La decena trágica

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Timeline of the Mexican Revolution

Citizens throng around The Citadel (La ciudadela) building during La decena tragica in 1913.

La decena trágica (The Ten Tragic Days) February 9 - February 22, 1913 was a battle and series of events in Mexico City during the Mexican Revolution, that culminated in a coup d'etat and the murder of Mexican President Francisco I. Madero and Vice President José María Pino Suárez.

1 Rise and tribulations of Madero
2 Beginning of La decena tragica
3 The Embassy Pact -- Betrayal and murder
4 References

[edit] Rise and tribulations of Madero

Madero and his supporters deposed the regime of dictator Porfirio Diaz in 1911. While Madero succeeded in becoming President, his vacillating and accommodating stance to others of his high social standing, led him to allow many of the officials of the previous regime remain in office rather than make a wholesale purge of potential opponents. Many Mexicans had expected widespread changes in government and a clean sweep of hated reactionary cientifico bureaucrats, and were surprised and disappointed to find Madero following many of the same policies and employing the same personnel as the Diaz government and thus accused Madero of abandoning his Revolutionary principles. This resulted in widespead discontent, as evidenced by Emiliano Zapata's issuance of the Plan of Ayala, and outbreak of revolts against the Madero regime. Meanwhile, Madero had allowed himself to be surrounded by bureaucratic piranhas who not only hated maderismo, but had little compunction about manipulating the President and taking advantage of his generous nature.

Madero's fear of public revolts led him to commission Victoriano Huerta as chief general of the Federal Armies. Huerta was effective in crushing rebellions, but the same cunning, ruthless and ambitious nature that made Huerta effective at suppressing discontent, made him a threat to Madero that the trusting Madero was blind to.

[edit] Beginning of La decena tragica

After smashing a rebellion by Pascual Orozco , Huerta with the Mexican federal army he commanded, held the majority of military power in Mexico. Huerta saw an opportunity to make himself dictator and began to conspire with cronies such as Bernardo Reyes, Félix Díaz (nephew of Porfirio Diaz) and US Ambassador Henry Lane Wilson. Reyes and Diaz were imprisioned at the time, having been captured by Huerta during an earlier failed revolt.

This conspiracy resulted in La decena tragica, which began when military academy cadets quartered in Tacubaya revolted (under the leadership of Porfirista generals Gregorio Ruiz and Manuel Mondragón), released Reyes and Diaz from prision, then began an attack against the Palacio Nacional, on the Zocalo in downtown Mexico City. Machine guns mounted on the top of the Palacio kept the attackers at bay, and killed Reyes. The attackers then retreated to The Citadel (La Ciudadela) building approximately a kilometer west of the Zocalo. ^[1] Madero and Suarez hastily returned to the Palacio to address the crisis, and called in reserves from the military academies of Tlalpan, San Juan Teotihuacán, Chalco and Toluca, and the forces of Felipe Angeles in Cuernavaca to assist in defense. Meanwhile, Huerta convinced Madero to allow him to take over defense of the Palacio Nacional in place of wounded general Lauro Villar. ^[2] The attack thus had its desired effect, to force Madero to hole up in the palace and trick Madero into accepting Huerta's "protection". ^[3]

[edit] The Embassy Pact -- Betrayal and murder

8 days of street battles back and forth between the Palacio and the Ciudadela had the desired dual effects of maintaining Huerta's façade as defender of the government and cowing the population and the press. Huerta then felt that he had Madero and Pino Suarez isolated well enough to make his move. He was encouraged in this by Ambassador Wilson, who made ominous suggestions that armed US intervention might follow if Madero was not deposed. Huerta thus expected his plot to receive the blessings of the US government. On February 17, Huerta had Madero and Pino Suarez arrested and locked up in a room inside the Palacio. Meanwhile, Madero's brother Gustavo A. Madero, who had been invited to the Citadel building by offers to make peace entreaties, instead had his remaining eye poked out and was beaten to death in broad daylight while he staggered blindly around a plaza outside the building.

While Madero and Pino Suarez were sequestered in the Palacio, Huerta and Diaz met at the US Embassy where Ambassador Wilson presided over the signing of what became known as "The Embassy Pact", which provided for Huerta to assume office within 72 hours, send Madero into exile, and for the replacing of maderistas in the government with pro-Huerta and pro-Diaz elements. Huerta forced Madero and Pino Suarez to sign resignations, offering them safe passage to Cuban exile if they complied, then presented the resignations to a forced meeting of Congress, and named Pedro Lascuráin temporary President. The next day Huerta asked Ambassador Wilson what he should do with Madero -- exile him or put him in an asylum. Wilson replied that Huerta "ought to do what is best for the country.", which Huerta saw as a US endorsement of his disposing of Madero as he felt like - in those days, summary executions were commonplace, so the implications of Ambassador Wilson's comment were obvious. Madero's wife's appeals to the Ambassador and President Taft to intervene on her husband's behalf came to naught.

On the night of February 22, Huerta ordered Madero and Pino Suarez to be transferred to be Lecumberri penetentiary, ostensibly to be held for transfer to exile. Before the car reached the prison, it was pulled over by armed men (reportedly Rurales policemen ) and Madero and Pino Suarez were shot and killed. That same night, Huerta attended a dinner at the Embassy where he and the Ambassdor toasted George Washington's birthday - February 22.^[4]

The Huerta government claimed that bodyguards were forced to shoot Madero and Pino Suarez, during a failed rescue attempt by Madero's supporters. This story was met with general incredulity, but it was endorsed by the US Ambassador himself. The reaction of most European powers to all this was to reflexively recognize Huerta's government, it took another month for the the outrage to build and for Venustiano Carranza to issue his Plan of Guadalupe, the aim of which was deposing Huerta as an unconstitutional usurper of the Presidency. New US President Woodrow Wilson and Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan were shocked and horrified by the murder of Madero, the Huerta coup, and the Ambassador's complicity, and subsequently withdrew Henry Lane Wilson as ambassador almost as soon as Woodrow Wilson assumed office on March 15, 1913. Effective support, but not official recognition, by the US government for the Constitutional Army forces of Carranza and Pancho Villa followed soon after. President Wilson did not appoint a new ambassador, but appointed ex-Minnesota governor John Lind as his personal envoy for Mexican affairs.