Friday, December 7, 1923. De la Huerta joins his revolution.

Adolfo de la Huerta, governor of Sonora and former President of Mexico, joined the Delahuertista rebellion against the government of President Álvaro Obregón which had been brought in his name and ostensibly on behalf of his leadership.

Comedic actor Ted Knight was born in Terryville Connecticut.

Mrs. Charles E. Dietrich and Mrs. Pinchot, 12/7/23.

April 16, 1920. Carranza seeks to repeat history. . .

by transporting his troops across Texas to go into action in northern Mexico.

It was exactly that action in 1915, which allowed Carranza to transport his troops across Texas to go into action against Poncho Villa's, that lead to the 1916 raid by Villa on Columbus New Mexico.  Villa, not illogically, concluded that the United States should be chastised for intervening in the Mexican civil war in that fashion.

The irony was that Carranza personally disliked the United States and had never been its friend.  Wilson's 1915 action had been a mistake.  Carranza was asking him to repeat it. At the same time, Mexican revolutionaries in Sonora had invaded neighboring Sinola.

It was Arbor Day.

Agriculture Secretary Meredith making the principal address at the Arbor day exercises in Washington D.C.

April 14, 1920. Gathering Storms.

Salvador Diego Fernandez, the then new Charge d'Affaires of the Mexican Embassy, called at the State Department on this day in 1920.  Dressed in a dapper fashion but wearing a serious expression, the news coming out of Mexico was no doubt the topic of his conversations inside the building.

The news coming out of Mexico on this day suggested that a civil war in Mexico was about to commence right on the U.S. border.

Carranza was rushing to meet the challenge presented by Sonora in revolt.  And that entailed moving troops right along the troublesome border with the U.S.

Indeed, the Secretary of War was asking for additional troops to guard that border.

Another border also featured in Washington on this day, that being one that Armenian veterans of World War One, who staged a parade in D.C., hoped would be recognized for Armenia.  They received a Marine Corps escort and there was good reason, at the time, to think that their wishes would come true in light of the collapse of the Ottoman Empire and the ongoing attempted occupation of Turkey by France, Greece, Italy and the United Kingdom.

Armenian veterans presenting a petition after their parade.

In Washington D.C., President Wilson  met his cabinet for the first time since his stroke.

Josephus Daniels and John Payne, April 14, 1920.

Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby and Secretary. of Agriculture E.T. Meredith arriving at the White House for the Cabinet Meeting. Both men were new to their positions.

April 11, 1920 Álvaro Obregón Salido fleas Mexico City.

Álvaro Obregón Salido

Álvaro Obregón Salido, a general of the Mexican Revolution who had lost his arm in combat, fled Mexico City due to a plot started against him by President Carranza which falsely accused him of plotting a military coup.  Obregón was running for President against Carranza's choice, Ignacio Bonillas.

Obregón was considerably to the left of Carranza and had a knack for joining movements before their success was assured but which were on the ultimately successful side.  The son of a once wealthy man who had lost his wealth by choosing to support Maximilian during the French occupation of Mexico, he was a brilliant and inventive man who was principally a farmer by trade but also an inventor, having invented a chickpea harvester that was widely successful.

Obregón flight from Mexico City, disguised as a railroad employee, followed a series of indignities imposed upon him by Carranza, including the loss of his military rank.  His departure on this date indicated a dangerous new twist in unstable Mexican politics as Carranza's government was not stable and Obregón was capable.

And he was already not without potential allies.

The Mexican state of Sonora had gone into rebellion against the Carranza government.

Aldolfo de la Huerta

Sonora's Governor was the former Mexican Revolutionary general Aldolfo de la Huerta who was also tangling with Carranza, even though Carranza had only recently considered him as his replacement.  Much of that had to do with De la Huerta's view that Sonora, as a Mexican state, should be allowed to run much of its own affairs while Carranza took a more centrist Federalist view and was in fact directly interfering with things in Sonora.

Sonora, therefore, declared its independence from Mexico, although that goal wouldn't last long.  The potentail

What would last for a considerably long time was the unstable period of Mexican governments. The revolution had started to consume its own.