escalante, Eduardo Umaña Luna, María Cristina Salazar, Darío Botero Uribe, [[Virginia Gutiérrez de Pineda]] and Tomás Ducay, among others, in the founding of the first faculty of Sociology in Latin America (today a department) of the [[Universidad Nacional de Colombia]], where he was a professor and was close to and popular with the students. He was a founding member and president of the Movimiento Universitario de Promoción Comunal (MUNIPROC). With the creation of the Juntas de Acción Comunal (JAC),<ref>{{cite web |url=http://pensamiento.unal.edu.co/cp-camilotorres/acerca-de/camilo-torres/ |title=Camilo Torres: Centro de Pensamiento Camilo Torres Restrepo |access-date=30 September 2022 |language=es |archive-date=11 December 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191211205746/http://pensamiento.unal.edu.co/cp-camilotorres/acerca-de/camilo-torres/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> promoted by the government of [[Alberto Lleras Camargo]], from Law 9 of 1958, Torres recognises in it the possibility of decentralising political power and giving possibilities of empowerment to grassroots communities. Together with teachers and students, he carried out community action programmes in working-class neighbourhoods in Bogotá. Torres was also the organiser of the IX Congress of the Latin American Sociological Association.

MUNIPROC's work led to the founding of the first Junta de Acción Comunal (JAC) in [[Tunjuelito]], at that time a working class enclave in the south of Bogotá, where he had been working continuously for several years. In 1963, he chaired the first National Congress of Sociology, also held in Tunjuelito (Bogotá), and presented the study "La violencia y los cambios socio-culturales en las áreas rurales colombianas" (Violence and socio-cultural changes in rural areas of Colombia). Torres was also a member of the technical committee of the agrarian reform founded by the Colombian Institute of Agrarian Reform (INCORA), where he represented the most reformist position of the Board of Directors, which was divided between the Conservative and Liberal parties, typical of the [[National Front (Colombia)|National Front]] but considered by Torres an inefficient entity in the face of the needs of the Colombian countryside. In his career as a member of the Board, the episode of the project to set up an Agrarian School in Yopal (Casanare) and the difficulties presented by the then director of INCORA Enrique Peñalosa Camargo (liberal, father of the former mayor of Bogotá [[Enrique Peñalosa Londoño]]) and Álvaro Gómez Hurtado (conservative, son of former president [[Laureano Gómez]]) stand out.

During this period of his life he was interested in founding a farm-school in [[Yopal]] ([[Casanare Department|Casanare]]), as part of the rural action programme that he encouraged in the region and which would go on to achieve other organisational successes; on the board of the Incora, he sparked off a controversy over the application of the law of extinction of ownership restricted to uncultivated lands, which brought him into conflict with [[Álvaro Gómez Hurtado]], also a member of that body and head of the "Laureanist" group of the Conservative Party. Because of the resonance of this conflict, some conservative bishops wrote to the Cardinal to request his dismissal from the board. Invited to Peru, he gave courses and lectures on the subject of agrarian reform and social change. His view of the Latin American situation is not flattering, as he expresses it in a letter from [[Lima]]. He writes:

{{blockquote|text=Lima is not Peru. There are six million pure Indians who consider the other four million as strangers. I have been very frustrated to be able to establish nothing but a tourist relationship with the Indians. This is the truest and weakest base of the Latin American revolution. Their social situation is appalling. However, the purges continue in Brazil. Those who think are punished. Reaction is beginning to walk all over our continent as if the majorities did not exist. Until when! We progressives are very intelligent. We speak very well. We are popular. When we are together we are really nice. But reaction moves one of its powerful fingers and paralyses us! We cannot go on without organisation and equal arms, at least.<ref name="#1">{{cite journal |url=http://www.scielo.org.co/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0120-36492011000100005 |title=Camilo Torres Restrepo, cristianismo y violencia |journal=Theologica Xaveriana |date=January 2011 |volume=61 |issue=171 |pages=131–167 |access-date=30 September 2022|language=es |last1=Martínez Morales |first1=Darío }}</ref>}}

In 1962, the year in which the [[Second Vatican Council]] was initiated by Pope [[John XXIII]], Torres was one of the first priests to offer a mass facing forward and in Spanish, when by then the mass was offered facing backwards and in [[Latin]]. Between 8 and 9 June of that year, under pressure from Cardinal [[Luis Concha Córdoba]], after entering, together with other professors, into contradictions with the rector, by honouring at mass the students killed after a demonstration repressed by the [[Colombian National Police|National Police]] and by opposing the expulsion of other students, he was forced to resign from all his activities at the [[National University of Colombia]], being transferred to the Church of La Veracruz in Bogotá as [[coadjutor]];<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.filosofia.org/ave/001/a230.htm |title=Camilo Torres Restrepo 1929-1966 |access-date=30 September 2022|language=es}}</ref><ref name="#1"/> assistant to the parish priest with only confession and baptismal functions. This unleashed a strong depression in Torres, who wanted to be close to the people. Shortly before, the Colombian Communist Youth (JUCO) had proposed Torres as rector of the University to a possible shortlist of three but Torres politely declined the offer for fear of tarnishing his name.

In 1964, Concha would later relieve Torres as coadjutor, only admiring Torres as a sociologist, allowing him to become an associate professor in the Faculty of Sociology. He was in turn appointed dean of the Institute of Social Administration of the Escuela Superior de Administración Pública (ESAP) and promoted to member of the Board of Directors of INCORA.

The Unidad de Acción Rural de Yopal (UARY) was inaugurated on 1 March 1964, after overcoming the bureaucratic obstacles of the Ministry of Agriculture, which allowed him to work at the grassroots with the peasants of the capital of the plains. He combined this with the struggles in the junta, especially with the conservative politician who was a staunch defender of the interests of the landowners. He first considered creating a guerrilla group together with Álvaro Marroquín, a student at the National University and member of the JUCO. Torres in turn considered INCORA a deficient entity to attend to the needs of the Colombian peasantry, especially in informal education for their organization in search of an agrarian reform different to that proposed by INCORA.<ref>{{cite book |last=Broderick |first=Walter |year=1996 |title=Camilo Torres Restrepo |url=https://hectorucsar.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/broderick-walter-camilo-torres.pdf |publisher=Planeta Colombiana |isbn=9586145026 |language=es}}</ref>

=== Entering politics ===

The [[Cuban Revolution]], which impacted every country in the Americas, caught Torres' attention after he returned to Colombia from Europe. In 1965, the Movimiento Revolucionario Libera (MRL) went into decline after its split following the presidential elections of 1962. The 1964 parliamentary elections were marked by an enormous [[Abstentionism|abstention]], in which Torres concluded that the traditional parties; [[Colombian Liberal Party|Liberal]] and [[Colombian Conservative Party|Conservative]], were abandoned by public opinion, so he considered creating a new instrument that would bring together the "Non-aligned" in politics; unions, guilds, associations, students and workers, to confront the decadent traditional parties, although for the time being calling for abstentionism. Torres also tried unsuccessfully to act as a mediator between the peasants and the [[National Army of Colombia|National Army]] to prevent the attack on the so-called Independent Republic of Marquetalia, which was his first contact with the [[Colombian Communist Party]].<ref name="#1"/><ref>{{cite book |last=Levine |first=Daniel |year=1996 |title=Camillo Torres: Fe, Política y Violencia |url=https://www.redalyc.org/pdf/3872/387239038004.pdf |publisher= University of Michigan |language=es}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.semana.com/especiales/articulo/el-cura-guerrillero/60097-3/ |title=El cura guerrillero |date=11 December 1980 |access-date=30 September 2022 |language=es}}</ref>

[[Bay of Pigs Invasion|The American-sponsored attempt]] to overthrow the Cuban regime rallied socialist guerrillas and revolutionary student movements across the Latin America, and it exposed Torres to the ideas of anti-imperialism.<ref name="biog">{{cite book |last=Broderick |first=Joe |year=1975 |title=Camilo Torres: A Biography of the Priest-guerrillero |publisher=Doubleday |isbn=0385087101}}</ref> At the time, he identified as [[Liberal Catholicism|progressive Catholic]] and wasn't afraid to raise topics such as poverty and unstable political situation of Colombia. His light-hearted manners made his masses appeal to a wider public, even including atheists.<ref name="biog"/> This also marked the time of his rapid radicalization. Torres argued that the Catholic Church is devoted to charity and fighting social inequality, crediting the Church with introducing revolutionary changes to society such as the abolition of slavery and democratic valorization of the human being.<ref name="gabbas">{{cite journal|last=Gabbas |first=Marco |title=Camilo Torres, Liberation Theology, and Marxism |url=https://www.phil.muni.cz/ojsdata/sacra/cisla/2021_2/sacra_vnitrek_2021_2_final_WEB-41-51.pdf |year=2021 |publisher=Corvinus University of Budapest |journal=Short Essays and Comments }}</ref> However, he believed that in order to truly realise the concept of Christian charity, a total change of power structures was needed, as the hitherto structures were responsible for social and economical inequality and poverty:

{{blockquote|text=These structures will not change without pressure being exerted by the masses, and that pressure will be violent or nonviolent according to the attitude adopted by the minority governing classes. There is nothing to be afraid of, for in a society which needs structural change, genuine authority is earned by revolutionary commitment, and that commitment, for the Christian, should be a commitment out of charity. The moral authority thus gained will give the Christian the right to demand concessions the day the Marxists come to power.<ref name="biog" />}}

He pointed out that the ones who were in the forefront of the fight to change structures were Marxists, and this brought him to the conclusion that collaborating with the Marxists was a necessity. At the same time, he discussed the Marxist thought in his writings - he criticised [[vanguardism]], attacking Lenin's concept of "the revolution by the elite", insisting that a revolution can only be carried out by ordinary people instead. He regarded [[Marxist humanism]] as a product of [[Christian humanism|Christian humanist movement]], and argued that Marxist principles stem from Christianity itself.<ref name="gabbas" /> He began to admire socialists for fighting for a better society, and believed that Catholics should support their efforts:

{{blockquote|text=The revolutionaries are so few, and we progressive Catholics are also very few. Historically there was only one mistake the Christian could make: to refuse to act.<ref name="biog" />}}

In 1964, the Cardinal [[Luis Concha Córdoba]] informed the national public opinion that no priest could collaborate in the socioeconomic study commission that had been set up to intervene in the case of Marquetalia, Tolima; this commission, of which Camilo Torres was a member, was trying to evaluate the situation in that region and at the same time to prevent a military solution to the conflict. An attempt is being made to stop a peasant movement that has declared the area an "independent republic".<ref name="biog" /> In the absence of support and guarantees, the rest of the commission was forced to back down - bombings and military occupation of the region followed, leading to the withdrawal of the peasant militias that would later form the guerrilla movement known as the [[Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia]].<ref name="#1"/> At least in its first period, the FARC had the backing of the [[Colombian Communist Party]].

Later the same year, Torres came into closer contact with groups that agreed with the armed revolution or were already committed to it. He was sympathetic to these groups and his solidarity with them grew stronger and stronger. The Cuban-oriented guerrilla group, the [[National Liberation Army (Colombia)|National Liberation Army]] was founded on 4 July 1964, and made its public appearance with the seizure of the town of [[Simacota]] in [[Santander Department|Santander]] on 7 January 1965.<ref name="#1"/> Camilo considered it extremely important to connect with this insurgent group and he managed to do so through his urban networks.

In 1965, his activities as head of the Institute of Social Administration of the ESAP began to be strongly criticised for their political bias. Faced with the failure of some intellectuals who had undertaken to write articles and papers for a publication aimed at making the situation of Colombian society visible from the perspective of the social sciences, Camilo drafted a political platform open to debate by different groups of intellectuals, students and workers, in which he proposed the union of the popular class to socially renovate the country.<ref name="biog" /> This document was widely disseminated during his travels around the country and, thanks to the discussion it was subjected to during this tour, became the platform of the United Front of the Colombian People, the political movement that Camilo promoted as an alternative for the transformation of society in Colombia.<ref name="#1"/>

=== The United Front ===
[[File:Camilo Torres con campesinos colombianos.jpg|thumb|Camilo Torres with Colombian peasants]]

The [[National Front (Colombia)|National Front]] regime led Camilo Torres in January 1964 to found the Frente Unido del Pueblo; a movement in opposition to the coalition of the traditional parties. Torres went to the home of Marroquín and his partner María Arango to seek contacts with the [[Colombian Communist Party|Communist Party]]. A meeting with the goal to create a political platform was held, with the participation of the MOEC, the MRL Youth, the JUCO and some student groups from the [[Universidad de los Andes (Colombia)|Universidad de los Andes]]. However, the hierarchs of the Colombian Church sought to make Torres travel to [[Leuven]], with the ESAP offering to cover the travel costs. However, a meeting in homage to Torres held by the students of the National University dissuaded Torres from travelling. Although Torres was not yet politically active and had no  clear political discourse, he was already quite popular.

Torres sought to bring together all the opposition of the time ([[ANAPO|Anapo]], MRL and Colombian Communist Party); however, he didn't declare himself a [[Marxist]] due to the [[atheism]] of the ideology, but related several points to Catholicism itself instead.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.biografiasyvidas.com/biografia/t/torres_camilo_2.htm |title=Camilo Torres Restrepo |access-date=30 September 2022 |language=es}}</ref> In June 1965, at his request, Torres was [[Loss of clerical state|reduced to the lay state]] by his ecclesiastical superior, Cardinal Concha;<ref>{{Cite web |title=Camilo Torres Restrepo: Priest, revolutionary, and guerrilla fighter |work=Peoples Dispatch |date=16 February 2024 |url=https://peoplesdispatch.org/2024/02/16/camilo-torres-restrepo-priest-revolutionary-and-guerrilla-fighter/ |last1=Informa |first1=Colombia }}</ref> at the same time he was removed from his post at ESAP and once again had disagreements with Concha, who offered him and his coadjutor bishop Rubén Isaza the post of director of sociology department in the Archbishopric of Bogotá with the mediation of the then priest Ernesto Umaña de Brigard. Torres turned down the offer, seeing that the position was to prevent him from intervening in politics as well as presenting the socio-political platform in [[Medellín]], which was the reason why he had previously been removed from his position at the ESAP. Concha argued that the platform went against Catholic ideals and that priests should be apolitical in order to dissociate themselves from Catholicism's ambiguous and traditional relationship with the Conservative Party. Torres met with Concha, who vehemently opposed Torres' entry into politics. Umaña then met with Torres and offered him an ecclesiastical post, but Torres requested a [[Dispensation (Catholic canon law)|dispensation]] so that he could devote himself to politics and avoid problems with the ecclesiastical authority. Torres gave his last [[Mass in the Catholic Church|Mass]] on 27 June 1965 in the Church of San Diego in Bogotá. Torres then travelled to [[Lima]], returning to Bogotá on 3 July to be received by his mother and a crowd of young people.

According to Torres' mother, before his laicization, Camilo had been visited by some politicians and was told that, if he wrote to [[Vatican City|Rome]] that he would lead his flock to the existing political parties and away from the [[Guerrilla warfare|Guerilla movement]], he would become a [[Cardinal (Catholic Church)|Cardinal]]. He rejected by saying "I'm not for sale, amigos."<ref name=":2">{{Cite book |title=Λαϊκή Ενότητα, Επανάσταση και άλλα κείμενα |publisher=Μνήμη |location=Athens |publication-date=1974 |trans-title=Popular Unity, Revolution and More Texts}}</ref>

The platform of his movement sought to address the needs of rural and urban areas, to eliminate the restricted democracy of the National Front at all costs, and the participation of the Church in [[liberation theology]]. However, the National Front lacked a clear political platform, despite being close to and sympathetic to the revolutionary left; they also had their own newspaper, headed by Pedro Acosta, of the same name, which was only distributed three times a week from 26 August 1965, printed in the workshops of the Antares publishing house and owned by Torres' friend Gonzalo Canal Ramírez. Despite the growing popularity of the United Front, Torres decided to contact [[Fabio Vásquez Castaño]] through student leader Jaime Arenas on 6 July 1965, who had previously led the strike at the [[Universidad Industrial de Santander]]. The [[United Front (Colombia)|United Front]] lasted from August to September 1965 (one month) after breaking with Christian Democracy for imposing a guerrilla line. His decision to resort to armed struggle was taken in the case of [[Jorge Eliécer Gaitán]] and expressed to [[Gloria Gaitán]], daughter of the assassinated leader, who offered asylum to Torres, who gradually went underground. Despite this, Torres led a peaceful march with his students in Medellín and was arrested with his demonstrators, all university students, and held at the Asociación Sindical Antioqueña. He would later be intercepted in [[Ventaquemada]] on his way to [[Tunja]], and in Bogotá he would also be detained after police repression of a demonstration by the Frente Unido. On 7 January 1966, Torres announced his incorporation into the [[National Liberation Army (Colombia)|ELN]].
[[File:Busto de Camilo Torres Restrepo.jpg|thumb|Mural paying homage to Camilo Torres located at the [[National University of Colombia]].]]

=== Catholic guerrilla ===

In the guerrilla, Torres was mentored and advised by Jaime Arenas, chosen by Fabio Vásquez, also to keep him away from progressive currents. Shortly before joining the ELN, General [[Gustavo Rojas Pinilla]], leader of the ANAPO, had recommended Torres not to join any guerrilla group, since as a priest he had no experience in handling weapons to confront the army, so he suggested that he continue in political life since he admired his work with the needy classes, something that Torres disregarded considering the advice as a threat. On joining the ELN, under the [[nom de guerre]] of ''Argemiro'', the identity of Torres, who was mistaken for a foreigner, was unknown for the moment within the guerrillas, but his identity was later revealed to the guerrillas.

As he explained in his "Message to the Christians" published in the first issue of ''Frente Unido'', he realised that the "effective means for the well-being of the majorities ... are not going to be sought by the minorities" and "will not be sought by the privileged minorities in power, because generally these effective means oblige the minorities to sacrifice their privileges", Torres concluded that "it is therefore necessary to take power away from the privileged minorities to give it to the poor majorities" and that "the Revolution is not only permitted but obligatory for Christians who see in it the only effective and ample way of realising love for all".<ref name=Torres>{{cite web |url=http://www.filosofia.org/ave/001/a230.htm|title=Camilo Torres Restrepo (1929-1966)|accessdate=2021-01-16|website=www.filosofia.org |language=es}}</ref> This is how Camilo Torres justified his decision in 1965 to quit his job as a teacher and priest and join the guerrilla, more precisely the National Liberation Army (ELN), although he had previously been interested in joining the [[Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia]] (FARC) due to his peasant background.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://cedema.org/digital_items/4251|title=Proclamation to the Colombian people by Camilo Torres|work=Cedema|accessdate=2022-01-20}}</ref>
{{blockquote|I have left the privileges and duties of the clergy, but I have not ceased to be a priest. I believe that I have given myself up to the Revolution out of love of neighbour. I have stopped saying [[Mass (liturgy)|mass]] to realise this love of neighbour, in the temporal, economic and social fields. When my neighbour has nothing against me, when I have achieved the Revolution, I will offer mass again, if God allows me to do so. I believe that in this way I follow the command of [[Christ]]: "If you bring your offering to the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your offering there before the altar, and go and be reconciled with your brother first, and then come and present your offering" ([[Gospel of Saint Matthew|Saint Matthew]] V, 23-24). |Camilo Torres, "Mensaje a los cristianos", ''Frente Unido'', no. 1, 26/08/1965, Bogotá.<ref name=Torres/>}}

In the ELN, Torres mostly participated as a low-ranking member and provided spiritual and ideological assistance from a Catholic point of view. However, his performance as a guerrilla was poor as he was not used to the arduous training (being assisted by a comrade) and to carrying a rifle, so he was barely given a pistol and was emphasised for his role of spiritual and ideological assistance as well as being a good cook. Torres also served as a doctor for the guerrillas, both physically and "spiritually".<ref name="situazion"/>

He taught the Gospel to rural children and translated texts by Mao Zedong, Vladimir Lenin and Fidel Castro. He also organized a "forest church", where he hung a portrait of Castro next to the crucifix.<ref name="situazion">{{cite journal |language=ru |title=ТЕОЛОГИЯ ОСВОБОЖДЕНИЯ Бог и революция |journal=СИТУАЦИЯ |volume=19 |year=2007 |page=3 |url=https://avtonom.org/files/situazion/situazion20.pdf}}</ref> Before his death, he briefly became a leader of ELN.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Affecting the Conflict: Mediations of the Colombian War in Contemporary Art and Film}}</ref> He also emerged as the "main ideologue of the group".<ref>{{cite book |page=366 |quote=The first priest to join the ELN was soon to become the main ideologue of the group, Father Camilo Torres, who, by accepting armed violence as a righteous path to fight oppression, set an example for other socialist-leaning priests who soon convinced themselves of the inevitability of armed revolution in order to achieve social change (Broderick, 1987, p. 35). |title=Handbook of Terrorist and Insurgent Groups: A Global Survey of Threats, Tactics, and Characteristics |chapter=A History of Colombia's National Liberation Army (ELN) |first=Jorge Eduardo |last=Delgado |editor1=Scott N. Romaniuk |editor2=Animesh Roul |editor3=Amparo Pamela Fabe |editor4=János Besenyő |publisher=CRC Press |year=2024 |isbn=978-0-429-42606-3 |doi=10.4324/9780429426063}}</ref> Under his influence, the ELN not only explicitly embraced Catholicism and imbued it with Marxism-Leninism, but also reorganized itself to resemble the structure of early Catholic Church:{{blockquote|text=Father Torres became one of the chief ideologues of the ELN, having already been in contact while still in civilian life with the group’s leaders via diverse university student fronts. Father Torres imbued the armed group with further ideological and practical underpinnings that combined Marxism-Leninism with Christian teachings and have, to date, influenced the group’s behaviour and modus operandi. [...] The ELN soon became a sort of federation, not with a topdown control structure but rather a multi-cephalous organisation with a collective decision-making process. The reason behind such a structure was to replicate the arrangement of the early Catholic Church of the I to III centuries AD, with a “synodal” assembly in which to discuss issues at a strategic level and also to allow local churches to selfgovern.<ref>{{cite book |page=367 |title=Handbook of Terrorist and Insurgent Groups: A Global Survey of Threats, Tactics, and Characteristics |chapter=A History of Colombia's National Liberation Army (ELN) |first=Jorge Eduardo |last=Delgado |editor1=Scott N. Romaniuk |editor2=Animesh Roul |editor3=Amparo Pamela Fabe |editor4=János Besenyő |publisher=CRC Press |year=2024 |isbn=978-0-429-42606-3 |doi=10.4324/9780429426063}}</ref>}}

He died in his first combat experience, when the ELN ambushed a patrol of the [[Colombian National Army|National Army]]. The National Army specifically targeted Torres, and he was brutally beaten at the time of his death.<ref name="theisen">{{cite journal |title=The Case of Camilo Torres Restrepo |first=Gerald |last=Theisen |journal=Journal of Church and State |volume=16 |issue=2 |year=1974 |pages=301–315 |publisher=Oxford University Press |doi=10.1093/jcs/16.2.301 |url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/23914573 |jstor=23914573 |url-access=subscription }}</ref> It was also revealed that he was shot at a point-blank range.<ref>{{cite book |page=368 |title=Handbook of Terrorist and Insurgent Groups: A Global Survey of Threats, Tactics, and Characteristics |chapter=A History of Colombia's National Liberation Army (ELN) |first=Jorge Eduardo |last=Delgado |editor1=Scott N. Romaniuk |editor2=Animesh Roul |editor3=Amparo Pamela Fabe |editor4=János Besenyő |publisher=CRC Press |year=2024 |isbn=978-0-429-42606-3 |doi=10.4324/9780429426063}}</ref> After his death, Camilo Torres became an official martyr of the ELN.

=== Death ===

Torres died on 15 February 1966 in [[San Vicente de Chucurí|Patio Cemento]], after combat with troops of the Fifth Brigade from [[Bucaramanga]], led by Colonel Álvaro Valencia Tovar, who, ironically years earlier, was his childhood friend.<ref>{{cite book |last=Martín |first=Andrés González |year=2021 |title=Thucydides' Exhortation |chapter=General Valencia’s diagnosis |url=https://www.ieee.es/Galerias/fichero/docs_analisis/2021/DIEEEA19_2021_ANDGON_Exhortacion_ENG.pdf |pages=9 }}</ref> The [[Colombian National Army|National Army]] hid the body in a strategic location separate from the other mass graves and the location was not revealed to the public.<ref name="muerte">{{cite web|url=http://www.cyemh.org/resource/camilo.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090302075901/http://www.cyemh.org/resource/camilo.htm |archive-date=2009-03-02 |title=El Espectador: Los restos de Camilo|work=Cedema|accessdate=2022-01-20|language=es}}</ref> A symbolic funeral took place in the church of San Diego and a symbolic burial was held. A mass was also held in the grounds of the National University.

Shortly after Torres's death, 'Guitemie' Olivieri, despite being linked to the ELN, was persecuted by the Colombian authorities and was helped by Junior Fajardo and Rita Restrepo de Agudelo to obtain political asylum, first in [[Panama]], then in [[Mexico]], where she married ex-priest Óscar Maldonado, finally in [[Cuba]] and then in [[France]].

Years later, Valencia Tovar, now retired as a general, wrote the book ''El final de Camilo'', in which he clarified details of the death of Camilo Torres. According to Valencia Tovar, Torres was buried in a detailed place, and they prepared the procedures to hand over the remains to the family. His older brother, doctor Fernando Torres Restrepo, who lived in the [[United States]], was informed about the fate of his brother.

In addition, General Álvaro Valencia Tovar himself revealed in an interview<ref name="entrevista revista semana">{{cite web|url=https://www.semana.com/nacion/articulo/general-fin-va-revelar-que-paso-cadaver-camilo-torres/84700-3/|title=General, are you finally going to reveal what happened to the body of Camilo Torres?|accessdate=2021-02-08|last=Semana|date=2007-04-21|website=Semana.com |language=es}}</ref> to the magazine ''[[Semana (Colombia)|Semana]]'' that the body of Camilo Torres was exhumed three years after his burial, his remains were placed in an urn and transported to [[Bucaramanga]] where, through the efforts of the general himself, the Military Pantheon of the Fifth Brigade of the National Army was created and the first remains to occupy a place in that pantheon were those of Camilo Torres, although he did not reveal their exact location, leaving the retired general's statements in doubt among the ELN high command.

In January 2016, the President of Colombia, [[Juan Manuel Santos]], instructed the [[Colombian National Army]] to begin the process of searching for and exhuming his remains, in a gesture to accelerate the start of the peace talks with the ELN guerrilla group.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.com/mundo/noticias/2016/02/160212_colombia_camilo_torres_cura_guerrillero_eln_nc|title=Where is the body of Camilo Torres, the Colombian guerrilla priest compared to Che Guevara?|accessdate=2021-02-08|date=2016-02-15|website=BBC News World|language=en}}</ref>

== Political ideology ==
{{Main|Camilism}}

{{Christian socialism sidebar|people}}
In his early years of political activity, Camilo Torres identified as a [[Liberal Catholicism|progressive Catholic]] and denounced the [[Leninism|Leninist]] idea of a [[Vanguardism|vanguard]],<ref name="gabbas" /> a view which he later changed, influenced by the [[Cuban Revolution]] and [[Fidel Castro]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Guzman |title=Camilo Torres |pages=16–18}}</ref> Additionally, he praised [[Joseph Stalin]] and reportedly prayed at his [[tomb]].<ref name=":0" /> Despite being labelled a [[Communism|communist]], Torres rejected that label for at least the majority of his life, while also declaring that he is not an [[Anti-communism|anti-communist]].<ref name=":2" />

Torres advocated for a "new [[Christianity]]" where the [[Catholic Church]] takes a more active role in the reformation of society.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Camilo Torres Restrepo, "As a Colombian, as a Sociologist, as a Christian, and as a Priest, I Am a Revolutionary" |url=https://cowlatinamerica.voices.wooster.edu/archive-item/camilo-torres-restrepo-as-a-colombian-as-a-sociologist-as-a-christian-and-as-a-priest-i-am-a-revolutionary/ |access-date=2025-03-05 |website=cowlatinamerica.voices.wooster.edu |language=en-US}}</ref> He believed that:<blockquote>The Church's temporary defects should not scandalize us. The Church is human. What is important is to believe that she is also divine and that if we Christians fulfill our obligation to love our neighbor, we are strengthening the Church.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |title=Camilo Torres (1965): Mensaje a los cristianos. |url=https://www.marxists.org/espanol/camilo/cristianos.htm |access-date=2025-03-05 |website=www.marxists.org}}</ref></blockquote>Torres desired a [[revolution]] where poor majorities would seize power from the privileged minorities, believing that:<blockquote>The Revolution, therefore, is the way to achieve a government that feeds the hungry, clothes the naked, teaches the ignorant, carries out works of charity, of love for one's neighbor, not only occasionally and temporarily, not only for a few, but for the majority of our neighbors. For this reason the Revolution is not only permitted but obligatory for Christians who see in it the only effective and broad way of achieving ''love for all'' . It is true that "there is no authority except from God" ([[Paul the Apostle|St. Paul]], Rom. XIII, 1). But [[Thomas Aquinas|St. Thomas]] says that the concrete attribution of authority is made by the people.</blockquote>He also believed that, if those minorities did not offer violent resistance, this revolution could be peaceful.<ref name=":1" /> 

Camilo Torres' political programme was read by [[Bishops in the Catholic Church|Catholic bishop]] Joseph Blomjous and was found to contain no contradictions to [[Pope|Papal]] [[Encyclical|encyclicals]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Broderick |first=Walter J. |title=Camilo Torres: a biography of the priest-guerillo.}}</ref>

In September 1965, Torres wrote:{{blockquote|text=My duty as a priest is to do everything possible to bring people to God, and the most effective way to do this is to ensure that people serve the people according to their conscience. I do not seek to agitate my communist brothers, trying to persuade them to accept Christian teaching and practice church cult. But I demand that all people act according to their conscience.<ref name="situazion"/>}}

After his death, Torres' political ideology, known as Camilism, would be adopted by the [[Montoneros]].

== Recognitions and legacy ==

=== Tributes at universities ===
* The main theater of the [[University of Antioquia]] bears the name of "Comandante Camilo Torres Restrepo" Popular Theater.
* One of the main buildings of the [[Industrial University of Santander]] has the name "Camilo Torres Building", on one of its exterior walls you can see a large mural with his face accompanied by a phrase he wrote.
* At the [[University of Valle]], in the Cali Headquarters, there is a tribute bust, and his face is painted on several university buildings.   
* At [[KU Leuven]] in Belgium, a large residence student hall has the name of "Camilo Torres".

=== Songs ===
[[Uruguay|Uruguayan]] singer-songwriter [[Daniel Viglietti]] wrote "Cruz de Luz" in 1967, a song about Camilo Torres, which was popularized by [[Chilean people|Chilean]] singer-songwriter [[Víctor Jara]]. Also the [[Cubans|Cuban]] singer-songwriter [[Carlos Puebla]] wrote a song about Camilo titled "Camilo Torres".The song "Cura y Guerrillero" by the [[Mexicans|Mexican]] singer-songwriter José de Molina is dedicated to Camilo Torres and other priests who continue to fight for the same ideals. 
[[File:Camilo Torres Leyenda.JPG|thumb|Legend in bust of Camilo Torres at the [[University of Valle]], Cali headquarters]]

=== Tributes in Latin America ===
The Camilo Torres Muralist Units, close to the Christian Left party of Chile, worked during the military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, making murals against the regime, distinguished by their cheerful designs, less abstract than those used by the Ramona Parra Brigade of the Chilean Communist Party.<ref>{{Cite web |title=..UNIDADES MURALISTAS CAMILO TORRES.. |url=http://violetalibertaria.blogspot.com/2008/08/unidades-muralistas-camilo-torres.html |access-date=2023-09-16 |archive-date=2012-06-29 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120629144217/violetalibertaria.blogspot.com/2008/08/unidades-muralistas-camilo-torres.html |url-status=dead }}</ref>
{{-}}

==See also==
{{Portal|Venezuela|Catholic Church|Colombia|Politics|Biography}}
*[[Christian communism]]
*[[Catholicism and socialism]]
*[[Catholic Worker Movement|Catholic worker movement]] 
*[[Catholic social teaching]]

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
*Broderick, Walter J.  ''Camilo Torres: A Biography of the Priest-Guerrillero'' 1975.
*Guzmán, Germán. ''Camilo Torres''. translated by John D. Ring. 1969.
*Levine, Daniel H. "Camilo Torres: fe, política y violencia." Sociedad y Religión: Sociología, Antropología e Historia de la Religión en el Cono Sur 21.34-35 (2011): 59-91.
*Martínez Morales, Darío. "Camilo Torres Restrepo: cristianismo e violência." Theologica Xaveriana 61.171 (2011): 131-167.

==External links==
{{sister project links|c=Category:Camilo Torres Restrepo|d=Q505595|m=no|mw=no|s=no|wikt=no|b=no|v=no|voy=no|n=no|q=yes|species=no}}
*[https://archive.today/20121212153400/http://pittsburgh.academia.edu/AlejandroSanchezLopera/Papers/306966/Science--revolution-and-belief-in-Camilo-Torres--a-secular-Colombia- Science, revolution and belief in Camilo Torres: a secular Colombia?] por Alejandro Sánchez Lopera (English version) ''Revista Nómadas Colombia''
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20070927030221/http://www.ucentral.edu.co/NOMADAS/nunme-ante/21-25/nomadas-25/P238-259.PDF Ciencia, revolución y creencia en la experiencia de Camilo Torres: ¿una Colombia secular?] por Alejandro Sánchez Lopera - ''Revista Nómadas Colombia''
*[https://books.google.com/books?id=04jto9qBkLoC&dq=%22Camilo+Torres+Restrepo%22+Genealog%C3%ADas+de+la+colombianidad&pg=PA134 Camilo Torres Restrepo: La posibilidad de una moral insurgente] Book Chapter
*{{in lang|es}}[http://www.filosofia.org/ave/001/a230.htm Biography from filosofia.org]
*{{in lang|es}}[http://www.marxists.org/espanol/camilo/cronologia.htm Biography from Marxists.org]
*[http://www.jorgeorlandomelo.com/camilo_torres.htm"Camilo Torres, Primer sacerdote guerrillero"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230407085032/http://www.jorgeorlandomelo.com/camilo_torres.htm |date=2023-04-07 }}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Torres Restrepo, Camilo}}
[[Category:1929 births]]
[[Category:1966 deaths]]
[[Category:Restrepo family]]
[[Category:National University of Colombia alumni]]
[[Category:Catholic University of Leuven (1834–1968) alumni]]
[[Category:20th-century Colombian Roman Catholic priests]]
[[Category:Liberation theologians]]
[[Category:Catholic socialists]]
[[Category:Colombian Christian socialists]]
[[Category:Christian communists]]
[[Category:Catholicism and far-left politics]]
[[Category:Colombian sociologists]]
[[Category:Anti-revisionists]]
[[Category:Stalinism]]
[[Category:Colombian rebels]]
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[[Category:Military personnel from Bogotá]]
[[Category:People killed in action]]