The Ten Tragic Days (Spanish: La Decena Trágica) is the name given to the multi-day coup d'état during the Mexican Revolution in Mexico City. It was staged by opponents of Francisco I. Madero, the democratically elected president of Mexico, between 9–19 February 1913. The coup instigated a second phase of the Mexican Revolution, after dictator Porfirio Díaz had been ousted and replaced in elections by Francisco I. Madero. The coup was carried out by general Victoriano Huerta and supporters of the old regime, with support from the United States, especially U.S. ambassador Henry Lane Wilson.
In the ten days of violence, the aim was to "create the illusion of chaos necessary to induce Madero to step down" from the presidency. Rebels led by General Félix Díaz, nephew of ex-president Porfirio Díaz, and General Bernardo Reyes escaped from jail and rallied forces to overthrow President Francisco I. Madero. The coup was strongly supported by U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Henry Lane Wilson, who was implacably opposed to Madero. Madero had retained the Mexican Federal Army after rebels had forced the resignation of President Porfirio Díaz. The head of the Mexican Federal Army, General Victoriano Huerta, ostensibly the defender of the Madero government, defected to the rebels, who sought the return of the old political order. On 18 February the sitting president and vice president were captured by rebel General Aureliano Blanquet, effectively ending Madero's presidency. On 19 February, a dispute between General Díaz and General Huerta about who should head the provisional government was resolved by Ambassador Wilson mediating between the two in an in-person meeting at the U.S. embassy. They formalized an agreement known as the Pact of the Embassy.
For ordinary citizens of Mexico City, the ten days of bombardment and displacement were horrific. While most fighting occurred between opposing military factions, assaulting or defending Madero's presidency, artillery and rifle fire inflicted substantial losses among uninvolved civilians and major damage to property in the capital's downtown. The February 19 pact between the two rebel generals put an end to the violence in Mexico City, and marks the end of the 10 days. But the political drama continued. While in custody, Madero and his vice president resigned, expecting that they would be allowed to go into exile, but they were subsequently murdered on 22 February 1913. General Huerta became President of Mexico, with the support of the U.S. and German ambassadors and most Mexican state governors.
After the coup came a third phase of the Mexican Revolution: civil war between Huerta's central government and the many revolutionary armies in northern and southern Mexico, who fought to take Huerta out of power and against one another. The newly inaugurated U.S. President Woodrow Wilson, in a change of mind of American foreign policy, refused to recognize Huerta's government. This phase concluded in 1917 after Constitutionalists gained control and drafted the Mexican Constitution of 1917.
Ouster of Díaz and Madero presidency 1911-13
Following uprisings in Mexico in the wake of the fraudulent presidential election of 1910, Porfirio Díaz resigned and went into exile in May 1911. A brief interim government under Francisco León de la Barra allowed for elections in October 1911, and Francisco I. Madero was elected President of Mexico. Madero, a member of one of Mexico's richest families, had never held elected office before, but had broad support of many sectors of Mexico. He was committed to constitutional democracy, rule of law, and separation of powers.
Within a few months, Madero began to lose support and came under criticism. Though Madero came from a wealthy background, the conservatives never forgave him for driving Porfirio Díaz out of office. Madero's supporters became disillusioned when he refused to implement their plans, such as the breakup of the large estates. Madero, at the end of his first year in the presidency, faced serious difficulties. The country was to a considerable extent unsettled, the treasury was depleted, and Madero's staff and supporters were only slightly less audacious than the hated Científicos, technocratic advisors, of the Porfirio Díaz's era.
During the first year of Madero's term, four revolts occurred. The Zapata revolt in Morelos, which began in November 1911, was contained by General Felipe Ángeles, but was not suppressed. The Pascual Orozco revolt in Chihuahua, begun in March 1912, and was handled by General Victoriano Huerta, but Orozco and his Colorados remained at large. The revolts of General Bernardo Reyes in Nuevo León, in December 1912 and General Félix Díaz in Veracruz, in November 1912, were crushed, and the two generals were imprisoned in Mexico City.
The two generals began plotting together to overthrow Madero and sought to bring in General Huerta, but they did not offer him enough incentives to join. Once the rebel uprising began, Huerta secretly joined the plot. U.S. Ambassador Henry Lane Wilson, the representative of President William Howard Taft's administration took an active role in undermining Madero's administration.
The Ten Days
9 February, the coup begins
Rumors of a pending overthrow of Madero were passed around openly in the capital, with only moderate enthusiasm. One vocal proponent of the removal of Madero was General Manuel Mondragón, who had accumulated finances under the Porfirio Díaz regime as an artillery expert, and was under suspicion of theft and corruption. Gathering the support of his officers and staff, he persuaded the cadets of the Escuela Militar de Aspirantes Military School located at Tlalpan to join him. The cadets appear to have acted under the direct orders of their instructors and senior commanders who were largely drawn from the conservative upper-class families of Mexican society, who supported a counter-revolution. They were joined by infantry and cavalry units of the regular army, from the Tlalpan garrison.
On February 9, 1913, the cadets entered the city in trolley cars. In the early morning, they gathered before the civilian penitentiary, where they demanded the release of General Félix Díaz. After a brief parley (the commander was killed), Díaz was freed. The cadets and soldiers under the leadership of their officers, proceeded to the Santiago Tlatelolco military prison, where they demanded and secured the release of General Reyes. When released, General Reyes mounted a horse and led part of the cadets and a column of soldiers to the National Palace, arriving there at 7:30 AM. Reyes appeared to have had full confidence that he would be welcomed and that the Palace would be delivered over to him. He rode to its gate "as if on parade". Reyes was fired upon, and fell from his horse mortally wounded; the men behind him scattered, and many spectators were killed in the confused shooting that followed. When the firing ceased 400 lay dead and over 1,000 were wounded; among them General Villar, the military commander. A bullet had cut through his collarbone. The Mexican Secretary of War, Ángel García Peña, was shot through the arm.
Pres. Madero was in the presidential residence at Chapultepec Castle, three miles away from the initial fighting. He received word of the coup at about 8 am. Madero mounted a horse and, with a small escort including the Secretaries of Finance and Treasury, rode into the city. Arriving at the end of the broad Avenida Juárez and finding the narrower streets thronged, he dismounted and went into a photographer's studio opposite the unfinished Teatro Nacional (National Theater), to telephone for later news. There he was joined by a few citizens and army officers, among them Victoriano Huerta, then on inactive duty due to an eye condition. Huerta had been considered in disfavor and was known to be resentful at not having been made Madero's Minister of War. Madero on his part had reservations about Huerta, an efficient but brutal officer with serious drinking problems.
Huerta offered his services to Madero, and, since General Villar and Secretary of War Peña were injured, his services were accepted. Huerta was appointed Commander of the Army of the Capital. The commission was made formal on the following day. (Note that Huerta was appointed the commander of the Army of the Capital, not the supreme commander of the Armies of Mexico, as is often reported.)
The President stepped out on a balcony of the National Palace and made a speech to the crowd, with Huerta standing by his side. Madero then went down, remounted his horse, and rode off, bowing to the cheering crowds, alone, far ahead of his escort, to the National Palace.
The assault on the Palace failed because Madero loyalist General Lauro Villar, the Commandant of the Palace Guard, walking in civilian clothes to his office in the early morning, observed a detachment of the cadets, dragging a machine gun with them, and thus was able to give the alarm and have his men in readiness. Madero left the presidential residence at Chapultepec Castle and with a contingent of cadets from the nearby military academy, left for the National Palace and encountered General Huerta. General Villar was wounded in the initial fighting and Madero offered the command of the palace guard to Huerta. However, Madero was not entirely confident of Huerta and left for Cuernavaca, to consult with General Felipe Angeles.
By this time, General Félix Díaz had heard about Reyes's death and contacted U.S. Ambassador Henry Lane Wilson. General Felix Díaz had been more successful than General Reyes. As a result of the resistance at the Presidential Palace, Diaz had retreated to the city arsenal, the Ciudadela, a few blocks from the Presidential Palace. He took control of the armory without much opposition, and found himself in possession of a defensible fort, with the government's reserve of arms and ammunition. From the ciudadela rebels began bombarding downtown Mexico City with their cannons, aiming for the National Palace.
That evening, Madero went to Cuernavaca, capital of the neighboring state of Morelos, where he conferred with Gen. Felipe Ángeles, then engaged against the forces of Zapata. He returned that night with General Ángeles and a train-load of arms, ammunition and some men, and with the understanding that General Ángeles would be placed in command of the capital army. By Monday morning, Madero had a force of one thousand men.
10 February
On Monday, February 10, neither side made any significant moves; Madero had complete confidence that this revolt would be defeated, as had been the previous army revolts. Madero telegraphed General Aureliano Blanquet to move his 1,200 men from Toluca to the National Palace, a distance of roughly fifty miles. General Blanquet acknowledged that he was on the way.
Madero conferred with the Army staff and brought forward his idea that General Ángeles should command the Capital Army, but the staff objected, stating that technically, the recently promoted Ángeles was not yet a general, as Congress had not yet confirmed his appointment.
Former interim president Francisco León de la Barra offered his services to Madero to mediate between the president and the rebels, but Madero rebuffed the offer.
11–12 February: bombardment of city
On February 11, at about 10 a.m., Huerta began the bombardment of the arsenal, which met with a vigorous rebel response, and the downtown between the National Palace and the arsenal was heavily damaged. Civilians were trapped in the eight-hours of crossfire. During the day, other government reinforcements arrived, along with a supply of ammunition, from Veracruz. Huerta, in charge of the guard of the National Palace, met with Félix Díaz in a private home in the Roma section of Mexico City. It was this meeting where Huerta declared his support for the coup. At this point, Huerta had not made his change of loyalty public. He then directed the 18th Corps of Rurales, the crack mounted police force commanded by the presidency, to exposed positions near the arsenal where they suffered heavy casualties under machine gun fire from the rebels. Whether the result of misjudgement or a deliberate betrayal, Huerta's action significantly weakened the forces loyal to Madero.
As the conflict unfolded, Governor of Coahuila, Venustiano Carranza offered Madero refuge in Saltillo. There was no movement of the mutineers from the arsenal, and no evidence of disaffection in the city at large. The U.S. ambassador, Henry Lane Wilson, however, on this day told all visitors at the Embassy that the Madero government had practically fallen and telegraphed Pres. William Howard Taft, asking for powers to force the combatants to negotiations. The mutual bombardment continued into the next day. Wilson conferred with the Spanish and German ministers and, as his report to the State Department that day stated, "protested against the continuance of hostilities." The President, continues Ambassador Wilson's report, "was visibly embarrassed and endeavored to fix the responsibility on General Félix Díaz."
Wilson now took the view that President Madero, by not surrendering instantly to the mutineers, was responsible for the bloodshed. This view was congenial to the Spanish Minister, and to it were won the British and German ministers. Ambassador Wilson said that he called into consultation, on this and subsequent occasions, only his British, Spanish and German colleagues because they represented the largest interest here, and "the others really did not matter." At another time, Mr. Wilson explained that it would have been difficult to contact them all, so he consulted with those representing the largest interests.
The Austrian and Japanese legations, with all the Latin American representatives, including those of Brazil, Chile, and Cuba, took the view that the constitutional government was justified in maintaining its authority, and that it was no business of foreign diplomats to interfere against the constitutional government in a domestic conflict. Following the call on Madero during which Ambassador Wilson, with the British minister Francis Stronge and the German minister Paul von Hintze telling President Madero that they protested against his continuing hostilities. Wilson, accompanied by Stronge, went to the arsenal and spoke with Díaz; as Wilson reported to Secretary of State Philander Knox that day, he "urged that firing be confined to a particular zone." Bombardment of the downtown continued, with civilians feeling the impact of the fighting. Bodies of civilians and soldiers were left in the streets, along with those of horses. Food was scarce.