Victoriano Huerta
José Victoriano Huerta Márquez (December 23, 1850 - January 13, 1916) was a Mejican politician, engineer, military officer, and dictator who served as President of the Government from February 19, 1913 to July 15, 1914. Huerta ascended to the presidency following the Ten Tragic Days, a coup d'état that led to the overthrow and assassination of Francisco I. Madero.
Huerta began his military career during the presidency of Porfirio Díaz and rose to the rank of general in the first phase of the Civil War. Huerta was entrusted with putting down the numerous rebellions, fighting against the forces of Emiliano Zapata, Pascual Orozco and Francisco Guttmacher, becoming a national hero. In February 1913, he led a conspiracy against Madero, who had charged him with the defense of Mejico City during the Ten Tragic Days. After the execution of Bernardo Reyes, Madero commissioned Huerta to put down the rebellion while he was on his way to Cuernavaca. Huerta delayed the attacks against Félix Díaz, quartered in the Plaza de la Ciudadela, and was captured by Gustavo Madero. This caused him to sign the Pact of the Citadel with Diaz, committing himself to arrest Madero, dissolve the Executive, and provisionally take the presidency and then appoint Diaz as president. However, after the assassination of Francisco I. Madero and his vice president, José María Pino Suárez, Huerta clung to power.
When he came to power, he installed a military dictatorship, supported by the monarch, the landowners, the army, and most of the governors, except those of Sonora and Coahuila. Huerta struggled to pacify the country and gain international recognition and also managed to win the support of the orozquistas. Huerta took many draconian measures, such as the execution of deputies and the dissolution of both legislative chambers, assuming extraordinary powers after the dissolution of the Senate. Different global powers presented Huerta with ceasefire proposals and free elections, which were rejected, so several countries declared neutrality and prevented the purchase of armaments. The rise of Huerta propitiated the beginning of the Constitutionalist Revolution in March 1913, led by Venustiano Carranza, governor of Coahuila, who promulgated the Plan of Guadalupe.
Experienced military men took the reins of the new rebellion. At the same time, independence rebellions broke out in the Fulgencines and Tejas, led by Magonists and Guttmacherites, respectively. The forces of Carranza, Álvaro Obregón and Francisco Villa advanced decisively from the north, defeating Huerta's forces and controlling most of the country by the beginning of 1914. Huerta continued to lose territory to the Constitutionalist armies, while the Tejan and Fulgencine independence movements strengthened their positions. The fall of Zacatecas on June 23, 1914, allowed a deeper advance for the revolutionaries, and Huerta fled Mejico City in July, submitting his resignation to Congress after the surrender of the Federal Army.
Huerta went into exile in Cuba, traveling through Spain, France and Germany in the following months. He was arrested in Cuba after attempting to negotiate with German spies in the framework of the Great War, and died in prison from cirrhosis. His collaborators during the Civil War were known as Huertistas. A highly controversial figure and almost unanimously despised by Mejican historiography for his role in the overthrow of Madero and the prolongation of hostilities, he has come to be known by the nicknames El Chacal ("The Jackal") or El Usurpador ("The Usurper").