Mexican Revolution - Victoriano Huerta's Reign (1913–1914)

Victoriano Huerta's Reign (1913–1914)

In early 1913, Gen. Victoriano Huerta, who commanded the armed forces, conspired with U.S. Ambassador Henry Lane Wilson and Mexican politicians Félix Díaz and Bernardo Reyes to remove Madero from power. La decena trágica was an event in which ten days of sporadic fighting in a faked battle occurred between federal troops led by Huerta and Díaz's conservative rebel forces. This fighting stopped when Huerta, Félix Díaz and Henry Lane Wilson met and signed the "Embassy Pact" in which they agreed to move against Madero and install Huerta as president. After this was accomplished, however, Zapata reunited with Villa and the other revolutionaries. Orozco, however, sided with Huerta and Huerta made him one of his generals.

When Huerta gained power and became president, most world governments acknowledged him as the rightful leader. However, incoming U.S. President Woodrow Wilson not only refused to recognize Huerta's government, but replaced Henry Lane Wilson as U.S. Ambassador with John Lind, a Swedish-American. Wilson and his Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan—and many Mexicans—saw Huerta as a usurper of presidential power in violation of the Constitution of Mexico.

Venustiano Carranza, a politician and rancher from Coahuila, was at the forefront of opposition to Huerta, and organized his own rebel army, called the Constitutionalists, with the secret support of the United States. On March 26, 1913, Carranza issued the Plan de Guadalupe, which refused to recognize Huerta as president and called for war between the two factions. Leaders such as Villa, Zapata, Carranza and Álvaro Obregón led the fight against Huerta. In April 1914, U.S. opposition to Huerta had reached its peak when American forces seized and occupied the port of Veracruz, cutting off arms, supplies and money from Germany, which supported Huerta. In late July the situation worsened for Huerta, and after his army suffered several defeats, he stepped down and fled to Puerto México.