PLAN DE AGUA PRIETA: OBJECTIVES, CHARACTERS AND CONSEQUENCES! - HISTORY - 2024

The Agua Prieta Plan was a project orchestrated by three generals of the Mexican Revolution in order to reveal themselves to the regime of President Venustiano Carranza. After the execution of this plan on April 22, 1920, the Executive Power of the country and all the states that supported the Carranza regime were ignored.

The then president had obtained power after an armed movement that culminated in the defeat of the Zapatistas in 1915 at the Battle of Celaya. One of the authors of the movement was Álvaro Obregón, a general who had remained loyal to Venustiano Carranza until the president's decision to eliminate militaristic interventions.

Background

In 1913 Venustiano Carranza had served as governor of Coahuila for 2 years, beginning his term in 1911. He had come to power with the support of then-president Francisco Madero. However, during his stay as governor, his relations with Madero deteriorated.

In fact, Carranza himself predicted that at any moment the military would overthrow the president. Preventing this, he decided to form alliances with the rest of the liberal governments of Mexico.

In 1913 three soldiers overthrew the government of Francisco Madero. Imagining that Madero's life would be in danger after his overthrow, Carranza offered him asylum in Coahuila; however, he failed to prevent his murder.

Carranza saw the opportunity to seize the power of president, having been a soldier in command. Cohauila declared in a state of rebellion against the regime, but lost the first battles for lack of troops.

However, soon after he realized that he had the support of a large number of sectors of the country, including a handful of the military.

His rise to power and decisions he made

Venustiano Carranza had military support to take over the government, his main objective being to reestablish the civilian mandate and end the military power in Mexico. He was never a military man, but he was in strategic command of the troops in their campaign to take over the government.

However, he had the help of a former farmer-turned-soldier, Alberto Obregón. This supported him throughout the entire campaign until the government took over in 1915.

After taking power in Mexico, Carranza declared himself a “pre-constitutional” governor. He would remain in power until elections were held in 1917, which he managed to win democratically.

However, his goal of keeping the military out of power was not to the liking of the nation's armed forces, particularly Obregón, who was planning to run as a candidate for the next presidential elections. For this reason, it was decided to execute the Agua Prieta Plan, which had broad support from the military.

What were the objectives?

The main objective of the plan was to deny military support to the Carranza federal government. Furthermore, it refused to acknowledge the results of the elections in six Mexican provinces and the election of a governor.

However, the military executing the plan offered the local authorities not to enter into armed confrontations, as long as the constitutionalist army of the rebels was not attacked.

This army was commanded by Adolfo de la Huerta, who would be appointed president of Mexico once the mission of the plan was completed: the overthrow of Carranza.

Another of the main focuses of the plan was the prompt call for elections once a new government was established. This was the objective of Adolfo de la Huerta, who called general elections as soon as he was appointed interim president, to elect a new president in a constitutional manner.

Prominent figures

Venustiano Carranza

Carranza's antimilitarist policies were the main cause of the creation of the Agua Prieta Plan. His performance as president was not considered bad, from a political point of view. In fact, its objective was to isolate the government from the military and create a civil constitutionality.

The problem he faced was the strong support that the military had for each other. Furthermore, he made the mistake of trying to nominate Ignacio Bonillas for the 1920 elections.

Bonillas was the United States ambassador, but nobody knew him in Mexico. Both the people and the military saw this as a move by Carranza to stay in power "behind the scenes," which caused general discontent among future voters.

Ignacio Obregon

Obregón was the main architect of the movement to overthrow Carranza. After having supported him for years in previous political movements, the military man planned to run as a presidential candidate in 1920.

The limitation of this move by Carranza ended up costing both the presidency and the life of the former governor of Coahuila.

Ignacio Bonillas

Bonillas was a civilian who acted as the Mexican ambassador to the United States. He did a brilliant job at the embassy, ​​but had never participated in any military movement.

Furthermore, his work was not known to the people. His designation as a civilian candidate in the 1920 elections was a political error by Carranza.

Adolfo de la Huerta

De la Huerta was in charge of succeeding Carranza in power after his overthrow in the Agua Prieta Plan.

Besides having commanded the Constitutional Army, he called for elections as interim president to make way for Obregón, who became the thirty-ninth president of Mexico.

Consequences

The main consequence of the plan was the assassination of Venustiano Carranza. When the plan was put in place, three-thirds of the army joined the rebels against Carranza.

The then president never gave up. While trying to escape rebel persecution, he was ambushed along with a group of his followers near Puebla, resulting in his death.

The first measure that was taken - as expected - was the establishment of the head of the Constitutional Army, Adolfo de la Huerta, as president.

A few days after its establishment, it called general elections. In these elections Álvaro Obregón won, as had been planned in principle.

The military and rebels who had risen up against the Carranza presidency lowered their weapons and the movement ended. They gave their almost unconditional support to Obregón, which restored peace in Mexico again.

References

1. Plan of Agua Prieta, Encyclopedia of Latin American Culture, (nd). Taken from encyclopedia.com
2. Agua Prieta Plan, Álvaro Obregón, April 29, 1920. Taken from unm.edu
3. Plan of Agua Prieta, Wikipedia in English, January 6, 2018. Taken from wikipedia.org
4. Adolfo de la Huerta, Wikipedia in English, March 4, 2018. Taken from wikipedia.org
5. Alberto Obregón, Wikipedia in English, March 12, 2018. Taken from wikipedia.org
6. Venustiano Carranza, Wikipedia in English, March 12, 2018. Taken from wikipedia.org