Venustiano Carranza assassinated . . .

on this day in 1920, by officers who had betrayed him, pretending to offer him a safe lodging for the night in the town of Tlaxcalantongo.  Sometime during the night, their forces surrounded the house and then opened fire into ito.  Oddly, the assassins then telegramed Obregon to inform him that "we are at your service" but also asked for permission to bring Carranza's body to Mexico City for burial.  Obregon replied with the comment "It is very strange that a group of officers who vouched their loyalty and honor should have permitted him to be assassinated instead of complying with your duty."

The actual killing may  have been the next day, May 21, early in the morning and the story exceedingly confused.  What seems to be the case is that a party of Mexican soldiers under Rodolfo Herrero and his brother Hermilo approached Carranza's party as defectors, and offered them a refuge for the night.  Sometime during the night Rodolfo removed himself and then sometime during the morning the troops opened fire on the house Carranza was in.  Carranza was hit in the leg, which may explain his last words, "Lawyer, they have already broken one of my legs", recorded. This seems to have referred however to a colleague who was similarly ambushed.  The conventional story is that he died of his other wounds.  Some claimed, however, including some who were immediate witness to the events, that Carranza actually killed himself after being wounded and that the intent of the troops was to capture, not kill, Carranza.

The leader of the party of assassins, Rodolfo Herrero, was prosecuted for murder, but acquitted, but was cashiered from the Mexican army. During the presidency of Obregon, he was reinstated as a general only to be dismissed again in 1937.

In any event, it showed how really far gone things had become.

Carranza had, of course, risen to leadership of Mexico in the second stage of the Mexican Revolution, which at that point was frankly not so much of a revolution as it was a civil war.  Modero had prevailed over Diaz, but then he'd gone down in a military coup to Huerta, as we recall. After that, the backers and admirers of Modero had risen up against the military regime that Huerta imposed and defeated him, but that was soon followed by the third stage of the revolution in which Zapata and Villa, and their supporters, struggled against Carranza.

They really won. They entered Mexico City and a new Mexican civil government was installed.  Carranza was holed up in Vera Cruz and could have been wiped out, but instead Zapata, who was a regionalist at heart, and who was disenchanted with Villa, went home.  Without Zapata to aid him, Villa was pushed out by forces loyal to Carranza and a long struggle against both Villa and Zapata ensued.

That resulted in Zapata being assassinated on April 10, 1919 as Mexico headed towards elections in 1920.

The passing of Zapata effectively doomed any chance of a liberal Mexican democracy emerging from the Mexican Revolution.

Carranza was from a privileged family that was involved in cattle ranching.  His father had twice served in successful Mexican revolutionary armies and so the family had that heritage.  Carranza himself had hoped to become a doctor, but an eye disease prevented that from occuring so upon completion of school he returned home and commenced ranching himself.  He soon entered politics with his family's support and stood for the election to the position of the of Coahuila in 1908.  He did not secure that position as he lacked the backing of Diaz for reasons that are unclear.

In Modero's revolution of 1909 Modero named him as a regional commander but he failed to act upon the appointment.  He none the less became Minister of War under Modero and then Governor of Coahuila.  Upon Modero's assassination he went into rebellion against Huerta and rose to the senior position of the forces opposing Huerta.  He thereafter was the head of the Constituionalist government of Mexico after he entered Mexico City with the support of Obregon, one of the three major commanders of the Mexican Revolution, in August 1914.

Soon thereafter two of those commanders, Zapata and Villa, were at war with Carranza and Obregon.  In spite of a condition of civil war existing, he was basically recognized by the United States as Mexico's official head of state and he was elevated by the Constitutionalist to the presidency in 1917.  Woodrow Wilson treated his government as the official one and effectively aided it, as we've addressed before, in the war against Villa, an event which lead to the 1916 Columbus New Mexico raid.  Ironically, Carranza had a strong distaste for the United States and was far from a friend to its interest.  The resulting intervention by the U.S. in pursuit of Villa nearly brought the United States into a state of war with Mexico.

Carranza chose not to run for a second term as president in 1920 but instead of endorsing his long time supporter Obregon he endorsed another figure who had served as a diplomat for him in Washington D. C..  The decision was based on his not wanting to have military figures rise to head of state, but Carranza's supporters commenced violent actions against Obregon's, up to and including murder.  By April of 1920 Obregon was in rebellion against Carranza and Carranza was repeating his earlier move of retreating towards Vera Cruz.  Rebel forces caught up with him and he was killed on this date. His alleged killer was put on trial by a victorious Obregon, but was acquitted.

The entire serious of events put Mexico firmly on a radical path, which Carranza himself had started.  Obregon would further it.  Democracy in Mexico was dead.