GUADALUPE PLAN: CAUSES, OBJECTIVES AND CONSEQUENCES - HISTORY - 2025

The Plan of Guadalupe was a document promoted by Venustiano Carranza who rejected the presidency of Victoriano Huerta and called for a fight to remove him. The Plan was signed on March 26, 1916, at the Hacienda de Guadalupe, in the state of Coahuila.

The reason for the development of the Plan of Guadalupe was the coup that had ended the government headed by Francisco I. Madero, one of the leaders of the Mexican Revolution. Victoriano Huerta and other military supporters of Porfirio Díaz took up arms, dismissing the legitimate president and assassinating him.

Venustiano Carranza - Source: Unknown, undefined

Although Madero's policies had caused him to break with some of his former fellow revolutionaries, they all reacted to preserve constitutional order. The first was Venustiano Carranza, governor of Coahuila.

Carranza promulgated the Plan of Guadalupe with the objective of ending the Huerta government. To do this, he created the Constitutional Army, taking the lead. According to the Plan, when they succeeded in taking Mexico City, he had to call elections. In just four months, the revolutionaries achieved their goal.

Background

When Madero came to power he tried to develop a policy that would pacify the country. To do this, he integrated some supporters of Porfirio Díaz into the government, as well as revolutionaries.

Historians point out that, within this integration attempt, the President made a mistake that would prove fatal: appointing Victoriano Huerta as head of the army.

From that appointment until Huerta betrayed him, only 15 months would pass. Thus, in February 1913 a group of soldiers rose up against the government, Huerta being one of its leaders. The so-called "Tragic Ten" ended with the overthrow and assassination of Madero and Vice President Pino Suárez.

Huerta's attempt to legalize his presidency

Victoriano Huerta, a military man with sympathy for the Porfiriato, had already been accused of plotting against Madero days before the coup took place. It was the President's own brother who brought charges against him, but Madero did not believe the accusations and set him free.

Two days later, Huerta's suspicions were confirmed. Together with Félix Díaz and with the support of the American ambassador Henry Wilson, he rebelled and appointed himself head of the Executive.

On February 22, after being tricked into signing their resignation, Madero and Pino Suárez were assassinated. The resignation helped Huerta to organize a series of parliamentary movements that, according to him, gave legitimacy to his arrival to the presidency.

Without Madero or Pino Suárez, the presidency passed, according to the law, to Pedro Lascuraín. This, according to Huerta, only held office for 45 minutes, enough time to name Huerta as successor and resign. After that, Huerta assumed power and, amid the chaos, dissolved Congress and established a dictatorship.

Venustiano Carranza

Although Madero's moderate policy had caused many revolutionaries to break with him, the coup and his assassination caused them to react. The dictatorship imposed by Huerta was something unacceptable to those who had fought against Porfirio.

The first to react was Venustiano Carranza. This military man and politician had been Secretary of Defense and Navy. At the time of the uprising, he was the Governor of Coahuila snapper.

Carranza had had quite a few disagreements with Madero. However, after his murder he was among the first to show his rejection of Huerta. In addition, he blamed the Church and conservatives for instigating the coup.

Minutes of the Congress of Coahuila

From his position as Governor, Carranza took a document to the Congress of Coahuila in which he expressed his rejection of the Huerta regime.

It is the so-called Act of the Congress of Coahuila, signed on February 19, 1913. This document is considered by experts as the most immediate antecedent of the Plan of Guadalupe.

The most important point of the Act said that “General Victoriano Huerta is unknown in his capacity as Chief of the Executive Power of the Republic, which he says was conferred on him by the Senate and all the acts and provisions that he dictates with that character are also unknown. »

In addition to the denunciation of the regime, the Act granted Carranza powers to organize an army and restore constitutional order.

Preparation for war

Carranza, getting the endorsement of Congress, began preparations for war. On February 26, he informed the President of the United States of his intentions and withdrew fifty thousand pesos deposited in a United States bank. On March 1, he officially ignored the Huerta government.

Soon he began to receive support. The first was José María Maytorena, from the state of Sonora. Along with this, some of his most important officers joined, such as Álvaro Obregón or Plutarco Elías Calles, both deeply anti-Huerta.

On the other hand, Pancho Villa, established in Chihuahua, put his army at Carranza's disposal. The same thing that Emiliano Zapata did a little later.

On March 26, Venustiano Carranza proclaimed the Plan of Guadalupe. With this document, the fight against the Huerta government began.

Causes

The Plan of Guadalupe, proclaimed by Venustiano Carranza, was an eminently political document. With him, Carranza and his people tried to eliminate any pretense of legitimacy that Victoriano Huerta could claim.

Huerta coup

The main cause that gave rise to the Plan of Guadalupe was the uprising of Victoriano Huerta against the legitimate government of Francisco Madero. As soon as they learned of the assassination of him and his vice president Pino Suárez, many Mexicans began calling Huerta with the nickname "El Usurpador."

Throughout the country, the protagonists of the revolution against Porfirio Díaz refused to recognize the dictator and declared in rebellion. So did other important Mexican military and political figures.

Restitution of the constitutional order

Historians point out that another of Carranza's motives for drawing up the Plan of Guadalupe was his obsession with the legal order. For him, it was essential to return Mexico to the path of legality, broken by the Huerta coup.

According to Carranza's own words, Huerta's actions totally contravened the spirit of the 1857 Constitution.

Objectives and important points

The Guadalupe Plan established the foundations of the revolutionary movement against the Huerta government. At first, it was only a call to fight against the dictator, although Carranza later used it as an excuse for his confrontation with Villa and Zapata.

In addition to Venustiano Carranza, the main signatories of the Plan were Jacinto B. Treviño, Lucio Blanco, Cesáreo Castro and Alfredo Breceda.

Rejection of Huerta's legitimacy

The rejection of the legitimacy of the Huerta government was the basis of the document. The Plan of Guadalupe, so called because it was drawn up at the Guadalupe farm (Coahuila), was unaware of and repudiated the dictator and accused him of being a traitor.

Likewise, it declared illegitimate the Legislative and Judicial powers, as well as the governments of the states that recognized Huerta.

Carranza as Head of the Revolution

The Plan also established that Victoriano Carranza occupy the post of Chief of the First Army, baptized as Constitutionalist.

According to the document, once he managed to enter the capital and deposed Huerta, Carranza had to take charge of the executive branch on an interim basis. His only mandate would be to call elections as soon as possible.

Restore constitutional order

As noted above, the Plan de Guadalupe had an essentially political objective. The only thing she wanted was to restore constitutional order, deposing Huerta and calling elections.

Despite the fact that some of the signatories tried to introduce social demands, Carranza was not willing. According to him, this would have also led to having to confront the Church and the landowners, whom he considered more difficult rivals to defeat than Huerta himself.

Consequences

The Plan received the support of many of the leaders of the Mexican Revolution. Pancho Villa, Emiliano Zapata or Álvaro Obregón put their men at Carranza's disposal. With this accumulation of forces, the first consequence of the Plan was the immediate beginning of the war.

War against Huerta

The uprising against Huerta spread rapidly throughout the country. In just four months, the revolutionaries controlled all of Mexico. Huerta also saw one of his main supporters, the American ambassador Wilson, was removed from his position by the new administration of his country.

The main confrontation of the conflict took place on March 28, 1914, in Torreón. There, Villa's troops defeated the Huertistas.

With this battle, the war was sentenced in the absence of taking Zacatecas and entering the capital. When the first of these cities fell, Huerta had to accept the triumph of the Plan of Guadalupe and its defeat.

On July 14, the dictator fled the country. Carranza is named president in November, although he did not enter the capital until August 15.

Republican Convention

The victory over the Huerta government did not mean that peace would come to the country. Carranza, with important disagreements with Villa and Zapata, decided to call a Republican Convention. His intention was to negotiate the reforms that had to be carried out to restore constitutional order.

Carranza thought he was going to be confirmed as president, but the supporters of Villa and Zapata won the majority to replace him with Eulalio Gutiérrez Ortiz. When not accepting that decision, Carranza left Mexico City and went to Veracruz to regroup his troops and confront Villa and Zapata.

Addictions to Plan de Guadalupe

Carranza returned to recover the Plan of Guadalupe in his confrontation with Villa and Zapata. From his base in Veracruz, on December 12, 1914, he added some points to the original document.

On these new points, he pointed out that the country was not yet pacified because of Villa's actions and that, therefore, the Plan of Guadalupe remained in force. In practice, this meant that he remained the head of the constitutional army and the head of the executive branch.

On September 15, 1916, Carranza managed to defeat Villa and Zapata. Restored peace, he again reformed the Plan of Guadalupe to convene a Constituent Congress to draft a new Magna Carta.

References

1. Mexico history. Guadalupe plan. Obtained from independencedemexico.com.mx
2. Gob.mx. The result of the Plan of Guadalupe was the triumph of the Revolution and the promulgation of 1917. Obtained from gob.mx
3. Enriquez, Enrique A. Madero, Carranza and the Plan of Guadalupe. Recovered from files.juridicas.unam.mx
4. Encyclopedia of Latin American History and Culture. Plan Of Guadalupe. Retrieved from encyclopedia.com
5. Latinamerican studies. Guadalupe Plan. Recovered from latinamericanstudies.org
6. The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. Venustiano Carranza. Retrieved from britannica.com
7. Smitha, Frank E. The Huerta Presidency and Civil War in 1914. Retrieved from fsmitha.com