- Biography
- Early years and training
- Politics
- Background of his government
- Characteristics of his government
- Brake to opposition movements
- End of term
- After handover of power
- Duties of the presidency of Francisco León de la Barra
- References
Francisco León de la Barra (1863-1939) was a Mexican politician and diplomat who led the presidential office after the resignation of Porfirio Díaz, who ruled for 30 years.
According to the Treaties of Ciudad Juárez, signed on May 21, 1911, both Porfirio Díaz and his vice president would resign from their position and Francisco León de la Barra, secretary of Foreign Relations, by then, would hold the position as interim president until take place next elections.
Portrait of Acting President Francisco León de la Barra
Bain News Service
In this way the dictatorship called "Porfiriato" ended and an early phase of the Mexican Revolution was born. De la Barra was a lawyer by profession and, during the government of Porfirio Díaz, he was Mexico's ambassador to the United States. Among other positions, he was also Governor of the State of Mexico and Ambassador of France. He ceded the presidency on November 6, 1911.
He intended to occupy the vice-presidency during the government of Francisco Ignacio Madero, his successor, but the position was granted to José María Pino Suarez, politician, journalist and lawyer, known as the last vice president of Mexico, a position that was excluded in Mexico with the Constitution of 1917.
Biography
Early years and training
Francisco León de la Barra y Quijano was born on June 16, 1863 in the city of Querétaro. He was the son of the marriage formed by Bernabé Antonio León de la Barra Demaría and María Luisa Quijano Pérez Palacios.
He obtained a law degree from the National University of Mexico and specialized specifically in the area of international law. As an academic, he also taught math classes at the National Preparatory School.
He married María Elena Barneque. After the death of this first wife, after fourteen years of union and two children, he remarried his sister-in-law María del Refugio Barneque. With the latter he had a last child. His challenges rest in France, where he died on September 23, 1939 in the city of Biarritz.
Politics
The most outstanding aspect of León de la Barra was his political and diplomatic career, for which he was widely recognized. Due to his outstanding performance, he was able to build a good reputation within the area of international law.
In 1891 he was part of the Chamber of Deputies in the Congress of the Union, the body in charge of the legislative power of Mexico. In 1896 he joined the diplomatic corps and in 1898 he held the role of consulting lawyer within the Ministry of Foreign Relations.
Later, he was a delegate between 1901-1902 of the II Ibero-American Congress and carried out diplomatic missions in several countries of Central America, Cuba and Spain. During these years he was also part of the City Council of Mexico City, exercising the figure of councilor.
During 1904 he was plenipotentiary minister, or government representative, in countries such as Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay. A year later he held the same position, but in the courts of Belgium and Holland.
By 1909 he began as Mexican ambassador to the United States, settling in Washington DC. In 1911, during the government of Porfirio Díaz, he was appointed Secretary of Internal Relations, two months before the cessation of government and his next function as interim president.
Background of his government
At the beginning of the 20th century there were various rebellion movements against the government of Porfirio Díaz that led to the signing of the Ciudad Juárez Treaties in order to pacify the country.
The period of pressure began in 1910 around the presidential and vice-presidential elections. Francisco I. Madero was the main opponent, however, during his campaign tour he was arrested and charged with sedition. Later, while Madero was in prison, the electoral processes were carried out before which Porfirio Díaz declared himself the winner.
Following Madero's release, he began a movement to overthrow the government with the intention of demanding free elections. Another reason why Madero was appreciated by a large number of people was due to the possibility of an agrarian reform, which was intended to benefit a large part of the peasant sector.
In this way, Madero promulgated the well-known Plan of San Luis in 1910, with which he invited to take up arms against the dictatorship of Porfirio Díaz. In this way, armed uprisings were originated throughout Mexico, which ceased after the resignation of Porfirio Díaz.
It was from these deals that Francisco León de la Barra appeared as the most suitable person for the interim presidency.
Characteristics of his government
Brake to opposition movements
When starting his position as interim president, there were certain political groups in favor and against the previous Porfirio Díaz regime.
Among the favorable ones were the "scientists", who were representatives of the Liberal Union and fought for the re-election of Porfirio Díaz, relying on Augusto Comte's theory of positivism. On the other hand were those who were in favor of the Mexican Revolution in support of the leader Francisco Ignacio Madero.
Francisco León de la Barra, during his months in office, opposed the supporters of the Mexican Revolution and maintained his support for the "scientists."
He made significant investments in the army, increasing the budget for 8 new battalions. This interest was due to the growing drive to disarm opposition movements like that of Emiliano Zapata. Known as the "caudillo del sur", he was the leader of the peasant groups, one of the most representative forces of the social struggle.
León de la Barra, from the beginning of his short term, made clear his intention to reject the candidacy for the presidency, however, during the times of presidential elections he was among the candidates for the vice-presidency for the National Catholic Party.
The government of Francisco León was a procedure to pacify the country and thus end the struggles between opposing groups. Among other contributions, his interest in the country's labor sector stands out by having the initiative to create a Department of Labor.
End of term
His period as interim president culminated on November 6, 1911, the government being handed over to Francisco Ignacio Madero and moving to Italy for a time.
On his return in 1912, León de la Barra was not well received. For this reason, he decided to promote a campaign against Madero through the media, a well-executed action that served as a destabilizing element.
Despite the differences, the government cabinet of Francisco León de la Barra was made up of both Maderista representatives and Porfirista politicians. His mandate is also known as "the Porfiriato without Porfirio" and part of his idea was to maintain the Porfirian regime.
After handover of power
After the 1913 military coup known as the "Tragic Ten", Victoriano Huerta was left in power. During this stage, de la Barra was the governor of the State of Mexico and senator of the Republic. He was also reappointed Secretary of Foreign Affairs until July 4, 1914.
Later he was appointed Minister of Mexico in France by order of Huerta. Since then, he lived in the European country until the days of his death.
In the distance he served as President of the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague and participated in international commissions as president of the Mixed Arbitration Courts and president of the Anglo-Franco-Bulgarian Arbitration Court.
After his brief government he was known as "the white president" because of the historian Alejandro Rosas in his book The Presidents of Mexico, who highlights him as "the prototype of decency." Within this text he is defined as a refined, cultured man, possessor of good customs, of a superior class and a Catholic religious.
Duties of the presidency of Francisco León de la Barra
Apart from the occupation of the position of interim president by Francisco León de la Barra, the Treaties of Ciudad Juárez stipulated other agreements to be followed in order to continue a peaceful political line. Among the conditions were:
- The confrontations between the government supporters and the revolutionaries should cease.
- For all the revolutionaries amnesty was declared.
- With the intention that there would be a single army in Mexico, specifically that of the Federal Forces, the revolutionary forces had to be demobilized.
- The cabinet chosen by the interim president of the Barra had to be approved by Madero and include fourteen provisional governors appointed by his supporters.
- They had to assign pensions to all those relatives of soldiers who died in the fight against the revolutionaries.
- All those officials such as police officers, judges and state legislators elected or appointed during the Porfiriato, would retain their roles.
In this way, the transition to pacification was envisioned. However, sporadic fighting continued, especially in southern Mexico. Some of these arose from disagreements between the revolutionary allies themselves, for example, between Zapata and Madero himself, among whom distrust grew.
Despite this, Francisco León de la Barra did manage to establish a new electoral process, although without being able to prevent the victory of his great adversary Francisco Ignacio Madero.
References
- Francisco León de la Barra. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Recovered from en.wikipedia.org
- Carmona D. Francisco León de la Barra. Political Memory of Mexico. Recovered from memoriapoliticademexico.org
- Treaty of Ciudad Juárez. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Recovered from en.wikipedia.org
- Gonzáles M. The vice-presidency in Mexico. Political Studies. Autonomous University of Mexico. Recovered from magazines.unam.mx
- Do you know who Francisco León de la Barra was? Discover it here. Historical battles. Recovered from Batallashistoricas.com
- Mexican Revolution. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Recovered from en.wikipedia.org