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{{family name hatnote|Huerta|Márquez|lang=Spanish}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| name = Victoriano Huerta
| nationality = Mexican
| image = File:Victoriano Huerta.(cropped).jpg
| caption = Victoriano Huerta = Portrait, {{circa|1912}}
| order = 39th
| office = President of Mexico
| term_start = 19 February 1913
| term_end = 15 July 1914
| vicepresident = Vacant{{efn|After the ousting of President [[Francisco I. Madero]] and Vice President [[José María Pino Suárez]], the position of Vice President was left vacant by Presidents [[Pedro Lascuráin]] and Huerta, and was officially abolished in 1917.}}
| predecessor = [[Pedro Lascuráin]]
| successorpredecessor = [[Francisco S.Pedro CarvajalLascuráin]]
| successor = [[Francisco S. Carvajal]]
| office2 = [[Secretariat of the Interior (Mexico)|Secretary of the Interior of Mexico]]
| term2 = 19 February 1913<br/>(c. 45 minutes)
| president2 = [[Pedro Lascuráin]]
| predecessor2 = [[Rafael Lorenzo Hernández]]
| successor2 = [[Alberto García Granados]]
| birth_date = {{birth date|1850|12|23|df=y}}
| birth_place = [[Colotlán|Agua Gorda, Colotlán]], [[Jalisco]], Mexico
| death_date = {{death date and age|1916|1|13|1850|12|22|df=y}}
| death_place = [[El Paso, Texas]], U.S.
| resting_place = Evergreen Cemetery (El Paso, Texas)
| spouse = Emilia Águila
| party = [[Independent politician|None]]
| branch = [[Mexican Army]]
| vicepresident =
| serviceyears = 1877–1907▼
| allegiance = {{flagdeco|Mexico|1893}} [[Porfiriato|Mexico]]
| branchrank = [[Mexican Army]] = General
| unit = ▼
▲| serviceyears = 1877–1907
| rankbirth_name = GeneralJosé Victoriano Huerta Márquez
▲| unit =
}}
 
'''José Victoriano Huerta Márquez''' ({{IPA-es|biɣtoˈɾjano ˈweɾta}}; 23 December 1850{{efn|There is dispute about the date of birth and the maternal surname of Victoriano Huerta. Many sources, including ''Gobernantes de México'' by Fernando Orozco Linares give a birthdate of 23 March 1854 and a maternal surname of Ortega. However, the parish register of Colotlán, Jalisco as filmed by the [[Genealogical Society of Utah]] on film 0443681 v. 24 p. 237 shows a baptism date of 23 December 1850 saying he was one day old born on Monday at 8 a.m., which 23 December 1850 was a Monday, and his mother's name was Refugio Márquez. His death certificate gives the birthdate of 23 December 1853. The marriage record dated 21 November 1880 at Santa Veracruz parrish in Mexico City as filmed by the Genealogical Society of Utah on film 0035853 confirms his mother's name as: Del Refugio Márquez.}} – 13 January 1916) was a general in the Mexican [[Federal Army]] and 39th [[President of Mexico]], who came to power by coup against the democratically elected government of [[Francisco I. Madero]] with the aid of other Mexican generals and the U.S. Ambassador to Mexico. His violent seizure of power set off a new wave of armed conflict in the [[Mexican Revolution]]. Zesty ahhhh man.
 
After a military career under President [[Porfirio Díaz]] and Interim President [[Francisco León de la Barra]], Huerta became a high-ranking officer during the presidency of Madero during the first phase of the [[Mexican Revolution]] (1911–13). In February 1913, Huerta joined a conspiracy against Madero, who entrusted him to control a revolt in Mexico City. The [[Ten Tragic Days]] – actually fifteen days – saw the forced resignation of Madero and his vice president and their murders. The coup was backed by the nascent [[German Empire]] as well as the [[United States]] under the [[William Howard Taft|Taft administration]]. But the succeeding [[Woodrow Wilson|Wilson administration]] refused to recognize the new regime which had come to power by coup. The U.S. allowed arms sales to rebel forces. Many foreign powers did recognize the regime, including Britain and Germany, but withdrew further support when revolutionary forces started to show military success against the regime; their continuing support of him threatened their own relationships with the [[Federal government of the United States|U.S. government]].
 
Huerta's government resisted the U.S. incursion into the port of Veracruz that violated Mexico's sovereignty. Even Huerta's opponents agreed with his stance. The Constitutionalist Army, the forces of the northern coalition opposing Huerta, defeated the Federal Army. Huerta was forced to resign in July 1914 and flee the country to Spain,<ref>John Eisenhower, “Intervention"Intervention!: The United States and the Mexican Revolution, 1913–1917”1913–1917" 1993, p150</ref> only 17 months into his presidency, after the Federal Army collapsed. While attempting to intrigue with German spies in the U.S. during [[World War I]], Huerta was arrested in 1915 and died in U.S. custody.
 
His supporters were known as ''Huertistas'' during the Mexican Revolution. He is still vilified as a traitor by modern-day Mexicans, who generally refer to him as ''El Chacal'' ("The Jackal") or ''El Usurpador'' ("The Usurper").<ref>McCartney, Laton. ''The Teapot Dome Scandal: How Big Oil Bought the Harding White House and Tried to Steal the Country'', Random House, Inc., 2008, [https://books.google.com/books?id=ZdHi6ilyqk8C&dq=Victoriano+Huerta+Jackal&pg=RA1-PA1900 p. 1901].</ref>
 
==Early life==
According to the records in the books of the Parish Notary of Colotlán, José Victoriano Huerta Márquez was born and baptized on Monday, December 23, 1850, in the town of Colotlán. (otherOther sources indicate that he was born on March 23, 1845, in the Agua Gorda ranch.) His parents were Jesús Huerta Córdoba, originally from Colotlán, Jalisco and María Lázara del Refugio Márquez Villalobos, originally from El Plateado, Zacatecas. His paternal grandparents were Rafael Huerta Benítez and María Isabel de la Trinidad Córdoba, the first originally from Villanueva, Zacatecas and the second from Colotlán, Jalisco and were his maternal grandparents José María Márquez and María Soledad Villalobos. He identified himself as [[Indigenous peoples of Mexico|indigenous]], and both his parents are reported to have been ethnically [[Huichol people|Huichol]], although his father is said to have been [[Mestizo]].<ref name="Richmond p. 655">Richmond, Douglas W. "Victoriano Huerta" in ''Encyclopedia of Mexico'', vol. 1, p. 655, Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn 1997.</ref> Huerta learned to read and write at a school run by the local priest, making him one of the relatively few literate people in Colotlán.<ref>Rausch, George "The Early Career of Victoriano Huerta" pages 136-145 from ''The Americas'', Volume 21, No. 2 October 1964 page 136.</ref> He had decided upon a military career early on as the only way of escaping the poverty of Colotlán.<ref>Rausch, "The Early Career of Victoriano Huerta" p. 136.</ref> In 1869 he was employed by visiting Gen. [[Donato Guerra]] to serve as his personal secretary.<ref>Rausch, "The Early Career of Victoriano Huerta" p.136.</ref> In that role he distinguished himself and, with Gen. Guerra's support, gained admission to the Mexican National Military Academy ([[Heroic Military Academy (Mexico)|Heroico Colegio Militar]]) at [[Chapultepec]] in [[Mexico City]] in 1872.<ref name="MexEncyclo">
{{cite book
|last = Coerver
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==Huerta and Madero's overthrow==
{{Main|Ten Tragic Days}}
As Madero lost support and as internal and external groups plotted to remove him from the presidency, Huerta secretly joined the conspiracy. The coup d'état that toppled Madero in February 1913, known in Mexican history as the [[Ten Tragic Days]], was a conspiracy of Porfirio Díaz's nephew, General Félix Díaz, General Bernardo Reyes, and General Madragón. The plotters attempted to draw in Huerta in January, but Huerta waited for a better incentive to join, since Félix Díaz expected to be the successor to Madero. The first day of the coup, February 9, General Reyes died in battle and General Lauro Villar, the commander of Madero's forces in Mexico City, was wounded.<ref>{{cite book|first=Alan|last=Knight|page=[https://archive.org/details/mexicanrevolutio0000knig/page/483 483]|title=The Mexican Revolution. Volume 1. Porfirians, Liberals and Peasants|isbn=0-8032-7770-9|year=1990|publisher=U of Nebraska Press |url=https://archive.org/details/mexicanrevolutio0000knig/page/483}}</ref> Madero appointed Huerta in his stead. According to historian [[Friedrich Katz]], "It was a decision for which [Madero] would pay with his life."<ref name="Katz, p. 96"/> Having secured that key position, Huerta reopened negotiations with the plotters and joined them in secret. His task was to undermine Madero militarily without betraying his own complicity and began military operations that weakened Madero's forces.<ref>Katz, ''The Secret War'', p. 97.</ref>
The [[United States Ambassador to Mexico]], [[Henry Lane Wilson]],<ref name="McLynn">
{{cite book
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British historian [[Alan Knight (historian)|Alan Knight]] wrote about Huerta: "The consistent thread which ran through the Huerta regime, from start to finish, was militarisation: the growth and reliance on the Federal Army, the military takeover of public offices, the preference for military over political solutions, the militarisation of society in general".<ref>Knight, Alan ''The Mexican Revolution: Counter-Revolution and Reconstruction'', Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1990 page 62.</ref> Huerta "came very close to converting Mexico into the most completely militaristic state in the world."<ref>Knight, ''The Mexican Revolution: Counter-Revolution and Reconstruction'', p. 62.</ref> Huerta's stated goal was a return to the "order" of the [[Porfiriato]], but his methods were unlike those of Diaz, who had shown a talent for compromise and diplomacy; seeking support from and playing off regional elites, using not only army officers but also technocrats, former guerrilla leaders, ''[[cacique]]s'' and provincial elites to support his regime.<ref name="Knight, p. 63">Knight, ''The Mexican Revolution'', p. 63.</ref> By contrast, Huerta relied entirely upon the army for support, giving officers all of the key jobs, regardless of their talents, as Huerta sought to rule with ''La Mano Dura'' ("The Iron Hand"), believing only in military solutions to all problems.<ref>Knight,''The Mexican Revolution: Counter-Revolution and Reconstruction'', p. 63.</ref> For this reason, Huerta during his short time as president was the object of far more hatred than Diaz ever was; even the [[Zapatistas (Mexican Revolution)|Zapatistas]] had a certain respect for Diaz as a patriarchal leader who had enough sense to finally leave with dignity in 1911, whereas Huerta was seen as a thuggish soldier who had Madero murdered and sought to terrorize the nation into submission.<ref name="Knight, p. 63"/> Huerta disliked cabinet meetings, ordered his ministers about as if they were non-commissioned officers and displayed in general a highly autocratic style.<ref name="Knight, p. 64"/> Huerta established a harsh military dictatorship.<ref>Richmond, "Victoriano Huerta", p. 657.</ref> [[President of the United States|U.S. President]] Woodrow Wilson became hostile to the Huerta administration, recalled ambassador [[Henry Lane Wilson]] and demanded Huerta step aside for democratic elections. In August 1913 Wilson imposed an arms embargo on Mexico, forcing Huerta to turn to Europe and Japan to buy arms.<ref>Knight, ''The Mexican Revolution'', p. 72.</ref>
 
The Federal Army Huerta took over in February 1913 on paper numbered between 45,000 and 50,000 men. Huerta continued to increase the strength of the army, issuing a degreedecree for conscripting 150,000 men in October 1913; another degreedecree for conscripting 200,000 men in January 1914 and one for a quarter of million men in March 1914. These figures were never achieved as many men fled to fight for the Constitutionalists rather than Huerta.<ref>Knight, ''The Mexican Revolution'' p. 77.</ref> Together with an increase in the number of the paramilitary ''[[rurales]]'' mounted police force and the state militias, Huerta had approximately 300,000 men, or about 4% of the population, fighting for him by early 1914.<ref>Knight, ''The Mexican Revolution: Counter-Revolution and Reconstruction'', p.77.</ref> Faced with Mexicans' widespread reluctance to serve, Huerta had to resort to the ''leva'', as vagrants, criminals, captured rebels, political prisoners and sometimes just men on the streets were rounded up to serve in the Federal Army.<ref>Knight, ''The Mexican Revolution'', p. 77.</ref> In Veracruz workers getting off the night shift at factories were rounded up in a ''leva'' (forced conscription), while in Mexico City poor men going to hospitals were rounded up in the ''leva''.<ref>Knight, ''The Mexican Revolution'', p.77.</ref> As Indians were felt to be particularly docile and submissive to whites, the ''leva'' was applied especially heavily in the southern Mexico, where the majority of the people were indigenous. Thousands of Juchiteco and Maya were rounded up to fight a war in the north of Mexico that they felt did not concern them.<ref>Knight, ''The Mexican Revolution'' page 78.</ref> A visitor to Mérida, Yucatán wrote of "heart-breaking" scenes as hundreds of Maya said goodbye to their wives as they were forced to board a train while in chains.<ref>Knight, ''The Mexican Revolution'', p. 78.</ref>
 
The men rounded up in the ''leva'' proved to be poor soldiers, prone to desertion and mutiny, since they were serving against their will and felt hatred for their commanding officers. Officers mistreated both their enlisted men and the common people.<ref>Lieuwen, Edwin, ''Mexican Militarism: The Rise and Fall of the Revolutionary Army''. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press 1968, 4-5</ref> Huerta had to follow a defensive strategy of keeping the army concentrated in large towns, since his soldiers in the field would either desert or go over to the rebels.<ref>Knight, ''The Mexican Revolution'' p. 79.</ref> Throughout the civil war of 1913-14 the Constitutionalists fought with a ferocity and courage that the federal army never managed.<ref name="Knight, p. 79">Knight,''The Mexican Revolution'', p. 79.</ref> In Yucatán about 70% of the army were men conscripted from the prisons, while one "volunteer" battalion consisted of captured Yaqui.<ref name="Knight, p. 79"/> In October 1913, in the town of Tlalnepantla, the army's 9th Regiment, which was said to have been "crazed with alcohol and marijuana", mutinied, murdered their officers and went over to the rebels.<ref>Knight, ''The Mexican Revolution'', p. 79.</ref>
 
To secure volunteers, Huerta attempted to use Mexican nationalism and anti-Americanism. In the fall of 1913, running spurious stories in the press warning of an imminent U.S. invasion and asking for patriotic men to step up to defend Mexico.<ref>Knight, ''The Mexican Revolution'', pp. 79-80.</ref> The campaign attracted some volunteers from the lower middle class, through they were usually disillusioned when they learned that they were going to fight other Mexicans, not the Americans.<ref name="Knight, p.80">Knight, ''The Mexican Revolution'', p.80.</ref> In rural Mexico a sense of Mexican nationalism barely existed at this time among the ''campesinos''. Mexico was an abstract entity that meant nothing, and most peasants were primarily loyal to their own villages, the ''patria chicas''.<ref>Knight, ''The Mexican Revolution'', p. 80.</ref> Huerta's patriotic campaign was a complete failure in the countryside.<ref name="Knight, p.80"/> The other source of volunteers was toprovided allowby allowing wealthy landlords to raise private armies under the guise of the state militias, but few ''peons'' wanted to fight, let alone die, for Gen. Huerta, since some Constitutionalists were promising land reform, although not First Chief [[Venustiano Carranza]].<ref>Knight, ''The Mexican Revolution'', pp. 81-82.</ref>
 
When Huerta refused to call elections, and with the situation further exacerbated by the [[Tampico Affair]], President Wilson landed US troops to [[United States occupation of Veracruz|occupy]] Mexico's most important seaport, [[Veracruz (city)|Veracruz]].
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While in the US he negotiated with Capt. [[Franz von Rintelen]] of German Navy Intelligence for money to purchase weapons and arrange [[U-boat]] landings to provide support, while offering (perhaps as a bargaining chip) to make war on the US, which Germany hoped would end munitions supplies to the Allies.<ref>Tuchman, Barbara W. ''The Zimmermann Telegram'' (New York: NEL Mentor, 1967), pp. 73-4.</ref> Their meetings, held at the [[Hotel Manhattan|Manhattan Hotel]] (as well as another New York hotel, "probably the Holland House" at Fifth Avenue and 30th Street),<ref name="Tuchman, p.73">Tuchman, p. 73.</ref> were observed by [[United States Secret Service|Secret Service]]men, and von Rintelen's telephone conversations were routinely intercepted and recorded.<ref name="Tuchman, p.73"/>
 
Huerta traveled from New York by train to [[Newman, New Mexico|Newman]], [[New Mexico]] ({{convert|25 miles|mi}} from the border), where he was to be met by Gen. [[Pascual Orozco]] and some well-armed Mexican supporters. However, a US Army colonel with 25 soldiers and two deputy US marshals intervened and arrested him as he left the train, on a charge of sedition.<ref>Blum, Howard. ''Dark Invasion: 1915 - Germany's Secret War'', Harper, 2014, p. 228.</ref> The German-initiated plan for Huerta to regain the Mexican presidency through a [[coup d'état]] was foiled. After some time in a US Army prison at [[Fort Bliss]] he was released on bail, but remained under house arrest due to risk of flight to Mexico. A day after, he attended a dinner at Fort Bliss. Later he was returned to jail, and while so confined died, perhaps of [[cirrhosis]] of the [[liver]] or possibly of cancer.<ref>[https://read.dukeupress.edu/hahr/article/42/2/133/159673/The-Exile-and-Death-of-Victoriano-Huerta The Exile and Death of Victoriano Huerta]</ref> While the main symptom was [[jaundice|yellow jaundice]], poisoning by the US was widely suspected.<ref name=Lee>Stacy, Lee. ''Mexico and the United States'', Marshall Cavendish, 2002, [https://books.google.com/books?id=DSzyMGh8pNwC&pg=PA405 p. 405]</ref> In ''The Dark Invader'' (published 1933), Capt. von Rintelen wrote that he had heard that Huerta was poisoned by his cook; but that he had never found out the truth. <ref>{{cite book | url=https://www.amazon.com/Dark-Invader-Wartime-Reminiscences-Intelligence-ebook-dp-B01JHP4VBC/dp/B01JHP4VBC/ | title=The Dark Invader: Wartime Reminiscences of a German Naval Intelligence Officer | date=26 July 2016 | publisher=Lucknow Books }}</ref>
 
==Legacy==
In the historiography of Mexico, Victoriano Huerta is the "demon" of the Mexican Revolution, against whom all others are measured.<ref>LaFrance, David. "Victoriano Huerta" in ''Encyclopedia of Latin American History and Culture'', vol. 3, p. 216. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons 1996</ref> Diverse factions and interests in Mexico came together against the Huerta regime, including the Zapatistas in Morelos and the Constitutionalists in northern Mexico under Venustiano Carranza. Once Huerta was ousted, the loose coalition fell apart and Mexico was plunged into a civil war between the winners. Germany's backing of Huerta weakened their influence in Mexico while the hostility of the United States to the regime increased it. Although U.S. business interests had hoped that President Wilson would recognize the Huerta government, they realized he would not and began aligning themselves with different revolutionary factions.<ref>Katz, ''The Secret War in Mexico'', p. 566.</ref> One historian argues that Huerta's regime was not as conservative or reactionary as portrayed, arguing that he did not attempt to "reincarnate" the Age of Díaz. "Huerta and his advisors both realized the days of Díaz were gone forever. They did not attempt to stem the new energies and forces unleashed in 1910; rather they attempted to moderate them."<ref>Meyer, Michael C. ''Huerta: A Political Portrait''. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press 1972, pp. 369-70</ref> In general, however, his regime is seen as a repudiation of democracy and Huerta himself an iron-fisted authoritarian. Despite efforts in Mexico to redress the exclusion of Andrés Molina Enríquez from the pantheon of Mexican revolutionaries, since—since he is considered the intellectual father of the Article 27 of the [[1917 Constitution of Mexico]], which empoweringempowered the state to implement [[land reform in Mexico|land reform]] and expropriate private owners of resources like oil.oil— Molina Enríquez wasis taintedusually considered by Mexican historiography as "tainted" due to his service in the Huerta government.<ref>Shadle, ''Andrés Molina Enríquez'', p.4.</ref>
 
==In popular culture==
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Both Victoriano Huerta and [[Pancho Villa]] are referenced in ''[[Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull]]'' (2008), when Indiana ([[Harrison Ford]]) is recalling events in his childhood to his yet-to-be revealed son ([[Shia LaBeouf]]): "It was a fight against Victoriano Huerta". He then spits on the ground to show disgust at the name.
 
Huerta is one of the possible leaders of Mexico in the popular [[Hearts of Iron IV|Hearts of Iron 4]] mod "The Great War Redux."
 
==See also==
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* {{cite book |last= Caballero, Raymond |title= Pascual Orozco, ¿Héroe y traidor? |publisher= Siglo XXI Editores |place= México, D.F. |year= 2020 }}
* {{cite book | first = Raymond | last = Caballero | title = Lynching Pascual Orozco, Mexican Revolutionary Hero and Paradox| publisher = Create Space | year = 2015 | isbn = 978-1514382509 }}
* Henderson, Peter V. N. “Woodrow"Woodrow Wilson, Victoriano Huerta, and the Recognition Issue in Mexico.”" ''The Americas'' 41#2 (1984), pp.&nbsp;151–76, [https://doi.org/10.2307/1007454 online].
https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3131&context=gradschool_disstheses
 
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* [https://web.archive.org/web/20080917123739/http://www.colotlan.gob.mx/municipio/biografias.html Colotlán official website] biography of Victoriano Huerta
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20020614174808/http://www.elbalero.gob.mx/kids/history/html/rev/biohuerta.html México para niños] biography of Victoriano Huerta
* [http://www.ramosfamily.org/nextgen/getperson.php?personID=I2440 Genealogy and descendancy] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190806223947/http://www.ramosfamily.org/nextgen/getperson.php?personID=I2440 |date=2019-08-06 }} of Victoriano Huerta
* {{PM20|FID=pe/008317}}
 
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[[Category:Candidates in the 1913 Mexican presidential election]]
[[Category:Mexican Secretaries of Foreign Affairs]]
[[Category:PeopleMilitary personnel from El Paso, Texas]]
[[Category:Politicians from Jalisco]]
[[Category:People of the Mexican Revolution]]
[[Category:Porfiriato20th-century presidents of Mexico]]
[[Category:Presidents of Mexico]]
[[Category:Prisoners who died in United States military detention]]
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