Huerta, Victoriano, 1854-1916, Mexican general and president (1913-14). He served under Porfirio Díaz. After the revolution of Francisco I. Madero (1911) he aided the new president, who, reluctantly, made him (1912) commander of the federal forces. In 1913 he plotted secretly with Madero's enemies, including U.S. ambassador Henry Lane Wilson, and overthrew the president. Huerta established a military dictatorship, notable for political corruption and rule by imprisonment and assassination. Numerous counterrevolutions broke out; the most important insurgent leaders were Venustiano Carranza, Francisco Villa, and Emiliano Zapata. U.S. President Woodrow Wilson was openly hostile to Huerta, and unpleasant international incidents occurred at Tampico and Veracruz. Steady insurgent military pressure forced Huerta to resign in July, 1914. He fled to Europe and returned to the United States, where he was subsequently arrested for revolutionary activities; an alcoholic, he died in El Paso shortly after being released from an army jail.

(born Dec. 23, 1854, Colotlán, Mex.—died Jan. 13, 1916, El Paso, Texas, U.S.) Mexican president (1913–14). Born of Indian parents, he rose through the ranks of the army to become a general during the rule of Porfirio Díaz. He overthrew Díaz's successor, the liberal Francisco Madero, and established a repressive military dictatorship. Constitutionalist forces united against him and gained the support of U.S. Pres. Woodrow Wilson, who sent troops to assist the rebels. Huerta was defeated in 1914 and fled to Spain; from there he moved to the U.S., where he was arrested for fomenting rebellion in Mexico and died in custody.

Learn more about Huerta, Victoriano with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born Dec. 23, 1854, Colotlán, Mex.—died Jan. 13, 1916, El Paso, Texas, U.S.) Mexican president (1913–14). Born of Indian parents, he rose through the ranks of the army to become a general during the rule of Porfirio Díaz. He overthrew Díaz's successor, the liberal Francisco Madero, and established a repressive military dictatorship. Constitutionalist forces united against him and gained the support of U.S. Pres. Woodrow Wilson, who sent troops to assist the rebels. Huerta was defeated in 1914 and fled to Spain; from there he moved to the U.S., where he was arrested for fomenting rebellion in Mexico and died in custody.

Learn more about Huerta, Victoriano with a free trial on Britannica.com.

José Victoriano Huerta Márquez (Colotlán, Jalisco, December 22, 1850, – January 13, 1916 in El Paso, Texas) was a Mexican military officer and president of Mexico.

Early life

Victoriano Huerta was born in the town of Colotlán, Jalisco, son of Jesús Huerta and Refugio Márquez. He self-identified as indigenous and historians have claimed that his father was ethnically Huichol. He learned to read and write early on and in 1869, he was recruited by General Donato Guerra to serve as his personal secretary. In that role, he distinguished himself and with the aid of General Guerra and President Benito Juárez gained admission to the Mexican National Military Academy (Heroico Colegio Militar) at Chapultepec in Mexico City in 1872.

Upon graduating from the military academy in 1877, he was employed by the Corps of Engineers to perform topographic studies in the states of Puebla and Veracruz, where he met Emilia Águila Moya, his future wife. He married Emilia Águila on November 21, 1880 in Mexico City and together they had eleven children. The names of his children surviving him in 1916 were Jorge, Maria Elisa, Victor, Luz, Elena, Dagoberto, Eva and Celia.

Military career

During the Porfirio Díaz administration he rose to the rank of general, and fought to subdue the Chan Santa Cruz Maya people of Yucatán and against the rebels of Emiliano Zapata. On the eve of the 1910 Revolution against the long established Díaz regime, Huerta was involved in the innocuous project of reforming the uniforms of the Federal Army.

After Díaz went into exile Huerta initially pledged allegiance to the new administration of Francisco Madero, and he was retained by the Madero administration and crushed anti-Madero revolts by rebel generals such as Pascual Orozco. However, Huerta secretly plotted with U.S. ambassador to Mexico, Henry Lane Wilson, cashiered general Bernardo Reyes, and Félix Díaz, Porfirio Díaz's nephew, to overthrow Madero. This episode in Mexican history is known as La decena trágica.

Following a confused few days of fighting in Mexico City between loyalist and rebel factions of the Army, on February 18 1913 Huerta had Madero and vice-president José María Pino Suárez seized and briefly imprisoned in the National Palace. The conspirators then met at the US Embassy to sign el Pacto de la Embajada (The Embassy Pact), which provided for Madero and Pino Suárez's exile and Huerta's takeover of the Mexican government.

Political career

To give the coup the appearance of legitimacy, Huerta had foreign minister Pedro Lascuráin assume the presidency; under the 1857 Constitution of Mexico, the foreign minister stood third in line for the presidency behind the vice-president and attorney general. Madero's attorney general had also been ousted in the coup. Lascuráin then appointed Huerta as interior minister--constitutionally, fourth in line for the presidency. After less than an hour in office (some sources say as little as 15 minutes), Lascuráin resigned, handing the presidency to Huerta. At a late-night special session of Congress surrounded by Huerta's troops, the legislators endorsed his assumption of power. Four days later Madero and Pino Suárez were taken from the Palacio Nacional to prison at night and shot by officers of the rurales (federal mounted police) who were assumed to be acting on Huerta's orders.

Huerta established a harsh military dictatorship. US President Woodrow Wilson became hostile to the Huerta administration, recalled ambassador Henry Lane Wilson, and demanded Huerta step aside for democratic elections. When Huerta refused, and with the situation further exacerbated by the Tampico Affair, President Wilson landed US troops to occupy Mexico's most important seaport, Veracruz.

The reaction to the Huerta usurpation was Venustiano Carranza's Plan of Guadalupe, calling for the creation of a Constitutional Army, for Huerta's ouster, and for the restoration of constitutional government. Supporters of the plan included Zapata, Pancho Villa and Álvaro Obregón. After repeated field defeats of Huerta's Federal Army by Obregón and Villa, climaxing in the Battle of Zacatecas, Huerta bowed to pressure and resigned the presidency on July 15, 1914.

Exile and Late Life

He went into exile, first traveling to Kingston, Jamaica, aboard the German cruiser SMS Dresden. From there, he moved to England, then Spain, and arrived in the United States in April 1915. He was discovered to be plotting to return to power in Mexico — in both, Spain and Washington, he had been negotiating with German agents to secure the support of Germany's ruler, Kaiser Wilhelm II for another attempt at a coup d'état. He was arrested in Newman, New Mexico, USA, on June 27, 1915 together with Pascual Orozco and charged with conspiracy to violate US neutrality laws. After some time in a US Army prison at Fort Bliss, He was released on bail but remained under house arrest due to risk of flight to Mexico. Later he was returned to jail, and while so confined, died of cirrhosis of the liver.

Huerta is still vilified by modern-day Mexicans, who generally refer to him as El Chacal — "The Jackal".

See also

• Huerta's Federal Army
• La Cucaracha
• U.S. occupation of Veracruz (1914)

External links

• Colotlán official website biography of Victoriano Huerta
• Mexico para niños biography of Victoriano Huerta
• Genealogy and descendancy of Victoriano Huerta
• NNDB entry for Victoriano Huerta

References