Plan of San Diego

The Plan of San Diego (Spanish: Plan de San Diego) was drafted by Mexican revolutionaries to overthrow the United States government in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California during the Mexican Revolution. Objectives of the operation changed during the course of 1915 when it took place. Mexican rebels loyal to Venustiano Carranza, known as Seditionistas, created the plan in San Diego, Texas, on January 6, 1915. It called for the recruitment of native Mexicans, Mexican-Americans, African-Americans, and native Americans to rebel against the white population of the border states by killing every male of sixteen and above within a set period of time, essentially starting a race war. The army was to be named the "Liberating Army of Races and Peoples" (Ejército Liberador de las Razas y del Pueblo). After removing the white population, a republic was to be created out of the American border states which would eventually be annexed to Mexico. Later the goal changed to focus primarily on Texas. The conflict was to begin on February 20, 1915, but when one of the rebel leaders, Basilio Ramos, was arrested in McAllen, Texas, a written copy of the plan was found in his possession and the United States responded immediately by increasing troop strength on the border. Numbers of Texas Rangers also increased to one of their all time highs due to the tension. A series of raids along the Texas border in 1915 were attributed to the plan and Carrancistas who held much of the Mexican side of the international border. Skirmishes between the Texas Rangers and Mexican raiders became common, though casualties remained light, as the rebels proved to be incapable of launching a full scale invasion and could only conduct guerilla warfare. However, some white residents blamed local Mexican Americans for the raids and attacked them, killing around 300^[1] before United States Army troops put an end to the violence. After these attacks, Mexican Americans in south Texas were disenfranchised and subjected to segregation.

See also

• Bandit War
• Plan of San Luis Potosí
• Plans in Mexican history
• Battle of Columbus (1916)
• Zimmermann telegram

References

• Johnson, Benjamin Heber, Revolution in Texas: How a Forgotten Rebellion and Its Bloody Suppression Turned Mexicans into Americans, Yale University Press (2003)
• Sandos, James, Rebellion in the Borderlands: Anarchism and the Plan of San Diego 1904–1923, University of Oklahoma Press (1992)

External links

• Plan of San Diego on The Handbook of Texas Online