Victoriano Huerta
Mexicans still view Victoriano Huerta as one of their worst villains.
Huerta believed only a “strong man” could save Mexico from itself. His hero was Napoleon, and he saw Porfirio Díaz as almost a modern reincarnation of him. He rose quickly in the ranks of Diaz’ army becoming a ruthless general who took no prisoners. When “pacifying” Native Mayan and Yanqui uprisings, he was guilty of all but genocide—which was ironic given his own Native roots. He took great care of his soldiers, though, ensuring they always received their pay, even if he had to rob a bank or a church to do it.
Was it guilt that led to his chronic insomnia and raging alcoholism?
Inexplicably, Huerta initially supported President Francisco Madero, who had started the revolution that overthrew Díaz. Huerta crushed revolts against Madero led by frustrated revolutionaries Emiliano Zapata and Pascual Orozco, becoming “The Savior of the Revolution.” Thus, he earned Madero’s naive trust, and the huge, prestigious responsibility of protecting both the government and the president.
But, Huerta had become convinced that Madero was simply too weak to lead Mexico. During another uprising known as The Ten Tragic Days, while pretending to defend Madero, he entered a secret alliance with Díaz’ nephew and US President Taft’s ambassador to Mexico. In a quick, bloody coup, he assassinated both Madero and the vice president, then took control of the country. (Yes, he murdered Mexico’s “Apostle of Democracy.”)
If he’d hoped to follow in Porfirio Díaz’ footsteps, Huerta failed miserably. He lacked all of Díaz’ savvy, diplomacy, ability to co-opt and to compromise. Instead, he ruled with “La Mano Dura,” an iron hand. He appointed his officers (most of them corrupt and/or incompetent) to his cabinet, which seemed appropriate since he saw the federal army as his only tool for any problem. He disbanded congress, imprisoning 110 of the deputies, disappearing others, or shooting them “trying to escape.” As British historian Alan Knight summarized, he “came very close to converting Mexico into the most completely militaristic state in the world.”
Huerta’s only accomplishment was unifying nearly all the disparate revolutionary leaders against him (Orozco being the lone, surprising exception). They called him “The Usurper,” and attacked him on all fronts, plunging Mexico back into catastrophic civil war.
Huerta quickly ran out of money, and so just printed more, causing rampant inflation. He ran out of soldiers, too, resorting to massive, forced conscription of Natives, criminals, vagrants and eventually even random men kidnapped off the street. (They didn’t fight very well…while the revolutionaries fought with patriotic rage.) When the new United States President Wilson refused to acknowledge his regime, Huerta unwisely retaliated by favoring British oil interests in Mexico. Thus, he prompted Wilson to supply the revolutionaries with arms and eventually even to send Marines to take over Mexico’s primary port, Veracruz. Huerta ruled just 15 months.
In exile, Huerta ended up in the United States conspiring with German spies who’d offered to finance his attempt to take over Mexico anew—as long as he agreed to attack the United States afterward and thus keep the US too preoccupied to enter WWI. He was arrested and soon died in US custody, perhaps from cirrhosis of the liver, perhaps from poison.
If the latter was the case, this would be the one example of US intervention for which the Mexicans might have been grateful.
This is a selection from Ellison’s recently published book, Mexican Streets: Tales of Tragedy and Triumph, available at Handy Mail, Diane Pearl’s, and Amazon.
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