Mexico 1914
By Jamie Bisher
Unfortunately for Mexico, Madero did not even survive beyond February 1913 when generals of the old regime engineered a devious coup d’etat. General Victoriano Huerta piously took the reigns of government after Madero and his vice president, Jose Maria Pino Suarez, were allegedly killed by mysterious assailants while being transferred from one prison to another by their captors. Only days before Huerta had volunteered to take over command of Madero’s troops in the capital, then nefariously sacrificed the federal troops against the rebels before hijacking the coup for himself. Ironically, as Huerta came to power, so did his nemesis, Woodrow Wilson, who was inaugurated President of the United States on February 12, 1913. Wilson was appalled by the events of the decena trágica—tragic ten days—of Huerta’s coup (February 9-18, 1913), and soon withdrew his ambassador, entrusting US affairs to the hands of Brazilian minister Cardoso de Oliveira.
The double-dealing, treachery and confusion that reigned during the decena trágica intensified as Mexico sank into civil war. In contrast to the guerrilla warfare in 1910-1911 that had brought down Porfirio Diaz, conventional warfare dominated Mexican fighting in 1913-1914. In the northern states Huerta’s federal army “had withdrawn to highly fortified cities and railway crossings where it was attacked by well-organized and frequently better armed revolutionary troops” of Madero’s successors, the Constitutionalists under Pancho Villa and Venustiano Carranza, while the only militarily significant guerrilla movement was confined to Emiliano Zapata’s agrarian revolution in distant Morelos.
In the US, the new Wilson administration hoped to see the Constitutionalists prevail. In February 1914, when it looked as if General Huerta was going to triumph over the revolutionaries, President Wilson lifted an arms embargo on Mexico in favor of the Constitutionalists. On April 9, 1914, Huertista authorities in Tampico briefly arrested a shore party of US sailors, precipitating a major diplomatic incident in which both countries protested disrespect and insults to national pride. Shortly thereafter, a German merchant vessel, Ypiranga, arrived at Veracruz with an arms shipment for Huerta, and President Wilson ordered the US Navy to seize the port’s custom house on April 21, 1914. Fighting in Veracruz was fierce, resulting in 119 American and 126 Mexican fatalities. Argentina, Brazil and Chile tried to host a Mexican-US peace conference at Niagara Falls, but the combination of US hostility and revolutionary military victories doomed Huerta’s dictatorship. Meanwhile, fighting continued at a low ebb around Veracruz.
On the eve of the outbreak of war in Europe, Mexico seemed poised for revolutionary victory and peace. On June 23, Pancho Villa’s well armed División del Norte, advised by Brigadier General Felipe Angeles, an exile recently returned from France, decisively defeated the huertista army in an epic battle at Zacatecas. Another Constitutionalist army under Major General Alvaro Obregon beat the huertistas at Culiacán and Sinaloa before taking Guadalajara in the first week of July 1914, precipitating Huerta’s resignation on the 15th of that month. General Huerta lambasted US assistance to the revolutionaries, then boarded a train through rebel-infested territory to Puerto Mexico on the Caribbean. There, in a final showing of Old World solidarity, a British cruiser, HMS Bristol, brought Huerta’s frightened family up from Veracruz to join the defeated general on the German cruiser SMS Dresden for a journey to Kingston, Jamaica.
Five years of turmoil had scattered the formidable intelligence and counterintelligence machine of Porfirio Diaz to the revolutionary winds. Of course, these functions were all the more critical in the current atmosphere of political turmoil, and no revolutionary or counter-revolutionary faction could do without them. Intelligence and counterintelligence were critical in the competition for scarce resources, especially arms, ammunition, skilled fighters and technical experts, and in developing the competitive advantages to recruit, train, equip and move people—-sometimes over international borders or through hostile territory. The Mexican Revolution brought new skills to the fore, such as propaganda, negotiating with commercial interests threatened by the conflict, and finding and moving financial resources. Indeed, money grew increasingly important to accomplishing all intelligence and counterintelligence functions as the war protracted, and joblessness, poverty and hunger became stronger motivators than idealism.
Five years of turmoil had scattered the formidable intelligence and counterintelligence machine of Porfirio Diaz to the revolutionary winds. Of course, these functions were all the more critical in the current atmosphere of political turmoil, and no revolutionary or counter-revolutionary faction could do without them. Intelligence and counterintelligence were critical in the competition for scarce resources, especially arms, ammunition, skilled fighters and technical experts, and in developing the competitive advantages to recruit, train, equip and move people—-sometimes over international borders or through hostile territory. The Mexican Revolution brought new skills to the fore, such as propaganda, negotiating with commercial interests threatened by the conflict, and finding and moving financial resources. Indeed, money grew increasingly important to accomplishing all intelligence and counterintelligence functions as the war protracted, and joblessness, poverty and hunger became stronger motivators than idealism.
Copyright 2019, Jamie Bisher