On May 25, 1911 the 45 year rule of Mexican President Porfiro Diaz came to a dramatic end. On that day Diaz resigned his Presidency in the face of a poular revolution that had been building steadily over the previous eight months. Back in October of 1910, Liberal Reformer Francisco Madero had publicly declared that Diaz was an illegal president and had called on the Mexican people to overthrow the existing regime.
Madero gathered around him a guerrilla band of strongmen who would spearhead the move towards revolt. At the head of the guerrillas was a thirty two year old bandit by the name of Pancho Villa. Villa was born Doroteo Arango, Villa had a list of previous scrapes with the law. However, unlike most of his compatriots he neither smoked, drank or took drugs. In November, 1910, with Madero exiled in Texas, the revolutionaries began their uprising. On November 21, along with Castulo Herrera, Villa led a raid on the Colony of San Andres. The Colony was soon under rebel control. Soon Villa had word that Federal troops were on the way to quash the rebellion. Villa took 28 men and went to wait for the troops at the railway station. With the rebels hidden around the station, the soldiers presented themselves like sitting ducks when they disembarked from the train. Villa’s men opened fire, killing a number of the troops, including their commander, a Captain Yepez. The rest of the soldiers retreated.
The news of this victory soon spread. The effect was to bolster support for the rebels among the general populace. Numbers were reinforced and soon there were 500 men in the rebel forces at San Andres. Although some officials attempted negotiation with the rebels, President Diaz adamantly refused to compromise. He vowed to crush the rebellion. He sent 5,000 Federal soldiers into Chihuahua to do just that. Meanwhile the Revolutionary forces were steadily growing. By the time the Federal troops approached, they numbered about 1500 men. Throughout December 1910, the Federal forces won a number of battles against the rebels, managing to retake key bases that had been rebel strongholds. But, as the campaign drew out, the Federal troops began to feel the effects of their unfamiliarity with the rugged terrain which was home to the rebels. Public support for the rebels was ever increasing and their numbers constantly being reinforced. A call by Diaz for inscription was a failure. Men would go into hiding rather than be forced to join the army.
On February 14, 1911 Francisco Madero returned to Mexico to take the head of the Guerrilla forces. This gave the uprising added impetus. The Federal Troops were unable to satisfactorily resist the power of the movement against them. The Army was comprised of elderly generals and undisciplined and untested soldiers. In contrast the rebels, epitomised by Pancho Villa, were hardy, experienced and determined. On May 10, the Federal Commander at Ciudid, Juarez surrendered. From that point onwards, the Revolution gained real momentum. Diaz’s support rapidly collapsed.
Diaz finally accepted a proposal whereby he would resign and an interim president would be elected. A general election would then be held. Then Diaz fled to Paris. When Guerrilla troops marched on Mexico City, the former President was already long gone.
Pancho Villa had proved himself the people’s hero of the Revolution. He was a fearless fighter, an extremely capable leader of his men and a disciplined man in his private life. In May Villa resigned from the Revolutionary forces. But his name would soon reappear in the history books. A few years later he was to lead an invasion of a far more ambitious foe – the United States of America.
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Revolucionario mexicano nacido en San Juan del Rio, Durango, en 1876 – muerto en Parral, Chihuahua, en 1923.
Pobre paisano, huerfano y habiendo recibido muy poca educacion cuando estalla la Revolucion mexicana en 1910, Francisco Villa, llamado Pancho Villa, se refugio durante varios anos en las montanas despues de haber asesinado al propietario de la hacienda donde trabajaba.
Desde el comienzo de la revolucion el se une a las filas de Madero en su lucha contra la dictadura de Porfirio Diaz, y da muestras de una gran habilidad en el arte de la guerra.
Aprovechando de su conocimiento del terreno y de los paisanos, forma su propio ejercito en el norte de Mexico, con el cual contribuye al triunfo del movimiento revolucionario.
En 1912 es tomado prisionero, sospechando el general Victoriano Huerta de participar en la rebelion de Orozco en defensa de las aspiraciones sociales de los paisanos, que Madero habia aplazado.
Logra escapar a los Estados Unidos, despues del asesinato de Madero, regresa a Mexico y forma un nuevo ejercito revolucionario, la Division del Norte, en 1913.
Con sus tropas sostiene la lucha de Venustiano Carranza y Emiliano Zapata contra Huerta, quien se habia impuesto como dictador. Juntos, lo hacen caer en 1914; pero despues de la victoria de esta segunda revolucion, Villa y Zapata se sienten enganados por Carranza y retoman las armas contra este ultimo.
Esta vez, la suerte no esta de su lado: Alvaro Obregon derrota las tropas de Villa y Carranza consolida su poder, obteniendo el reconocimiento oficial de los Estados Unidos para su gobierno.
En su intento de demostrar que Carranza no controla el pais, y con el fin de poner contra el dictador al presidente norteamericano Wilson, Villa ataca el territorio norteamericano del Nuevo Mexico y asesina 16 ciudadanos americanos (1916).
Wilson envia un ejercito bajo el mando del general Pershing al norte de Mexico para terminar con Pancho Villa; pero el conocimiento del terreno y el sosten de la poblacion paisana permiten a Villa y sus tropas resistir durante cuatro anos, en una guerra a medio camino entre la guerrilla y el bandidismo.
A la caida de Carranza en 1920, el nuevo presidente Adolfo de la Huerta le ofrece la amnistia y un rancho en Chihuahua, a cambio de detener sus actividades guerreras y su retiro de la vida politica. Villa acepta, pero muere tres anos mas tarde, asesinado en su rancho por razones politicas, durante la presidencia de Obregon.
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