November 20, 1910 – Mexican Revolution: Defeated candidate Francisco Madero calls for the overthrow of President Porfirio Diaz

On November 5, 1910, defeated presidential candidate Francisco Madero, who had escaped from prison, wrote and issued the Plan de San Luis, where he called on the Mexican people to rise up in rebellion against President Porfirio Diaz. (In Mexican politics, a Plan is a declaration of principles that accompanies an uprising against the national government.)

The Plan called for the rebellion to start on November 20, 1910, nullified the 1910 election of Porfirio Diaz citing electoral fraud, and stipulated a provisional government with Madero as president. Diaz’s government was also condemned as dictatorial, corrupt, and the cause for the current socio-economic degradation of the country.

(Taken from Mexican RevolutionWars of the 20th Century – Volume 2)

Background During the early 1900s, Mexico experienced increasing levels of prosperity.  Mexican president Porifirio Diaz’s thirty-year rule had achieved high levels of economic growth, allowing the country to make rapid strides to full industrialization.  Foreign investments from the United States and Europe were boosting the local economy.  The country’s natural resources were being developed, agricultural plantations yielded rich harvests, and urban centers showed many signs of progress.

Deep within, however, Mexico’s society was rife with discontent.  Wealth remained with and grew only with the small ruling elite.  Workers, peasants, and villagers were extremely poor.  Land ownership was grossly disproportionate – 5% of the population owned 95% of all lands.  Perhaps as many as 90% of Mexicans were peasants who did not own land and were completely dependent on the plantation owners.  Some very wealthy landowners owned vast tracts of land that covered many hundreds of thousands of acres; however, their farm workers were paid token wages and lived in miserable conditions.

Landowners dealt ruthlessly with disloyal peasants.  President Diaz also wanted the status quo and thus kept all forms of dissent in check with his army, paramilitaries, and bands of thugs.  Mexico outwardly was a practicing democracy; however, President Diaz always manipulated the elections in his favor and often used the army and paramilitaries to rein in the political opposition.

Mexico’s presidential election of 1910 appeared to be no different from the past, as President Diaz again prevailed by resorting to electoral fraud.  Francisco Madero, the main opposition presidential contender, escaped from prison and called on the people to rise up in rebellion.  Madero promised to bring about major social and economic reforms, which appealed to the masses who rushed to join the many rebel groups that had sprung up.

Some key sites during the Mexican Revolution

War In November 1910, fighting broke out, first with intermittent, disorganized firefights between government troops and rebels groups that soon escalated into full-scale battles in many parts of the country.  The various rebel movements were led by revolutionaries who were motivated partly by personal ambitions, but with the collective desire to overthrow the government and implement major socio-economic reforms.

During the revolution’s early stages, the most prominent rebel leaders included Pascual Orozco and Francisco Villa from the northern province of Chihuahua, and Emiliano Zapata from the southern province of Morelos (Map 35).  The rebels dealt successive defeats on the government’s forces.  Then with the fall of Ciudad Juarez to the rebels in May 1911, President Diaz abdicated and fled into exile.

Madero and the other rebel leaders triumphantly entered Mexico City, the country’s capital, where they were greeted as liberators by large, enthusiastic crowds.  Then in the general elections held in November 1911, Madero became Mexico’s new president.  While in office, however, President Madero appeared to be in no hurry to carry out the promised reforms, but instituted a policy of national reconciliation.  Being an aristocrat who descended from a landowning family, President Madero retained the previous regime’s political bureaucracy, which was composed of wealthy politicians.  At the same time, he continued to promise the rebel leaders, most of whom were poor, that major reforms were coming.  Soon, the rebel leaders became disillusioned, leading many of them to return to their regions and restart the revolution.

While each revolutionary leader wanted varying levels of reforms, even the return of the country to the socially progressive 1857 national constitution, Zapata, in particular, was angered by President Madero’s procrastination and apparent non-commitment to bring about the reforms.  Zapata wanted a complete overhaul of the social and economic systems, starting with the government’s return of expropriated ancestral lands to the indigenous people.  Zapata also demanded that the large agricultural estates be broken up and distributed to landless peasants and farmers.