VENUSTIANO CARRANZA: BIOGRAPHY - HISTORY - 2025

Venustiano Carranza (1859-1920) was one of the most prominent protagonists of the second stage of the Mexican Revolution, which was from the assassination of Francisco I. Madero until the Constitution of 1917.

Carranza was born in 1859, in Cuatro Cienegas, in the bosom of a wealthy family. His entry into politics occurred in local and state institutions, where he remained until the beginning of the Revolution. When Madero rose up against Porfirio Díaz, Carranza joined his cause.

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After Madero, as president, was assassinated by supporters of Victoriano Huerta, Carranza again took up arms to try to overthrow the government formed after the coup.

The victory of Carranza and the rest of the revolutionaries did not bring stability to the country. The Aguascalientes Convention, summoned to try to smooth the differences, did not achieve its objective and Carranza settled in Veracruz. He fought Zapata and Villa until he defeated them and proclaimed himself president.

Carranza promoted the Constitution of 1917. He remained in the presidency until 1920. His intention to impose a successor led Pascual Orozco and Díaz Calles to rebel, forcing Carranza to flee, being assassinated by his enemies.

Biography

Venustiano Carranza Garza was born in Cuatro Ciénegas (Coahuila), on December 29, 1859. At that time, it was a very small town, with barely two thousand inhabitants.

The Carranza family was one of the most important in the region. Venustiano's father, Colonel Jesús Carranza, had stood out within the republican cause. Biographers affirm that he was a declared admirer of Benito Juárez and that he educated his son using him as an example of conduct.

Similarly, Jesús Carranza was immersed in the political life of the area and held the municipal presidency of Cuatro Ciénegas on several occasions.

Venustiano spent part of his childhood in his native municipality. His studies were carried out, first, in Saltillo and, later, in Mexico City. In the capital, when he was 15 years old, he entered the National Preparatory School

Entry into politics

Venustiano Carranza married Virginia Salinas in 1887. In that year, he also began to follow in his father's footsteps in local politics. At the same time, before the death of his father, he took the reins of the estates that the family owned.

His political career began when he was elected municipal president. From that position he had serious clashes with the state governor, José María Garza Galán. In fact, bad relationships caused Carranza to leave his position.

When Garza tried to run for reelection, Carranza clearly took a stand against him. He did so, yes, convincing Porfirio Díaz that his position was not against the central government.

Bernardo Reyes mediated the matter and convinced Carranza to return to politics. In this way, he returned to the municipal presidency, in which he remained between 1894 and 1898. Apart from that position, he was a deputy in the State Congress and a senator in the Congress of the Union.

Already in 1908, Carranza was named Governor of Coahuila on an interim basis and everyone was waiting for the position to be confirmed definitively. However, his relationship with Reyes caused Porfirio to avoid him.

Start of the Revolution

After decades of Porfiriato, many sectors of Mexican society expected a change in the 1910 elections. The opposition leader against Díaz was Francisco I. Madero, who founded a movement with a great chance of winning the vote.

However, during the electoral campaign, Madero was arrested by government forces and eventually had to go into exile in the United States. From there, he launched the San Luis Plan, which called for the dictator to be removed from office.

Carranza, faced with this, initially avoided committing himself to the Maderista movement. According to the biographers, he hoped that Bernardo Reyes would be Díaz's successor and take him to the government with him. Realizing that this was not going to happen, he gave his support to Madero and even accompanied him into exile in San Antonio, Texas and supported Plan de San Luís.

The triumph of the uprising against Díaz brought Madero to the presidency. Carranza was named. First. Governor of Coahuila and, later, Secretary of Defense and Navy.

Already being elected governor of his state, Carranza stood out by stopping the revolt of Pascual Orozco's supporters in 1912.

Coup against Madero

Despite Madero's attempts to reconcile the country, both on the revolutionary side, Zapata and Villa, and on the conservative side, armed uprisings did not stop taking place.

The last, the so-called Tragic Decade of 1913, was led by Victoriano Huerta, a military man who had supported Madero against Díaz. Huerta carried out a coup that ended with the assassination of the president and established a dictatorship led by himself.

Carranza, despite having disagreed with Madero, was clearly opposed to the rebels. After the murder, he accused the church and conservatives of being behind the events.

Guadalupe Plan

To combat the Huerta government, Carranza drew up the Plan of Guadalupe. This declared not to recognize the new president and called to dismiss him.

Carranza formed the Constitutionalist Army, of which he declared himself First Chief. The military campaign began in Sonora and Chihuahua.

According to the Plan, once he achieved victory, a provisional government would be established until elections could be called. At the head of that executive would be Carranza himself.

Some of the supports Carranza obtained to bring down Huerta were Álvaro Obregón and Pancho Villa, in the north, and Emiliano Zapata, in the south, although the latter had his own agrarian agenda.

While the war was developing, the United States took the opportunity to invade part of the Mexican territory. Carranza negotiated with the Americans, ensuring that they did not interfere in what was happening.

The superiority of the revolutionaries was manifest and they were defeating Huerta's troops on all fronts. In July 1914, the dictator realized that he had no chance and resigned from the presidency.

Carranza, along with his supporters, entered Mexico City. Among them, however, neither Villa nor Zapata were to be found, a prelude to the confrontations that began almost immediately.

Aguascalientes Convention

The attempt to stabilize the situation created after the fall of Huerta took place in the Aguascalientes Convention. Carranza summoned a good part of the revolutionaries, although in principle he left out the Zapatistas. His intention was to legitimize his interim presidency, but events did not unfold as he expected.

The meeting took place in October 1914. Despite previous problems, in the end Zapata and Villa did attend the Convention. During it, their positions were gaining support and Carranza was left in the minority. Even some of his supporters, plus others who were from Orozco, ended up on Zapata's side.

The Zapatistas had previously proposed, within the Ayala Plan, to convene a similar meeting to elect an interim president. Later, this would be in charge of calling elections to Congress.

Setback for Carranza

As the meetings unfolded, it became clear to Carranza that his intention to be named interim president was not going to come to fruition. According to historians, his purpose was to occupy that position to present himself with all the possibilities to future elections, as well as to begin to elaborate a Constitution.

The result of the Convention left Carranza without the command of the revolutionaries. Those gathered, with the strong support of Zapatistas and Villistas, appointed Gutiérrez Ortiz as interim President, with the task of calling short-term elections.

Carranza did not accept the result. Thus, he declared himself in rebellion and, in January 1915, marched towards Veracruz with his supporters. Once there, he reorganized his army, for which he had the help of Álvaro Obregón, González Garza, and other revolutionary generals who faced Zapata and Villa.

In Veracruz, Carranza created his own administration and began to act as a ruler. Among the measures it took are an Agrarian Law, the regulation of divorce and the declaration of independence of the Judicial Power.

Apart from his legislative work, he also undertook military actions to try to defeat the winners of the Convention and be able to return to the capital.

Return to the capital

The war was favorable to Carranza's interests, especially thanks to Obregón's victories between April and June 1915. Villa was forced to leave Mexico City, leaving the road clear for Carranza's return. The defeat of the Zapatistas was the definitive accolade and led to the recognition of the United States.

The first thing the Mexican politician did was raise the need for a new Constitution. The intention was to formalize the reforms he proposed, something that he had already pointed out in 1913.

Constitution of 1917

Carranza announced on September 14, 1916 that he was going to begin the process to draft and promulgate a new constitutional text that would replace the 1857 one. To do this, he called a Congress and drew up the rules to elect the representatives that would form it.

After Aguascalientes, Carranza did not want history to repeat itself. For this reason, he stipulated a series of conditions to be a member of the Constituent Congress that, in theory, left out the Zapatistas and the Villistas.

Carranza's project was to reform the Constitution of 1857, which had been liberal in character. However, when the meetings began, the most progressive rejected the proposed text.

The majority opted for rejection, since, as they said, it did not include revolutionary ideals. According to experts, the positions of the Zapatistas, although absent, had permeated a large part of the congressmen.

In this way, the resulting Constitution was quite different from the one proposed by Carranza. This, he had no choice but to accept it and the Magna Carta was promulgated on February 5, 1917. Its articles contained advances such as relations between employers and workers, measures favorable to the peasants and an educational reform.

Presidency

Although part of his constitutional project had been modified, Carranza did achieve his goal of being named president. On May 1, 1917, he was sworn in, with the intention of pacifying the country.

Zapata and Villa, despite previous defeats, had not laid down their arms. The two revolutionaries were weakened, but they still fought for some time.

The Carrancista government undertook a policy of rebuilding infrastructures, which had been badly damaged by the years of war. Likewise, it tried to reactivate the economy, also in a very bad situation due to the long conflict.

Carranza undertook a timid agrarian reform, distributing some two hundred thousand hectares, very far from the proposals of the Ayala Plan.

Over the months, however, the government's policy became more conservative. The labor movements were harshly repressed and the agrarian reform was paralyzed. The murder of Emiliano Zapata reduced Carranza's popularity even further.

Revolution of Agua Prieta

Despite this loss of popularity, Carranza reached the end of his term in 1920. Everyone thought that his successor would be Álvaro Obregón, but the president appointed Ignacio Bonilla, a civilian, in his place.

Obregón reacted immediately, supported by Plutarco Elías Calles and Adolfo de la Huerta. They launched the Agua Prieta Plan, refusing to recognize the new ruler.

Attempted flight and death

The signers of the Agua Prieta Plan won the support of most of the army, which gave them the definitive advantage. Carranza tried to repeat the maneuver he already carried out after the Convention and install the government in Veracruz.

The former president, left for his destination with the rest of his cabinet and their families. In addition, he took the funds from the Federal Government. These were made up of silver, gold, and paper money. In short, everything that was in the Treasury.

On May 20, 1920, it reached the Aljibes station. The roads had been dynamited, and he had to enter the Sierra Norte de Puebla. With him were many of his followers and some cadets from the Military College.

Along the way, they stopped for the night in the small town of Tlaxcalantongo, Puebla. It was in that place, while he slept, that Rodolfo Herrero's troops surprised them during the early morning of May 21, 1920.

Carranza was killed on the spot, without having a chance to defend himself. His body was buried in the Civil Pantheon of Dolores in Mexico City. Later, in 1942, his remains were moved to the Monument to the Revolution.

References

1. Biographies and Lives. Venustiano Carranza. Obtained from biografiasyvidas.com
2. Briceño, Gabriela. Venustiano Carranza. Retrieved from euston96.com
3. Mexico history. Venustiano Carranza. Obtained from lahistoriamexicana.mx
4. The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. Venustiano Carranza. Retrieved from britannica.com
5. Minster, Christopher. Biography of Venustiano Carranza. Obtained by thoughtco.com
6. The Biography. Biography of Venustiano Carranza (1859-1920). Obtained by thebiography.us
7. Encyclopedia of World Biography. Venustiano Carranza. Retrieved from encyclopedia.com