Adolfo de la Huerta: Encyclopedia II - Adolfo de la Huerta - Mexican Revolution

Adolfo de la Huerta - Mexican Revolution

De la Huerta was an active Madero supporter during the Revolution of 1910, presiding over the Revolutionary Party of Sonora, and after Madero's victory he was elected as local representative in the state legislature. As a state representative he supported Plutarco Elías Calles in his bid for commissioner of the border town of Agua Prieta and clinched Alvaro Obregón's bid for the municipal presidency of Huatabampo. He participated in the fight against Orozquista rebels and proposed solutions to the endemic problems with the Yaqui Indians.

De la Huerta happened to be in Mexico City during the coup d'etat against the Madero government, and he returned north to organize opposition to the coup's leader, Victoriano Huerta. He made contact with the governor of Coahuila, Venustiano Carranza, and provided a link between him and Revolutionary forces in Sonora. He attended a meeting in Monclava, Coahuila, in which the Revolutionary forces accepted (provisionally at least) Carranza's leadership. Following defeat of Huerta in October 1914, de la Huerta was named chief of staff in the Ministry of the Interior under Carranza, and in August 1915 he was promoted to secretary of the interior. In May 1916 he assumed the post of interim governor of Sonora.

During his tenure as interim governor, de la Huerta implemented a number of important social reforms. He attempted to broker a peace settlement with the Yaqui Indians and, on a somewhat more sour note, issued decrees against Chinese immigrants in Sonora. One of his most important reforms was the establishment of a state "chamber of workers" to represent workers and mediate labor disputes. At the end of his term de la Huerta handed the governorship to General Plutarco Elias Calles and returned to Mexico City as chief of staff in the Ministry of the Interior; he later served as consul general in New York. In 1919 he was nominated as the official governor of Sonora, and the good impression he had made as interim governor helped him win the election handily.

Nonetheless, de la Huerta's relationship with the federal government during his term as constitutionally elected governor would be far less amicable. In June 1919 the Sonoran Álvaro Obregón was named a candidate for the presidency, and Carranza's opposition to his candidacy alienated the people of Sonora. De la Huerta's first direct confrontation with Carranza was over a seemingly minor technical matter. The federal government declared that the Sonora River belonged under its jurisdiction, while the state government insisted that it belonged under local jurisdiction, since it did not flow into the ocean. In fact, the Carranza administration was looking for an excuse to drop de la Huerta and thus decrease the influence of Sonora. General Manuel M. Dieguez was sent to Sonora as a new military commander for the region. As military commander Dieguez posed a grave threat to the constitutional government of Sonora, attempting to provoke a confrontation with the Yaquis and gain control of the state. With his characteristic diplomatic acumen, de la Huerta armed a contingent of volunteers and was able to convince the officers at Dieguez's operations headquarters to ally with him and not obey Dieguez. Realizing that he had lost control of his own army, Dieguez returned to Guadalajara.

Meanwhile, the national political crisis had begun to heat up. In February 1920 Calles resigned as secretary of industry, commerce, and labor to help lead the Obregón campaign. Following his return to Sonora in April, de la Huerta named him state military commander. Tensions between Sonora and the Carranza administration continued to mount, and when Obregón narrowly avoided capture at the hands of federal authorities in Mexico City a rebel plan was drawn up in Sonora. Titled the Plan of Agua Prieta, the plan was published on April 23 and began a broad national movement of not recognizing Carranza or the governors of the states that supported him. In what has been termed a "generals' strike," the majority of officers in the Mexican army refused to support Carranza; Dieguez, one of Carranza's last military supporters, was taken prisoner in Guadalajara. Carranza attempted to move his government to Veracruz as he had done in 1915, but railway lines had been cut and Carranza and his entourage were forced to retreat on horseback into the Sierra of Puebla, where he was attacked and killed on May 21.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Mexican Revolution", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki