Let me introduce you to Carlos Polo. Carlos, who heads our Latin American office, has dedicated his life to the pro-life cause. And, as a consequence, he has been viciously attacked, continually persecuted, and even subjected to lawsuits by allies of Planned Parenthood.
In other words, he has suffered a kind of decades-long dry martyrdom at the hands of the abortion movement.
Or as he puts it in flowing Spanish, he is living the blessing of the beatitude of persecution.
It was Father Paul Marx himself who, 37 years ago, called on Carlos Polo to dedicate his life to saving unborn children. The year was 1987, and Father Marx was visiting Peru, Carlos’ native country, to fight the looming scourge of abortion.
Then a young social anthropologist, Carlos responded to the call to join the pro-life cause. He soon discovered that the political decisions are central to achieving success in the pro-life cause and took the lead in training a new generation of Latin American pro-lifers, giving them the tools they need to succeed in the 20 or so countries in the region.
Upon Father Marx’s retirement in 1999, Carlos went to work for the Population Research Institute, which was headed by another one of Father Marx’s recruits and another social anthropologist—myself.
Carlos Polo is an avid teacher of the rules of political action. He has logged hundreds of thousands of miles tirelessly crisscrossing the Latin American region, and making frequent trips to Spain and Portugal as well.
Over the years, he has taught over 300 courses, trained more than 3,500 leading pro-life activists, and offered expert guidance to major pro-life organizations in 18 countries in the Americas and Europe as they face pro-abortion challenges.
His goal, simply put, is to train a new generation of pro-lifers in political action. Together with Carlos Beltramo, who directs the PRI European office, he has created more than a dozen teaching modules, each one focused on equipping his students with the “political tools” they need to succeed in advancing the cause of life. Some of these “tools” are aimed at improving communication skills, and others at building and strengthening pro-life organizations.
Polo and Beltramo have also co-authored two books about how citizens can successfully participate in the political process. Their titles, in English translation, are Analyze Political Scenarios like a Chess Player (2012) and Don’t Let Others Decide for You: Doing Politics in the Post-Truth Era (2018).
The work continues. Two weeks ago, Carlos and another PRI staffer traveled to Argentina to conduct training courses. As a result, over 90 pro-life activists in three major Argentinian cities—many of them already active in politics and public service—are now better equipped with the political tools they need to advance the pro-life cause.
Similar courses are already scheduled in Mexico, Bolivia, and Guatemala for the remainder of the year, along with a dozen other speaking engagements in Latin America and Spain.
“To achieve victories in the pro-life arena,” Carlos says, “we need young people with a winning spirit who are trained and ready to participate effectively in political action.”
Carlos’ successful efforts to build a Culture of Life in the region have aroused the anger of those who would sacrifice unborn children on the altar of abortion and promote a destructive gender ideology among the young.
Not to mention that he has frequently exposed their efforts, as he did recently in his investigations of Arabella Advisors, the US-based hub of a politically liberal “dark money” network.
It turns out that Arabella has financed pro-abortion and pro-LGBT organizations outside the United States, several of which have been used to mount an attack on pro-life leaders in Peru, including Carlos Polo himself.
Carlos found that the New Venture Fund, an organization created by Arabella Advisors, delivered no less than $282,000 to the main partner of Planned Parenthood in Peru, PROMSEX specifically for the purpose of “neutralizing the actions of opposition groups.”
And how better to “neutralize” them than by taking their leaders to court in order to intimidate and silence them.
Carlos Polo has been a prime target. In 2015 he was sued by PROMSEX for reporting—truthfully and accurately—that NGOs like PROMSEX received large sums of money that could be used to pay off morally corrupt Peruvian legislators.
In their efforts to take down Carlos, PROMSEX, spared no expense, hiring one of the country’s most expensive law firms. The litigation went on for years. The process, after all, is a large part of the punishment.
Finally, eight years and three trials later, the Constitutional Court of Peru decided in favor of Carlos Polo. Carlos had won a resounding victory.
“I am glad that the abortionists spent a lot of money trying to silence me,” said Carlos Polo. “Every dollar they spent on their lawsuits was one less dollar they could use to kill unborn children. They do not scare me, and they will not silence me.”
“I am not the only one being persecuted or sued for defending the values of the right to life and the promotion of the family,” Carlos continued. “But we need more pro-lifers to stand up and fight these battles. When they do, abortion will end.”
“Our watchword at PRI is that the best defense is a good offense,” says Carlos Polo, who was once a semipro soccer player. “We must not allow attacks from the abortion industry to overshadow proactive action. We do not work solely to stop abortion, but to build the Culture of Life such that abortion becomes unthinkable.”
Aside from serving as the full-time Director of PRI’s Latin American office, Carlos Polo also contributes his efforts to a number of other prestigious pro-life international organizations.
He is a member of the Board of Directors of the International Right To Life Federation, the parent group of the most established pro-life organizations on five continents. He also services as a member of the Expert Committee of the Political Network for Values, the most important platform that brings together pro-life politicians from America and Europe, as well as serving on the Board of Trustees of CitizenGO, a citizen action platform with more than 17 million members.
Carlos Polo has been a major player in the Latin American pro-life movement for decades, and we are proud to have him on our PRI team.
