 That was after Calles had also sent a private telegram to the Mexican Ambassador to France, Alberto J. Pani, to advise him that the Catholic Church in Mexico was a political movement and must be eliminated to proceed with a socialist government "free of religious hypnotism which fools the people... within one year without the sacraments, the people will forget the faith..."

The government often did not abide by the terms of the truce.For example, it executed some 500 Cristero leaders and 5,000 other Cristeros.Particularly offensive to Catholics after the supposed truce was Calles's insistence on a complete state monopoly on education, which suppressed all Catholic education and introduced secular education in its place