Yesterday we ran this item:
Lex Anteinternet: 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."
And it goes on from there.
So, where are we at on this story that we've been following for years and for which there are now 306 entries on this blog.
The story starts with the revolution against Porifirio Diaz in 1911
Well, not really. Diaz, who had been a lieutenant of Mexican revolutionary and then president Benito Juarez, served as President of Mexico three times with his last period of dictatorial service running form 1884 until May 21, 1911. An odd statement to an American reporter about being willing to hold elections in 1908 lead to one and ultimately he proved unwilling not to run, as he'd promised, with his running meaning an assured reelection.. That lead to the rebellion in 1910 we now call The Mexican Revolution, lead at first by the improbable Francisco Modero.
Diaz at age 77.
On this date in 1920, Diaz had been dead five years. He'd died of natural causes at age 85 in France.
In 1911 he took to his exile and was succeeded by Francisco León de la Barra y Quijano, whom Mexican conservatives called the "white president" due to his purity. He only served until November.
León.
During his short administration León had to attempt to deal with the growing revolution against him and the growing right wing extremism in his army. He wouldn't succeeded, but he did succeed in outliving the revolution He was still living in 1920 and had a career as a diplomat ahead of him. He ultimately retired to Spain, but even there was used unofficially in this capacity as a go between between France and Spain. He died in 1939 of natural causes.
Modero.
León's successor was Modero who was a weak president from November 1911 until he was killed in a military coup on February 19, 1913. His death threw the country back into civil war.
The fallen Huerta.
His successor was the successful head of the coup, Victoriano Huerta. Huerta was able to topple Modero, but he couldn't quell the revolution, and he went into exile in July 1914. Going first to Europe and then the United States, he died an alcoholic in 1916.
His successor, Francisco Sebastián Carvajal y Gual, served for only a month before also going into exile, a victim of Huerta's failed effort to reclaim Diaz's position in Mexico. His story was happier, however, as he met his wife in exile in the United States and he ultimately returned to Mexico in 1922 to resume his legal practice, which he occupied until his death by natural causes in 1932.
And then came Carranza.
So, so far we've seen the assassination of two of the real revolutionary presidents of Mexico, the odd but admirable Modero and the determined and not so admirable Carranza. And we've seen the exile of three of the right wing pretenders, two of whom had died by natural causes.
Not dying by natural causes up to this point were thousands of Mexican soldiers who had fought on both sides of the Mexican Revolution, and in some cases literally on both sides. Included in that number was Emiliano Zapata, the greatest of the Mexican revolutionaries, who was its best post Modero hope.
And the revolution was getting increasingly extreme. Having gone from a hope for democracy with Modero it was coming to increasingly reflect the extreme left wing politics of revolutions of its age, something that would have ill consequences for Mexico in coming years.
Indeed, a real oddity of Mexico's post Maximillian politics in general, up to this point, is how radical it was even when seemingly combined with conservative elements. If Diaz sometimes dressed like Napoleon, his politics, he in some ways was like him. He was a political liberal but one who did not trust the democratic process. Ultimately he governed as a moderate liberal with a focus on stability. Even today he is credited with having laid the foundations for modern Mexico. His real fault was in not trusting democracy and running for reelection in 1910, when he promised not to.
Had Diaz held to his initial promise, Modero would have been elected in 1910. Whether Diaz stepping away from politics voluntarily would have necessarily resulted in a Mexican army that would have accepted the election is another question, and one we will never know the answer to. Had that occured, Mexico would have stepped into being a true democracy in 1910, something that would take another century to occur. Diaz's failure to trust his own people lead to a revolution in which propelled radicals to the top. One of those radicals was Carranza, who ended up sharing that lack of trust with Diaz. He sought to dictate the results of the upcoming 1920 Mexican election, which in turn lead to his bloody end in May, 1920. That put Obregon in the position of being the assured ultimate next president of the country, with extreme radicals rising up right behind him.
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