Carranza
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Venustiano Carranza
President of Mexico
In office March 11, 1917 – May 21, 1920
Preceded by	Victoriano Huerta
Succeeded by	Adolfo de la Huerta
Born	December 21, 1859(1859-12-21) Cuatro Ciénegas, Coahuila
Died	May 21, 1920 (aged 60) Tlaxcalantongo, Puebla
Nationality	Mexican
Political party	Partido Demócrata Mexicano & Partido Liberal Constitucionalista
Spouse	Virginia Salinas

A graphical timeline is available here:

Timeline of the Mexican Revolution

Venustiano Carranza Garza (December 29, 1859 – May 21, 1920) was one of the leaders of the Mexican Revolution. He ultimately became President of Mexico following the overthrow of the dictatorial Huerta regime in the summer of 1914 and during his administration the current constitution of Mexico was drafted. He ultimately became the last President of the Revolution/Civil war era.

Early years, 1859—1887

Carranza was born in the town of Cuatro Ciénegas, in the state of Coahuila, to a middle-class cattle-ranching family. His father, Jesús Carranza, had been a rancher and mule-driver until the time of the Reform War (1857-1861), in which he fought against the Indians and on the Liberal side. During the Franco-Mexican War (1861-1867), Jesús Carranza became a colonel and was Benito Juárez's main contact in Coahuila.

Venustiano Carranza was born in 1859. He studied at the Ateneo Fuente, a famous Liberal school in Saltillo. In 1874 he went to the Escuela Nacional Preparatoria (National Preparatory School) in Mexico City. Carranza was still there in 1876 when Porfirio Díaz issued the Plan of Tuxtepec, marking the start of Porfirio Díaz's rebellion against President Sebastián Lerdo de Tejada under the slogan "No Reelection" (Tejada had served one term as president). Díaz's troops handily defeated Tejada's and Díaz and his armies marched into Mexico City in triumph.

Upon completion of his studies, Carranza returned to Coahuila to raise cattle with his family. He married Virginia Salinas in 1882 and the couple had two daughters.

Introduction to politics, 1887—1909

In 1887, at age 28, he became municipal president of Cuatro Ciénegas. Carranza remained a Liberal who idolized Benito Juárez, at the same time as he grew disillusioned with the increasingly authoritarian characteristic of the rule of Porfirio Díaz during this period.

In 1893, 300 Coahuila ranchers organized an armed resistance to oppose the "reelection" of Porfirio Díaz's supporter José María Garza Galán as Governor of Coahuila. Venustiano Carranza and his brother Emilio participated in this rising. Porfirio Díaz quickly despatched his "man in the north", Bernardo Reyes to defuse the situation. Venustiano Carranza was granted a personal audience with Reyes in order to explain the justification of the uprising and the ranchers' opposition to Garza Galán. Reyes agreed with Carranza and wrote to Díaz recommending that he withdraw support for Garza Galán.

The events of 1893 allowed Carranza to forge a personal friendship with Bernardo Reyes. After winning a second term as municipal president of Cuatro Ciénegas (1894-1898), Reyes had Carranza "elected" to the legislature. In 1904, Bernardo Reyes's protege Miguel Cárdenas, Governor of Coahuila, recommended to Porfirio Díaz that Carranza would make a good senator. As such, Carranza entered the Mexican Senate later that year. Although Carranza was sceptical of the Científicos whom Porfirio Díaz was relying on to run Mexico, Carranza kept his head down and was a dutiful Porfirian senator.

In 1909, Carranza received Porfirio Díaz's permission to declare himself as candidate to replace Miguel Cárdenas as Governor of Coahuila. Miguel Cárdenas supported Carranza's candidacy, as did the wealthiest landowner in the region, Evaristo Madero (father of Francisco I. Madero). However, for reasons never made entirely clear, Porfirio Díaz ultimately did not support Carranza in this race, with the result that Carranza lost the election. This left Carranza angry with Porfirio Díaz.

Supporter of Francisco I. Madero, 1909—1911

Carranza followed Francisco Madero's Antireelection Movement of 1910 with interest, and after Madero fled to the US and Díaz was reelected as president, Carranza traveled to San Antonio, Texas to join Madero. Madero named Carranza provisional Governor of Coahuila. The Plan of San Luis Potosí, which Madero issued at this time, called for a revolution beginning November 20, 1910. Madero named Carranza commander-in-chief of the Revolution in Coahuila, Nuevo León, and Tamaulipas. Carranza, however, failed to organize a revolution in these states, leading some of Madero's supporters to speculate that Carranza was still loyal to Bernardo Reyes. Nevertheless, following the revolutionaries' decisive victory at Ciudad Juárez, Carranza travelled to Ciudad Juárez and Madero named Carranza his Minister of War on May 3, 1911. The revolutionaries were split on how to deal with Porfirio Díaz and Vice President Ramón Corral. Madero favored having Díaz and Corral resign, with Francisco León de la Barra serving as interim president until a new election could be held. Carranza disagreed with Madero, arguing that allowing Díaz and Corral to resign would legitimate their rule, while an interim government would merely be a prolongation of the dictatorship and would discredit the Revolution. Madero's view prevailed however.

Governor of Coahuila, 1911—1913

Carranza returned to Coahuila to serve as governor, shortly holding elections in August 1911 which he won handily. As governor, Carranza began to reform the judiciary, the legal codes, and tax laws. He introduced regulations to prevent mining accidents, to rein in abusive practices at company stores, to break up commercial monopolies, to combat alcoholism, and to rein in gambling and prostitution. He also made large investments in education, which he saw as the key to societal development. At the same time, he was concerned to promote law and order in the countryside, and had Porfirio Díaz's rurales reenlist into his security forces.

The relationship between Carranza and Madero deteriorated in this period. Carranza, who had opposed Madero's plan to have a interim presidency, now criticized Madero for being a weak and ineffectual president. Madero in turn accused Carranza of being spiteful and authoritarian. Carranza believed that there would soon be an uprising against Madero, so he formed alliances with other Liberal governors: Pablo González Garza, Governor of San Luis Potosí; Alberto Fuentes Dávila, Governor of Aguascalientes; and Abraham González, Governor of Chihuahua.

Carranza was unsurprised in February 1913 when Victoriano Huerta, Bernardo Reyes, and Félix Díaz overthrew Madero during La Decena trágica (The Ten Tragic Days). Carranza offered Madero refuge in Coahuila, but he was unable to prevent Madero's execution.

A passionate student of history, Carranza believed that Madero had made the same mistakes in 1912 that Ignacio Comonfort had made in 1857-58: by being weak and overly humanitarian, Madero had allowed conservative reactionaries to seize power. Carranza now believed that he could fill the role which Benito Juárez had played in the years after Comonfort's downfall.

In late February 1913, Carranza asked the legislature of Coahuila to formally declare itself in a state of rebellion against Huerta's government. In his first battle with federal troops, in early March 1913, Carranza was defeated and forced to retreat to Monclova. On the way, he stopped at his Guadalupe Hacienda. there he found a group of young officers—Francisco J. Múgica, Jacinto B. Treviño, and Lucio Blanco—who had drawn up a plan modeled on the Plan of San Luis Potosí which disavowed Huerta and called on Carranza to become Primer Jefe ("First Chief") of the Constitutional Army. Carranza felt that it had been a mistake to include promises of social reform in the Plan of San Luis Potosí because this had created unrealistic expectations in the populace, and had resulted in them growing disillusioned with the Revolution after it failed to deliver on its promises. He therefore insisted that the Plan of Guadalupe include only a promise to restore the 1857 Constitution of Mexico, without the promised social reforms of the Plan of San Luis Potosí.

A few days after Carranza had issued the Plan of Guadalupe, he met a delegation from Sonora headed by Adolfo de la Huerta in Monclova, and the Sonorans agreed to support the Plan of Guadalupe.

Primer Jefe of the Constitutional Army, 1913—1915

Carranza initially divided the country into seven operational zones, though his Revolution was really launched in only three: (1) the northwest, under the command of Pablo González; (2) the center, under the command of Pánfilo Natera; and (3) the northeast, under the command of Álvaro Obregón. The Revolution, launched in March 1913, initially did not go well, and Huerta's troops marched into Monclova, forcing Carranza to flee to the rebels' stronghold of Sonora in August 1913. In March 1914, Carranza was informed of Pancho Villa's victories and of advances made by the forces under Pablo González and Álvaro Obregón. Carranza determined tat it was safe to leave Sonora, and traveled to Ciudad Juárez, which served as his capital for the remainder of his struggle with Huerta.

Although Pancho Villa was a skilled commander, his tactics throughout the 1913-14 campaign created a number of diplomatic incidents which were a major headache for Carranza in this period. Villa had confiscated the property of Spaniards in Chihuahua, and had allowed his troops to murder an Englishman, Benton, and an American, Bauch. At one point, Villa arrested Manuel Chao, the Governor of Chihuahua, and Carranza had to personally travel to Chihuahua to order Villa to release Chao. In response to the Benton Affair, the American government sent marines to occupy Veracruz, Veracruz.

The fight against Huerta formally ended on August 15, 1914, when Álvaro Obregón signed a number of treaties in Teoloyucan in which the last of Huerta's forces surrendered to him and recognized the Constitutional government. On August 20, 1914, Carranza made a triumphal entry into Mexico City.

The Convention of Aguascalientes: Break with Pancho Villa and Emiliano Zapata

Although the caudillos Pancho Villa and Emiliano Zapata had fought against the Huerta government, they had never signed on to the Plan of Guadalupe.

Zapata, in his Plan of Ayala, demanded sweeping social reforms of the type which Carranza had specifically excluded from the Plan of Guadalupe. When it became clear that Carranza was not willing to introduce these social reforms, Zapata broke with Carranza, formally breaking off all connection on September 5, 1914.

As we saw above, tensions between Carranza and Pancho Villa were high throughout 1913-14, over Governor Chao and over the diplomatic incidents which Villa provoked. In August, Carranza refused to let Villa enter Mexico City with him, and refused to promote Villa to major-general. Villa formally disavowed Carranza on September 23, 1914.

On July 8, 1914, Villista and Carrancistas had signed the Treaty of Torreón, in which they agreed that after Huerta's forces were defeated, 150 generals of the Revolution would meet to determine the future shape of the country. This Convention went ahead at Aguascalientes, Aguascalientes on October 5, 1914. Carranza did not participate in the Convention of Aguascalientes because he was not a general (several Zapatista civilian intellectuals were allowed to join the Convention, however).

At the Convention, the young philosopher José Vasconcelos argued that Article 128 of the 1857 Constitution provided that the revolutionary army now constituted the legitimate government of Mexico; the assembled generals quickly agreed with him. The Convention therefore called on Carranza to resign. Carranza responded with a message to the Convention sent on November 23, 1914. He agreed to resign, but only if he could be assured that a truly constitutional government would be put in place following his resignation. He therefore listed three preconditions that must be met before he would resign: (1) the establishment of a preconstitutional regime that would make necessary social and political reforms before constitutional government is reestablished; (2) the resignation and exile of Villa; and (3) the resignation and exile of Zapata.

A week later, the Convention's joint commissions of war and of the interior (a group which included Álvaro Obregón, Felipe Ángeles, Eulalio Gutiérrez, and Francisco I. Madero's brother Raúl) agreed in principle to Carranza's conditions. The Convention then elected Eulalio Gutiérrez as provisional President for 20 days until his position could be ratified, and called on Carranza to resign immediately. Carranza responded by moving his government to Córdoba, Veracruz and by sending the Convention a telegram in which he said he would not resign until his conditions had been fully met and they had not: Villa remained in control of the División del Norte; Zapata had not resigned; and Gutiérrez was only granted power for 20 days, which hardly made him an effective preconstitutional government.

With Carranza's withdrawal, Carrancistas now controlled only Veracruz and Tamaulipas. The rest of the country was now under the control of the various generals represented by the Convention. Carranza was at least able to negotiate the withdrawal of American troops from Veracruz, Veracruz in November 1914 and set up his capital there.

Álvaro Obregón and Pablo González remained loyal to Carranza, however, and fought on. In April 1915, Obregón scored a decisive victory over Villa in the Bajío, and in May 1915, González began a campaign against the last-remaining Zapatistas. In July 1915, Francisco Lagos Cházaro, the last interim president appointed by the Convention of Aguascalientes, surrendered. In August 1915, Carranza's troops entered Mexico City a second time.

Head of the Preconstitutional Government, 1915—1917

Also under the "Plan de Guadalupe" Carranza took charge of the executive branch on May 1, 1915. He introduced an independent judiciary, greater decentralization of power, and land reform under the ejido system. Carranza was a man of great intelligence with wide knowledge of Mexican conditions and history. He was strongly built, wore round glasses and a large grey beard, giving him the appearance of a benevolent father figure.

In September 1916 Carranza saw the need for a new Constitution and called for a Constitutional convention. On March 11, 1917 Venustiano Carranza was elected the first president under the new Mexican Constitution of 1917.

President of Mexico, 1917—1920

Fighting continued with factions who would not accept Carranza's rule, ranging from reactionary landowners and conservative Catholics to the forces of Emiliano Zapata and Francisco Villa for whom Carranza's reforms were too modest. Carranza ordered a bounty put on Zapata's head, leading to Zapata's assassination.

Carranza, as depicted on the obverse of the former $100 Mexican peso.

As his presidential term drew to a close, he supported a civilian Ignacio Bonillas as a candidate against General Álvaro Obregón for the following presidential elections. This earned him the resentment of the military and of some fellow revolutionaries, including Obregón, Plutarco Elías Calles, and Adolfo de la Huerta, who rebelled against Carranza's government. On April 8, 1920, a campaign aide to Obregon attempted to assassinate Carranza. After the failed attempt, Carranza was forced to flee Mexico City.

He set out towards Veracruz but was betrayed and assassinated in Tlaxcalantongo in the Sierra Norte of Puebla by the forces of General Rodolfo Herrero, supporter of Carranza's former allies, on May 21, 1920.

According to General Francisco L. Urquizo, Carranza's last words were: "Licenciado, ya me rompieron una pierna" which translates as "Lawyer, they have already broken one of my legs". (Carranza was referring to his partner, Licenciado Aguirre Berlanga, when he was ambushed and shot).¹

References

Bibliography

• Enrique Krauze, Mexico: Biography of Power (Harper Collins, 1997) pp. 334-373.

External links

• Venustiano Carranza on Mexconnect.com
• Encyclopaedia Britannica, Venustiano Carranza