Francisco Lagos Cházaro (1878–1932) was a Mexican lawyer and politician elected president of Mexico by the Aguascalientes Convention. His mandate lasted four months, being exercised between June 10 and October 10, 1915.
In 1909, he joined the National Anti-Reelection Party (PNA) founded by Francisco I. Madero to overthrow President Porfirio Díaz. After the triumph of Madero, he was elected member of the municipal council of Orizaba in 1911. Between February and November of 1912 he was governor of the State of Veracruz, until the assassination of President Francisco I. Madero.
Francisco Lagos Cházaro. By Federal Government of the United Mexican States. Public Domain, In 1913 he joined Venustiano Carranza, who appointed him president of the Superior Court of Justice of Coahuila. However, after the separation of the revolutionary leaders, Lagos Cházaro decided to join Francisco Villa in the city of Chihuahua, where he founded the Vida Nueva newspaper.
In addition, he was secretary of General Roque González Garza, conventionalist president. On June 10, 1915, during the Aguascalientes Convention, he was elected President of the Republic, replacing González Garza.
Biography
Early years
Francisco Jerónimo de Jesús Lagos Cházaro Morteo was born on September 20, 1878 in Tlacotalpan, Veracruz. He was the son of Francisco Lagos Jiménez and Francisca Mortero Cházaro. After the death of his mother, his uncles Rafael and Dolores took charge of his maintenance.
During the first years he studied in his hometown, but later he moved to Puebla to continue his professional training at the Catholic School of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. He was always passionate about literature, although his professional career focused on the field of law.
He obtained a double degree in Law, one from the Colegio de Puebla and another official from the University of Mexico City. After completing his studies, he returned to his city to work at Hacienda Guerrero, which was owned by his family. There he dedicated himself for a time to raising cattle and planting sugarcane.
Cházaro and the Mexican Revolution
The Mexican Revolution that took place between 1910 and 1920 laid the foundations for the political organization of contemporary Mexico. It was a long and bloody struggle between various sides and alliances that led to the end of a 30-year dictatorship and the establishment of a constitutional republic.
It began in a context of general discontent over the elitist and oligarchic policies of Porfirio Díaz that favored the landowners and the most powerful. In the government of the nation there were a series of revolutions and internal conflicts, led by the military and political leaders.
To the north, Pascual Orozco and Pancho Villa mobilized their armies and began to storm the government barracks. In the south, Emiliano Zapata launched a bloody campaign against local chieftains. During the spring of 1911 the revolutionary forces took Ciudad Juárez, forcing Díaz to resign and declare Madero president.
Political career
Lagos Cházaro felt represented by the ideas of Francisco I. Madero, so in 1909 he decided to join the National Anti-Relectionist Party. It was intended to overthrow Porfirio Díaz, who had been in charge of the government for more than 30 years.
After the triumph of the Maderistas, the country was in a complicated situation due to the separation of the main revolutionary leaders.
In 1911, during the Madero presidency, Lagos was elected trustee of the Orizaba City Council, in Veracruz. Later, from February to November 1912, he was governor of the state of Veracruz, after defeating his opponent Gabriel Gavira.
The Madero government was hampered by discrepancies among the main revolutionary leaders. After the murder of Madero, there were new revolts in which Venustiano Carranza triumphed. However, the revolution continued until 1920.
After Madero's assassination in 1913, Cházaro decided to join the constitutionalist party with Venustiano Carranza at the helm, who appointed him president of the Superior Court of Justice of Coahuila.
However, when there was a break between the revolutionary leaders in 1914, Lagos Cházaro decided to join the Villista side in the city of Chihuahua, where he founded his newspaper Vida Nueva.
Francisco Villa defended the purpose of the peasants, so he had wide support. He joined Emiliano Zapata in the Aguascalientes Convention and they formed the Conventional Party. On the contrary, Carranza's constitutionalist party had a more prepared army and had the backing of intellectuals and workers.
Lagos is appointed private secretary of General Roque González Garza, conventionalist president of Mexico. But González Garza is forced to resign and in the same Aguascalientes Convention he appoints Lagos Cházaro president on June 10, 1915.
Presidency
Once he came to power, a bleak panorama was found in which epidemics, hunger and war were destroying the population, while the other political sectors exerted more and more pressure and controlled all their actions.
Due to the distance between the main revolutionary leaders, the Aguascalientes Convention agreed to transfer the government of Lagos to the city of Toluca, capital of the State of Mexico.
The situation was increasingly untenable. In January 1916, Lagos decided to go north to join Francisco Villa, but the Convention was dissolved and he had to leave the country from Manzanillo, Colima.
During his tenure, he presented the Program of Political and Social Reforms of the Revolution, which dealt with questions about agriculture, elective suffrage, social freedoms and rights for workers. However, he did not succeed, as shortly after the courts were dissolved.
He lived in Honduras, Costa Rica, and Nicaragua until he returned to Mexico in 1920, after the end of the revolution and the fall of the Carranza regime. On his return he practiced as a lawyer, until he died on November 13, 1932 at the age of 54 in Mexico City.
References
- Guillermo, E. Presidents mx. Retrieved from academia.edu
- Kegel, EM Mexican Revolution. Retrieved from academia.edu
- Ramírez, RM (2002). The Mexican reaction and its exile during the revolution of 1910. Retrieved from proquest.com
- Mexican Revolution. Retrieved from ibero.mienciclo.com
- Sánchez Aguilar, JB (2017). The challenge of legitimacy in Mexico. from the dissolution of the XXVI legislature to the sovereign revolutionary convention. Sequence, (99), 93-128. doi: 10.18234 / sequence.v0i99.1400