February 19, 1913 – Mexico Has Three Presidents in One Day

Victoriano Huerta took the oath of office in Mexico at 11:25 p.m. But he was not the first to be president on that day.

Victoriano Huerta

The day began with Francisco Madero as the president, but he was deposed in a military coup. He and his vice president were arrested and then assassinated. The minister of foreign affairs, Pedro Lascuráin, briefly took over. Less than one half hour later, he was succeeded by General José Victoriano Huerta Márquez.

The period ending on February 19 is known as The Tragic Ten Days in Mexico City.

General José Victoriano Huerta Márquez, known more informally as General Huerta, was born in 1854 in the western state of Jalisco. He rose through the military in part because of his connections to Bernardo Reyes, the most influential figure in the Porfirio’s army.

José de la Cruz Porfirio Díaz Mori was a Mexican general and politician who served seven terms as President of Mexico, from 1876 to 1880 and from 1884 to 1911.

Francisco I. Madero

After Díaz declared himself the winner of an eighth term in office in 1910, his electoral opponent, Francisco I. Madero, issued a call for armed rebellion against him, leading to the outbreak of the Mexican Revolution. Díaz was forced to resign in May 1911 and went into exile in France, where he died four years later.

Madero, now President of Mexico, as the Library of Congress reports, was not confident of Huerta’s loyalty, but needed his military skills to pacify three major rebellions. Huerta defeated one, was unable to stop the second, and joined the third with Félix Díaz Velasco, the nephew of President Porfirio Díaz, and Bernardo Reyes.

Félix Díaz

Díaz was captured in October, 1912 and sentenced to death for treason, although Madero later commuted the sentence to life imprisonment.

Despite his considerable popularity with the people, Madero’s administration soon encountered opposition both from more radical revolutionaries and from remnants of the former regime.

Meanwhile Huerta put in motion a military coup, which was supported by the U.S. ambassador. The plan was for Huerta to be interim president, and then Díaz would run for president with Huerta’s support in 1914.

Madero’s arrest was one thing, but the kiling of Madero and his vice-president led to an international outcry. It eventually led to the fall of the Huerta dictatorship and the establishment, in 1917, of the Constitution of Mexico under the Maderista President Venustiano Carranza.

Venustiana Carranza