CROM lost most of its influence in 1928 after a right-wing Roman Catholic associated with the "Cristero movement" assassinated Obregón. Lombardo Toledano then left CROM and the Labor Party in 1932. He had organized a faction which he called the "Purified CROM" who left the CROM "en masse" in 1932. This mass flight left the CROM representing only a few unions in the textile industry. The Purified CROM became the Confederation of Mexican Workers (CTM) in 1936, allying with the populist President Lázaro Cárdenas and the ruling Party of the Mexican Revolution (PRM), a rival to the Labor Party associated with CROM. Lombardo Toledano was the secretary general of the CTM from 1936 to 1940.