Venustian carranza

Venustiano Carranza Garza (Cuatro Ciénegas, Coahuila, December 29, 1859-Tlaxcalanto, Puebla, May 21, 1920) was a Mexican politician, soldier, and businessman. He participated in the Mexican Revolution after the assassination of Francisco I. Madero and participated in the overthrow of the government of Victoriano Huerta. As the first chief of the Constitutionalist Army, he served as head of the Executive Power from August 13, 1914 to April 30, 1917, parallel to the governments emanating from the Aguascalientes Convention. He was constitutionally president of Mexico from 1 from May 1917 until his death.

Origin

House where Carranza was born in 1859.

He was born in the town of Cuatro Ciénegas, Coahuila, a place that at that time had just over two thousand inhabitants. On February 19, 1856, by decree of Santiago Vidaurri, the state of Coahuila was annexed to the state of Nuevo León, therefore, by 1859, the year in which Carranza was born, Cuatro Ciénegas belonged to Nuevo León; later, on February 26, 1864, Benito Juárez decreed the separation of Coahuila and Nuevo León.

Carranza was a member of a renowned family in the region, his father being Colonel Jesús Carranza Neira, a soldier of the Republican cause and a fervent admirer of Benito Juárez, in whose figure he educated his children; Colonel Carranza was also the municipal president of Cuatro Ciénegas on several occasions, and political chief of Monclova. When he died, he was replaced by his son Venustiano in the municipal presidency.

Politics during the Porfiriato

He began his political career when he was elected municipal president of Cuatro Ciénegas, at the time of governor José María Garza Galán, but because his relations with him were terrible, he resigned. For this reason, when Garza Galán tried to be re-elected, Carranza rebelled by participating politically against him. He did not take up arms but he convinced Porfirio Díaz that the movement was not anti-Porfirio. Bernardo Reyes was appointed mediator, and supported Venustiano Carranza to rejoin politics. That was how he returned to the municipal presidency of Cuatro Ciénegas from 1894 to 1898. In addition, he was a local deputy to the Coahuila Congress and deputy and senator to the Union Congress. In 1908, he occupied the governorship of Coahuila on an interim basis. It was believed that he would be the next governor, but his participation in the reyista movement brought him opposition from Porfirio Díaz and the Científicos. Despite this, he presented his independent candidacy for the government of his state, being defeated by Jesús de Valle.

Maderismo

At first he did not commit himself to Francisco I. Madero, as he continued with the hope that one day General Bernardo Reyes, who had supported him in his fight against Garza Galán, would return to the country to succeed Porfirio Díaz. Seeing that this was not happening, and the presidential elections were close, he decided to join Maderismo, going into exile in San Antonio, Texas, and pledging to go to the call to arms. Although he did not enter the state as a rebel, he was appointed by Francisco I. Madero as Governor of Coahuila. He later named him Secretary of War and Navy in his provisional cabinet in Ciudad Juárez, despite being a civilian.

He was ratified in his position as governor of Coahuila, for which he was elected shortly after. As governor of his state, he organized auxiliary forces that prevented the passage of Orozquista rebels to Coahuila in 1912.

The Aguascalientes Convention

This meeting was known as the Aguascalientes Convention, which was convened on October 1, 1914 by Venustiano Carranza. Although at first the Zapatistas were not called to the Convention, after a letter they joined the sessions, and that was how Carranza's political aspirations became complicated, since Villistas and Zapatistas presented their ideals at the Convention and managed to convince Carrancistas and Obregonistas who soon joined the new legislature and fought for Carranza's retirement as first chief.

In its twelfth point, the Zapatista Plan of Ayala had foreseen a meeting of the main revolutionary leaders of the different states (similar to that of the Convention), so that they could name an interim president, who would be given the order to call elections for a new Congress of the Union, which in turn would call elections to integrate the other powers of the country.

While this seems to be the most democratic proposal, Carranza seemed to disagree with it. His call for the formation of the Convention in Mexico City had no other purpose than to concentrate and organize under his command all the revolutionary forces that had risen up in arms throughout the country, in order to become the man predestined to occupy the Presidency of the Republic and not, as happened, in a kind of legislature that sought to give a new direction to the Republic in the process of democratizing the nation.

The Convention, which Carranza believed would legitimize him, disowned him as president, removed him from his position and appointed Eulalio Gutiérrez Ortiz as provisional President. Carranza, instead of abiding by the decisions of the Junta, declared it in rebellion and in January 1915 he left for Veracruz with his administration staff. There he reorganized his army with the support of Generals Álvaro Obregón, Pablo González Garza, Cándido Aguilar, Salvador Alvarado, Jacinto B. Treviño, Francisco Coss, José de Jesús Madrigal Guzmán and others. In addition, like Francisco Villa, he decreed his own Agrarian Law on January 6, 1915 and issued the additions to the Guadalupe Plan regarding divorce, free municipality, independence of the Judiciary, work accidents, suspension of the National Lottery, etc..

Even without the consent of President-elect Woodrow Wilson, the US ambassador supported Félix Díaz and Huerta with arms. By April 1914, under the pretext of landing sailors in Tampico on lands where foreigners were not allowed, they occupied Veracruz. The mission was to remove Huerta, for being illegitimate and above all for controlling the entry of weapons. The fight yielded 200 Mexican casualties against 19 Americans.

There are telegrams sent by Carranza in April 1917 that are dated April 27, 1917. Sent in Ciudad Juárez and received in Chihuahua, the small text begins with the phrase “Very urgent”, followed by a cryptic text: “I've had several 08.23.14.03.41 [...]”. These types of encrypted messages were very common during the revolutionary process: all the factions in conflict used them, because if someone intercepted them they could hasten a mobilization and intervene against them. The cryptogram continues: “[...] quite this State 48.55.25.11.15.77.69 [...]” and finally says: “I allow myself to give you this information for what you have take advantage of it Greetings. Pesqueira”. Roberto V. Pesqueira Morales was a revolutionary agent in Washington and a financial agent of the Mexican government in New York and even became a federation deputy.

Although the content of the telegram is unknown, the repetition of the number 48 is notorious. Madero used that number in personal letters to talk precisely about the United States. An as yet unproven hypothesis states that it is possibly a reference to the number of stars on the American flag in the early XX century, which correspond to their confederate states. If this hypothesis were applied to Carranza, it could be explained that since the end of 1915, there has been correspondence from the United States that recognizes the Mexican general as president.

Acknowledgment

At the end of 1915, Carranza decided to undertake a tour in the north of the country in order to consolidate his government. On October 19, 1915, while he was in the city of Torreón, he received a telegram from Eliseo Arredondo, his special envoy in Washington, announcing the recognition of his government by the United States government. President Carranza He decided to announce the recognition with a speech delivered from the balcony of the Hotel Salvador, where he was staying. The text of the telegram read as follows:

"Dear Mr. Arredondo:

I have the pleasure of informing you that the President of the United States takes this opportunity to extend his recognition to the government of "Facto" of Mexico, in which Mr. Venustiano Carranza, appears as Chief Executive. The United States Government will be pleased to formally receive, in Washington, the diplomatic representative of that "Fact" Government as soon as he pleases Mr. Carranza to designate and extend his appointment; and the United States Government will reciprocally credit a diplomatic representative to the "Fact" Government as soon as the President has the opportunity to appoint him. I will be grateful to you for announcing this news to Mr. Carranza, as soon as you consider possible and timely."

"I remain of you sincerely, R. Lansing."

The Constituent Congress of 1917

Venustiano Carranza (Centro) in La Cañada, Querétaro, on January 22, 1916.

When the conventionalist forces were defeated, Carranza thought it convenient to consolidate his political movement in constitutional reforms, an issue that he had already commented on when referring to the need to redo the Constitution of 1857 from a speech he gave in Hermosillo on September 24, 1913 The weakness of Zapatismo allowed Mexico City to be taken, and it was this victory that brought it official recognition from the United States government, in October 1915.

On September 14, 1916, Carranza announced the need to convene a constituent congress to reform the Constitution of 1857. In said convocation, it was stipulated that for every 70,000 inhabitants, approximately one deputy would be appointed, since some states were dominated by Villista or Zapatista forces sent minimal representations. The representation requirements were the same as those of the 1857 Constitution, only that it included not having helped with weapons or performing public employment with governments or factions hostile to the constitutionalist cause (thus excluding the Villista and Zapatista ideal, as well as as other antagonistic groups such as reyistas and maderistas). Said Congress was an assembly of politicians made up mainly of middle-class lawyers, professors, engineers and soldiers. Only the minority had parliamentary experience, since they had previously belonged to a group called “Renovating Liberal Bloc”, which years before had legitimized the Huerta regime by belonging to the XXVI Legislature.

Despite the previous requirements, all these differences caused great problems and controversy during the sessions. Likewise, the armed struggle had been carried out by rural people and the deputies who chose the future Mexico were elected by urban people, the truth is that the regions that had been more active in the armed struggle had fewer representatives in the constituent congress. This new Magna Carta embodied differences with respect to the Constitution of 1857 since the first was attached to liberalism and the second was very realistic in accordance with the international conditions of its time.

Carranza on the cover of Les Hommes du Jour, France, 1916.

When Carranza proposed his draft Constitution, which was originally intended to be a reform of the liberal Constitution of 1857, the most progressive deputies repudiated the text, while those of the renovating liberal Bloc agreed with it. For the parliamentary majority, it did not express the ideals for which they (nor the people) had fought: the Carrancista vision was insufficient on issues of the utmost importance for the revolutionary, worker, peasant and military deputies who had somehow expressed solidarity with Villistas. and Zapatistas during the Convention. Upon learning of the Carrancista project on freedom of work, on the one hand, and territorial property, on the other, which had been taken from that of 1857, they pointed out that the worker and peasant demands were not being met.

As a result of this, they demanded that the First Chief respect and incorporate the provisions that would later be known as rights or social guarantees. The orthodox constituents, jurists and law teachers, believed the incorporation of workers' rights into the supreme law was inadequate because it contravened the constitutional technique. They considered it inopportune that this spoke about the duration of the day, minimum wage and the work of women, because according to them all this was secondary legislation. For their part, the legislators from the worker and peasant struggles did not care about this argument and were determined to see their demands registered in the supreme law.

For example, in order to make the agrarian reform effective, the original wording of article 27 supports the division of large estates, the development of small property, the creation of new agricultural population centers with the lands and waters that are essential, the promotion of agriculture and the prevention of the destruction of nature. The ideal of property written in article 27 in its beginnings did not fully conform to the canons of classical capitalism or socialism. It was, in itself, a mixture of both thoughts, one more tenuous than the other. From capitalism it preserved private property, but by limiting it to a maximum extent it broke with the liberal archetype, which fights for the non-interference of the State in commercial relations between citizens; of socialism, agreed on the impulse of collective property, such as the ejido and other properties in this sense. Although both Zapatistas and Villistas could not be part of Congress, the enormous ideological influence after the Convention is manifested with the constitution.

Independently, the project that Venustiano Carranza had presented was substantially modified, and despite not agreeing with the changes made to it, he had to adapt to the ideals of his former irreconcilable enemies who had influenced even his closest relatives, promulgating the Constitution on February 5, 1917. Since then, it would be known as the 1917 Constitution, which introduced some very advanced social concepts for its time, such as worker-employer relations, which were reflected in article 123 and the educational and agrarian reforms that were embodied in articles 3 and 27, respectively.

Presidency (1917-1920)

Venustiano Carranza in the presidential chair in 1917.

The Carrancista governmental phase was divided into two periods: the pre-constitutional and the constitutional, with the 1917 Constitution being the “watershed” of this government. The first period was characterized by the fact that the Villistas and the Zapatistas remained in arms. Another of the biggest problems in 1916 was diplomatic and military, since in retaliation for Francisco Villa's incursion into the town of Columbus, New Mexico, the US government sent troops to fight the revolutionary, who remained in Mexico for a little less than one year. In order to carry out the transition from the revolutionary process to the creation of a State after the Revolution, the victorious groups had to define their country project, which they did precisely, through the Constitution of 1917.

The new Constitution was promulgated on February 5, 1917 and, consequently, on the 6th of the same month, elections were called for deputies and senators to the XXVII Legislature of the Congress of the Union and for President of the Republic. Postulated by the Constitutionalist Liberal Party, Carranza won the elections and on May 1, 1917, he took office as constitutional president. During his government, Carranza took on the task of pacifying the country, reorganizing the administration and powers, and enforcing the constitution that had been promulgated.

Despite the apparent optimism regarding the new government, Carranza's achievements during his presidency were only few and not much changed. Which caused many who wanted to see a new and renewed Mexico after the armed struggle to be dissatisfied. By 1917, the country was in a very precarious internal position. The revolutionary struggle had destroyed the economy, made food sources scarce and had caused health problems that devastated the entire nation.

In the same way, Carranza had to continue facing various political enemies: Emiliano Zapata was still fighting in the state of Morelos; Félix Díaz, the nephew of Porfirio Díaz, had returned to Mexico once more in May 1916 and organized a new army called the Ejército Reorganizador Nacional, which had its area of operations in the state of Veracruz; while former Porfiristas such as Guillermo Meixueiro and José María Dávila were in revolt in the Oaxaca area, calling themselves the Soberanistas and advocating for greater local autonomy. On his part, General Manuel Peláez was found quartered in the Huasteca area; while the Saturnino brothers, Cleofás, and Magdaleno Cedillo had formed considerable opposition within San Luis Potosí; while José Inés García Chávez led the resistance against Carranza from Michoacán. Finally, Pancho Villa remained active in Chihuahua, although he was far from having the same number of men that he had prior to his defeat at the Battle of Celaya. Similarly, after Carranza's triumph, Obregón retreated back to his ranch, publicly announcing his estrangement from the First Chief.

During this very delicate context in which it found itself, the Carranza government launched several military offensives in order to pacify the country; putting special importance against Zapata in Morelos, the most immediate threat to Mexico City. During his government, General Felipe Ángeles was captured and shot for having joined Villa's forces, while Emiliano Zapata was assassinated at the Hacienda de Chinameca, Morelos, on April 10, 1919.

Despite everything, Carranza managed to maintain Mexico's neutrality during World War I. He seriously considered allying with the German Empire for a time after the foreign minister of that country, Arthur Zimmermann, sent the famous Zimmermann Telegram to Mexico in January 1917, inviting Mexico to join the conflict on the side of the Germans. Zimmermann promised in that telegram to help Mexico reconquer the territory lost during the US invasion of 1846, particularly the states of Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. Carranza assigned several of his generals to study the possibility of recapturing those territories from the United States, but it was finally concluded that a war against the northern neighbor was not feasible. Carranza believed that any possible help from Germany could not be guaranteed in the face of the blockade of the British Navy.

Carranza maintained a dismissive attitude towards constitutional articles 3 and 130, anticlerical in nature, to which he expressed his opposition during the work of the Constituent Congress. A policy of tolerance towards the Catholic Church in Mexico as an institution seemed most pragmatic given the delicate situation in which the country found itself. Carranza maintained that "the customs of a town cannot change overnight; For people to stop being Catholic, the triumph of the Revolution is not enough; the people of Mexico will continue to be equally ignorant, superstitious and attached to their ancient traditions until they receive an education." Carranza proposed an amendment to modify those constitutional articles, but his proposal was rejected by the local legislatures and by two-thirds congressional. It would not be until the presidency of Plutarco Elías Calles (1924-1928) that the anticlerical articles would be truly applied, which would cause a new armed conflict known as the Cristero War.

Mexican neutrality during World War I

Carranza was in charge of zealously maintaining a policy of diplomatic neutrality during the international conflict, influenced by the anti-American sentiment in the population, due to the continuous invasions and interventions that the United States had made in the country. Victoriano Huerta had arrived to the presidency thanks to the intrigues of the US ambassador Henry Lane Wilson in February 1913, which led to the overthrow of President Francisco I. Madero and Vice President José María Pino Suárez, in a coup d'état known as the Tragic Ten . President Woodrow Wilson had similarly ordered the US invasion of the port of Veracruz in 1914, killing 170 Mexican soldiers and an unknown number of civilians. As a direct consequence of Lane Wilson's actions, Madero's assassination and Pino Suárez unleashed a new civil war that lasted until April 1915, when the Ejército Constitucionalista was finally able to defeat the forces of its former ally, Pancho Villa, in the battle of Celaya.

Diplomatic relations between the governments of Carranza and Wilson were mostly tense, particularly after the proclamation of the new Constitution of 1917, which regulated Mexico's participation during the world war.

However, Carranza was able to make the best of such a complicated situation; since his government was fully recognized by Germany at the beginning of the year 1917, while the United States would do the same on August 31 of that same year. This action could be achieved as a result of the scandal caused by the Zimmermann Telegram, since the neighbor to the North promised to recognize the new Carranza government in exchange for Mexico staying out of the world conflict. After the invasion of the port of Veracruz On the part of the US sailors, Mexico would not be willing to participate alongside the United States in its entry into the Great War, so the best thing that could happen for both parties was for the former to remain out of conflict.

Carranza also secured guarantees to German oil companies operating in the country, especially in Mexico City, although Mexico's largest oil trading partner at the time was still the British (ultimately more than 75% of the fuel used by the British in their fleet came from Mexico).

Carranza, however, came close to accepting Germany's proposal, made by means of the Zimmermann Telegram, and at the same time was able to stop another invasion attempt by the United States to occupy the oil wells that were They were located on the Isthmus of Tehuantepec and in Tampico. By the year 1917, Mexico was producing more than 55 million barrels of crude oil, which had become of great strategic importance to the British and, by extension, the rest of the world. the allies; Carranza threatened to set fire to the oil fields in that area if the Americans invaded the territory. Given these actions, historian Lester Langley wrote that: "Carranza may not have been able to meet the social objectives of the Revolution, but it kept the gringos out of Mexico City".

Agua Prieta Revolution

In 1920 he sought to impose a civilian, the engineer Ignacio Bonillas, as President of the Republic, since by then he was already contrary to the political ideology shown by Álvaro Obregón and was disappointed by the attitude of Pablo González Garza. This attitude caused a revolt led by Álvaro Obregón, who ignored Bonillas and rose up against him under the Agua Prieta Plan and Plutarco Elías Calles and Adolfo de la Huerta, on the one hand, and González, on the other.

When both sides obtained the support of most of the army, Carranza decided to transfer the seat of the national government to the port of Veracruz, where it had already remained during the war with Villa; In this way, he left with his entire cabinet and their families, his furniture, not only personal but also from some of the government secretariats, more war supplies, and the funds of the Federal Government: large amounts of silver and gold coins, bills, and bars. of gold and silver that were in the treasury.

There were continuous attacks on the railway at the Puebla stations of San Marcos, Rinconada —where his horse was killed while he was riding it— and Aljibes. On May 20, 1920, he left the Aljibes station, Puebla, when it was learned that the tracks had been dynamited, and went into the Sierra Norte of the State of Puebla with many of his followers, including an escort of cadets from the Military College, in a desperate attempt to reach the port of Veracruz.

This is how he would reach the small town of Tlaxcalantongo, Puebla, where, in the early morning of May 21, 1920, the troops of General Rodolfo Herrero assassinated him while he slept in a shack.

He was buried in the Panteón Civil de Dolores in Mexico City. In 1942 his remains were deposited in the Monument to the Revolution, where they remain to this day.

Museography

Casa-Museo, Mexico City

There are currently several museums about former president Venustiano Carranza:

• Casa Museo Venustiano Carranza in Mexico City: where the former president of 1919-1920 lived when he fled followed the proclamation of the Prieta Water Plan
• On February 25, 1921 Museo de la Revolución Venustiano Carranza in Veracruz, Veracruz: contains objects belonging to the Baron de Cuatro Ciénagas during his stay in Veracruz.
• Museum of Coahuilense Presidents in Saltillo, Coahuila: it houses documents and objects from the five coahuilenses that have been Presidents of Mexico.
• Casa Museo Venustiano Carranza in Cuatro Ciénegas, Coahuila: where Venustiano Carranza was born.
• Museo Carranza in Xicotepec de Juárez, Puebla: a museum where it was veiled for 3 days and the autopsy was performed to President Venustiano Carranza.