Maderismo and the 1909 local elections In December 1908,
Francisco I. Madero, published
The Presidential Succession in 1910, which argued in favor of a transition from the military dictatorship of Porfirio Díaz. who had governed the country for thirty years, toward a
liberal democracy. His supporters became known as
Maderistas or
Antireleccionistas, due to their opposition to Mexican presidents seeking
reelection, a prohibition which remain in effect to this date. Madero, who had been born in into one of the wealthiest families of industrialists in the country, had been educated in élite schools in France and the United States before returning to Mexico with liberal and
progressive ideals. Pino Suárez had retired from public life since his newspaper had been
censured in 1908, narrowly avoiding being imprisoned by the regime due to the impeccable connections of his political family. During his exile at Polyuc, he received a copy of the book and enthusiastically traveled to
Progreso to meet Madero who was campaigning in Yucatán:"In June 1909, Francisco I. Madero began his first political tour in
Veracruz, seeking to dispute the presidency from Porfirio Díaz [...] he decided to continue towards Yucatan, but when he arrived at Progreso, only six people were waiting for him. Amongst these were two important figures: a gubernatorial candidate for the Independent Electoral Center and Pino [...] Madero's disappointment at the low turnout was temporary, not only because as soon as he arrived in Mérida a large crowd acclaimed him, but because of his encounter with Pino, who from then on would become a true friend. Mysteriously, or perhaps logically, the
spiritist [Madero] had found a kindred soul in the poet [Pino ]." Supporting the
Maderista cause, Pino founded and presided over the Anti-Reelectionist Club in Mérida, which initially supported Delio Moreno as a candidate for governor in the 1909 elections. Madero knew that the oppositionist candidacy would not have the opportunity to overthrow the ruling party (
Molinistas), which at that time was headed by Governor
Enrique Muñoz Aristegui, a mere figurehead for
Olegario Molina. However, he believed that Moreno's candidacy could establish the necessary foundations to ensure the triumph of anti-reelectionism in future elections. Pino eventually withdrew his support for Moreno Cantón upon learning that he had sent a commission headed by José Vales Castillo to the capital of the Republic to confer with President Díaz and propose a list of candidates for the governorship so that the dictator could choose as he saw fit: the list included
Luis del Carmen Curiel, Alfonso Cámara y Cámara, as well as Moreno himself, all of whom were "active
porfiristas, although they later would declare, they had always been anti-reelectionists at heart." In this way, the opposition to Governor Muñoz Aristegui was divided between the followers of Delio Moreno (
Morenistas) who negotiated with the military dictatorship to obtain power and the followers of José María Pino (
Pinistas) who refused to do so. Through an evident electoral fraud, This in turn provoked an even more violent reaction from the local government against the rebels. Faced with this wave of repression, the
Morenistas went underground. Meanwhile, Pino was also forced to leave the state, settling in the neighboring state of
Tabasco. Given the situation of violence and repression in Yucatan, President Porfirio Díaz decided to send a military general with experience in matters of war to ensure control of the situation. On 11 March 1911, Governor Enrique Muñoz Arístegui was relieved of power by General Luis del Carmen Curiel, whose candidacy was supported by the
Morenistas. Those in the opposition that had negotiated with the military dictatorship had gained access to the levers of power while those who had refused to do so remained in the political wilderness. , the president's brother, was the
grey eminence of the
Maderista movement. Pino established "a strong friendship" with him. Going forward, Gustavo would "unconditionally support Pino in the
Maderista movement." A
political prisoner, Madero was transferred to the
penitentiary at
San Luis Potosí. (1910) With the only opposition candidate in prison, the presidential elections were held in the first days of July 1910, fraudulently allowing the dictator to win his seventh reelection as President of the Republic. In October, Madero managed to escape from prison and fled into exile in
San Antonio, Texas. From exile, Madero issued the
Plan of San Luis Potosí in which he proclaimed that the results of the 1910 election had been fraudulent: "out of the clauses [of his plan], the main points were the immediate assumption of the presidency by Madero under a
provisional government, his lack of recognition of the Díaz government, the restitution of land to dispossessed peoples and communities and the freedom of political prisoners" and a call to citizens "take up arms, throw usurpers out of power, recover your rights as free men". The date of the Revolution had been set for 20 November 1910. In his provisional government, Madero appointed Pino as
Secretary of Justice. When the
Mexican Revolution broke out in November 1910, Pino was in exile in Tabasco, fleeing the brutal repression of Muñoz Arigestguí. From Tabasco, he tried to take up arms and prepare an invasion of the Yucatecan Peninsula. According to his military plans, he would lead the invasion from
Campeche, for which he enlisted the support of Urbano Espinosa and Calixto Maldonado, though both men were apprehended upon arrival in Campeche and the government was able to collect all the orders and communications that Pino sent to all his supporters in Campeche and Yucatan, thus frustrating his attempt at revolution. Like Madero before him, Pino was forced to leave the country, bound for exile, after learning from María Cámara Vales, his wife, that Porfirio Díaz had instructed his immediate arrest: in May 1911. Pino Suárez is pictured seated in the far left. Persecuted by express order of the President of the Republic, Pino had to cross the border to Guatemala from "where he undertook his pilgrimage through the mountains to the English colony of
British Honduras [modern day
Belize], where he tried to get in touch again with his political supporters in search for supplies to send to the revolutionary expedition, he had instructed to invade the coasts of Yucatan and Campeche." s (from left to right): José María Pino Suárez, Dr.
Francisco Vázquez Gomez, Francisco Madero Hernández, and
Francisco S. Carvajal seated around a table, during the signing of the
Treaty of Ciudad Juarez (1911) After his return to Mexico, Pino Suárez participated in the
Battle of Ciudad Juárez, a
key city in the north of Mexico that fell to the hands of the revolutionaries on 10 May 1911, an important military victory for their cause. Faced with the loss of this important border city, President Díaz's advisers, headed by
José Yves Limantour, Secretary of the Treasury, became convinced that the dictator must resign to avoid a civil war and a possible
military intervention by the United States. The government decided to negotiate with the rebels and appointed
Francisco S. Carvajal, a prominent jurist, as its representative. Along with
Francisco Vázquez Gómez and Francisco Madero Hernández (Madero's father), Pino Suárez was appointed
Maderista Peace Commissioner, responsible for negotiating with the federal government the terms of the Treaty of Ciudad Juárez, which would be signed on 21 May 1911. Momentously, the Treaties would mean the overthrow of the Porfirio Díaz regime after more than thirty years in power. However, they would also be harshly criticized since they ensured the dismissal of the Rebel army, thereby placing a future Madero government at the mercy of a
Porfirista Federal Army that was hostile to their cause and which would eventually overthrow the Madero and Pino administration in February 1913. Venustiano Carranza, one of Madero's main advisers had advised against signing the Treaties of Ciudad Juárez, saying that "a revolution that compromises is a revolution that is lost." To preserve the constitutional order, the Treaties of Ciudad Juárez ensured that upon the resignation of President Díaz and Vice President
Ramón Corral, Francisco León de la Barra, then the
Foreign Secretary, would assume executive power as interim president until such time as
1911 Mexican general elections were held.
Governor of Yucatán In mid-1911, after the triumph of the Maderista revolution, General Curiel submitted his resignation to the State Congress, which accepted it and appointed Pino interim governor of Yucatan. As interim governor of the state, Pino's fundamental responsibility was to call special state elections to elect a constitutional governor in the face of the vacancy caused by the resignation of Muñoz Aristegui. In order not to influence the elections in which he would be a candidate, Pino withdrew from the governorship in August 1911; the state congress left the executive power in the hands of Jesús L. González who assumed the interim governorship. Moreno Cantón was the political successor of his uncle, , a populist former Governor who had been close to the clergy. The
Morenistas were
demagogic and
anti-elitist and their electoral base was mostly made up of
serfs, working classes and
artisans. Pino Suárez, on the other hand, was the ideological successor of
Carlos Peón, a former Governor, who believed in
classical liberalism and who had been inspired by the
French Revolution, being described as a "millionaire landowner [who] loved to present himself as a kind of Yucatecan
Count Mirabeau". Although Pino Suárez had entered politics to oppose slavery in the plantations and out of conviction in Madero's democratic ideals, he never sought to ingratiate himself with the popular classes as Moreno Cantón had done, showing clear traces of political
opportunism. For a revolutionary politician, Pino Suárez's family background was a liability that made it difficult for him to connect with the working classes and serfs with the same ease as Moreno Cantón; Pino Suárez's family had had close ties to the liberal elite that had ruled the country since the
Reform War while his in-laws descended from the conservative
landed aristocracy of
New Spain. Pino's political moderation and his closeness to the
ruling classes have been harshly criticized as not being in line with revolutionary values, pointing out that he:“Maintained the previous power structure, carrying out agreements with the most powerful families of the regional
oligarchy, [...] publicly condemning the "subversive"
Morenista propaganda which he considered responsible for the imminent outbreak of a second
Caste War… These actions which Pino undertook were not quite "revolutionary" but they did win over the vast majority of the families of the state's economic elite to the
Maderista cause. Those who were
Molinistas became
Maderistas, as did former "liberal" supporters of former Governor Carlos Peón, politically inactive since the political crisis of 1897. Indeed, one of Pino Suárez's most prominent protectors was Augusto Peón, one of the wealthiest landowners, [who]…directly supported the
Maderista leader, hauling-in his
peasants to vote for him. The Cámara, Medina, Vales, Espejo, Castellanos, Escalante, Manzanilla and Peniche families [all important landowners] became supporters of
Pinismo. The defection of the powerful Peniche family, from Espita, which had been a faithful supporter of the Molina regime, is an example of the attitude assumed by most of the wealthy groups in the state." In the election, those
urban districts with large working class constituents voted for Moreno, while the countryside, dominated by the landowners, voted for Pino. Those regions which voted for Moreno would be the same ones would later be "dominated by the Socialist Party of Yucatan from 1920 onwards. If we add to this the fact that the majority of the socialists were initially followers of Moreno, leaders such as
Felipe Carrillo Puerto, we can glimpse the close connection that existed between the populist Yucatecan
Catholic tradition and the genesis of regional socialism" Meanwhile, the liberals, who followed Pino, were almost all opposed to socialism and did not have the support of the clergy. In his brief tenure as Governor, Pino set out to liberally reform the Penal Code, which had previously been designed, under the old regime, to restrict
fundamental rights. On 15 November 1911, shortly after assuming the governorship, Pino Suárez requested indefinite leave to assume the position of vice president for which he had been elected, In Yucatán, meanwhile, the state congress appointed Nicolás Cámara Vales, brother-in-law of Pino Suárez, as governor, against whom Delio Moreno rebelled in the same year of 1911, starting an unsuccessful movement from the town of Opichén. to decide who would occupy the candidacy for the presidency, deciding unanimously in favor of Madero. Next, on 2 September, the election of the candidate for the vice presidency of the Republic was carried out, with Pino's competing against
Francisco Vázquez Gómez, Alfredo Robles Domínguez and
Fernando Iglesias Calderón. Madero had declared himself in favor of Pino's election. The vote was won by Pino with 876 votes against Francisco Vázquez Gómez's 469. However, there was immediate disagreement on the part of "some of the Vázquez supporters… [in] agreement with the result of the vote…[it was] proposed that a new compromise candidate be launched, who could be Federico González Garza, a proposal that It was rejected by the Assembly." registered a 7.8 magnitude and was felt in the Capital. After that, a popular rhyme circulated throughout the city: "the day Madero arrived even the earth trembled." Francisco Vázquez Gómez did not accept the party's decision and decided to launch his own independent candidacy for the vice presidency. Meanwhile, the candidate of the Catholic party was Francisco León de la Barra, then interim president of the Republic. On 26 September, Madero and Pino arrived in Mexico City in the middle of the presidential campaign and "a crowd filled the platforms of the San Lázaro station to receive them."
Vice-President of Mexico and Secretary of Education in November 1911 On 18 November, Pino arrived in
Mexico City by train. On the morning of 23 November, in the plenary session of the
Chamber of Deputies and before its president, Manuel Levy, he swore the
oath of office. The newspapers of the time reported that Pino "was moved to such a degree that he changed some of the terms of the oath." Madero had publicly pronounced himself in favor of naming Pino Suárez concurrently Vice President of the Republic and Secretary of the Interior. However, in Madero's first government, Pino Suárez did not occupy any ministerial portfolio, which led the historian José C. Valdés to affirm that at that time his "political influence was limited." Madero's first government was beset by many problems: "The cabinet was formed with a conservative majority and a revolutionary minority. This situation generated serious problems in the administration, since all attempts at reform were hampered by conservative ministers supported by some members of the bourgeoisie, such as Madero's own father, and by the reactionary sector of the press, whose attacks were terribly virulent." On 26 February 1912, President Madero inaugurated his second government, and Pino's political influence grew significantly as a result. Among the significant changes in the
cabinet reshuffle,
Abraham González Casavantes resigned from the
Ministry of the Interior to take over as
Governor of Chihuahua, being replaced in office by Jesús Flores Magón. Meanwhile, Pino was asked to lead the
Ministry of Education and Fine Arts, replacing Miguel Díaz Lombardo, who would be appointed Ambassador to France. Pino's appointment as Secretary of Education was important as education was one of the key pillars of the
Maderista revolution: Madero desired to remove the last vestiges of the old regime's ideology from national education. Madero "began to show its sympathies for popular education and not only for the dissemination of culture to the circles of the intellectual elite as had been done hitherto." On 9 April, resigned from the Foreign Ministry to become
Ambassador in the United States, being replaced in office by
Pedro Lascuráin. Calero's posting in Washington was brief: in December he was forced to resign due to an embarrassing scandal: the Ambassador was advising US companies to evade new taxes imposed by the Madero administration. After resigning, he accused that "the influence of Vice-President Pino Suárez has become dominant in the administration." In the legislative elections held in February 1912, the
Renovador movement, headed in Congress by Gustavo Madero, obtained a slim legislative majority. However, the opposition against the government was better organized, effectively "exaggerating the badness of the situation in the country, hindering the action of the Executive branch and launching harsh attacks against the government... with their activities they were undermining the prestige of Madero, whom they branded as inept and naïve." s the
Chapultepec Castle, then the
Presidential Residence. , the Undersecretary (right) However, the most virulent attacks were always reserved for Pino who was immensely unpopular with the opposition in Congress.
Manuel Márquez Sterling, the Cuban Ambassador to Mexico at the time, described it:"If the attacks on [Madero] were violent…the opposition to Pino Suárez was even more so. Daily, he was radicalized and the opposition attributed to his person defects which he did not possess [...] And as if fate made of the vice presidency in all forms of government a target of insatiable anger, Pino Suárez could match the headaches he suffered to those of his late predecessor [Vice President
Ramón Corral]. Stuck between Madero [...] and his adversaries, on both sides of the political aisle, who were out to crucify him [...] he waited patiently for the discomforts and blows to tilt [Madero's] vacillating policy to his side and that of his party. After a delicious banquet offered by Madero to the
Diplomatic corps, Pino Suárez, smoking a delicious
cuban cigar from
Vuelta Abajo and with a glass of
Chartreuse between his fingers, explained to me, in an intimate tone, his criteria, and I remember, as if I was just hearing them now, his words, full of faith. "We find ourselves – he said – in a very critical situation; and only a change of methods will be able to avoid total catastrophe; the change is already planned and the government will manage to move away from the precipice. An energetic hand, a determined, concrete, invariable political leadership, is what the extremely altered state of the country requires. To go towards Don Porfirio's accomplices is to put one's throat under the executioner's axe. And that is exactly where we are today. I do not recommend carrying out persecutions, abuses, or evil. I maintain my allegiance to the ideal of the Plan of San Luis Potosí, which is a tribute to legality, freedom and civilization. But the policy of rapprochement with the oligarch, who hates us, will only throw us into the abyss. At the moment we are not exactly a
Cíentifico [technocratic] government, but we are not a
populist government either. And that is the cause of the riots and the origin of our dejection. We are caught between two fires. We are not anyone's adversaries; but the whole world is our adversary. The president already sees things clearly in this matter on which the life of the government and perhaps our own life depends. As long as we maintain the support of Congress and the people, we do not need the
fat cats." At the head of the Ministry of Education, Pino decided that he would favor "elementary and popular education" and, in accordance with the wishes of President Madero, he wanted to eliminate the last vestiges of
positivism, an ideology that had been favored by the
Cíentificos, a group of
technocrats who had advised Porfirio Díaz. In the context of the
Separation of church and state, the former ministers of Díaz had favored a
secular education with a positivist ideology as opposed to
naturalism, the ideology that had been favored by
Catholic Church, historically predominant in the country's education. The Cíentificos, however, "due to the triumph of the revolutionary movement of 1910…had lost almost all of their political positions; the
National School of Jurisprudence was one of the few important ones – as a source of supply for political “cadres" – that remained in their hands, and they decided to fight a head-to-head battle before losing it"
The Ten Tragic Days: Military Coup d'État By February 1913, Gustavo Madero had already been appointed Ambassador to Japan, although he had not yet left for Tokyo. His separation from the government was "a good guarantee, hidden in a
valise diplomatique, of his discrepancies [with the President]." For similar reasons, Pino, "in his heart of hearts, longed to resign and it was a point that he often discussed in hermetic privacy." Luis Cabrera, always close to Pino Suárez, "foreseeing the earthquake which would sink the government" decided to go abroad, to Europe. As they made their way through the city center, the military column, led by the President, riding on horseback, was fired upon by a sniper. The President and his entourage had to stop, seeking shelter at a
daguerre photograph shop where they were joined by Gustavo Madero and, some time later, by General Victoriano Huerta. There, Madero was informed that General Villar had been wounded during combat and, at the request of
Ángel García Peña,
Secretary of Defense, it was decided to appoint General Huerta to replace him as the military commander in charge of ending the insurrection. After the failure of the rebels to take the National Palace, the rebels had to retreat to
La C
iudadela, a
fortress and armaments depot in the
historic center of Mexico City. Victoriano Huerta, who had secretly reached an agreement with the rebels to assume the interim presidency once President Madero fell, pretended to remain loyal to the government. Nevertheless, his ammunition was fired in such a way as to cause minimum damage to
La Ciudadela, ensuring that the fortress did not fall in government hands, and causing maximum damage to other buildings, particularly occupied by foreign residents, to convince the foreign diplomatic missions of the inefficiency of the Madero Government. As Pino before him, Gustavo Madero question that General Huerta, who had previously been recognized throughout his career for his talent in employing artillery, would now display such ineptitude. On 17 February, Gustavo Madero decided to arrest General Huerta and presented him to his brother, accusing him of treason. President Madero, in a mistake that would cost him his life, decided to free General Huerta, giving him a 24-hour deadline to capture
La Ciudadela. Prior to this, Madero had already travelled to
Cuernavaca to enlist the support of the army headed by
Felipe Ángeles, a capable and respected general who had remained loyal to the government and who was successfully quenching the Zapata rebellion in the
State of Morelos. In case Huerta failed to meet the President's deadline, he would be replaced by Ángeles. as the assassin of Madero and Pino, their two skulls hanging from his neck. The following day, 18 February, while the Cabinet was meeting in the National Palace, rebel troops led by Colonel Teodoro Jiménez Riveroll broke into the session and tried to arrest the President, vice-president and the entire Cabinet. The
secret service protected the President, and one of its officers, Captain Gustavo Garmendia, managed to kill Colonel Jiménez Riveroll, frustrating that attempt to overthrow the Madero government. A small delegation headed by President Madero and Vice President Pino Suárez intended to go to the courtyard of the National Palace to enlist the support of loyal troops. The military personnel stationed there, however, stood by while General
Aureliano Blanquet arrested their commander in chief. Madero and Pino Suárez, now prisoners of the rebel forces, were taken to the offices of the
quartermaster of the National Palace. There, they were imprisoned together with Felipe Ángeles. As these events were developing in the National Palace, Huerta had invited Gustavo Madero to a luncheon at Gambrinus, an elegant restaurant in the city center, ostensibly to smooth their misunderstandings and give him a full report of the military advances. There, Gustavo was arrested, brutally tortured by the rebel army and, subsequently assassinated.
Pedro Lascuráin, the Foreign Secretary, acted as an intermediary between the Madero government and the rebels led by General Huerta. Lascuráin conveyed Huerta's offer to Madero and Pino Suárez: if both men resigned from their respective positions, he would grant them
safe conduct to travel to the port of
Veracruz, from where he would allow them to embark to the foreign country of their choice. Madero and Pino Suárez agreed to present their respective resignations, but they established several conditions, among them, they demanded that Lascuráin not submit the double resignation to Congress until Madero, together with his brother Gustavo (they still did not know of his tragic end), Pino Suárez and Ángeles, had embarked with their respective families on a
warship that had been provided by the government of Cuba. When drafting the resignation documents, Pino Suárez "haughtily stated that he was not satisfied with the reason given as the cause of the resignations and wanted it to be recorded that they were forced to do so by the force of arms," it was only after hectic negotiations with the vice-president, that it was decided that the resignation should contain the phrase "compelled by circumstances." Disobeying the orders of the President who had instructed him to keep the resignations until such time as he knew the men were safely aboard the Cuban Warship, Lascuráin immediately traveled to the
Chamber of Deputies, where he presented the resignations to the Speaker. The Speaker convened an extraordinary session, so that the Federal Deputies could vote on accepting the resignations. General Huerta took the precaution of surrounding the Congress building with armed troops. A majority of the Chamber voted to accept both resignations in the belief that this would save the lives of Madero and Pino. In the Presidential Line of Succession, the Foreign Secretary would become president if the vice-president was unable to succeed the President. Therefore, Lascuráin was sworn in as interim President. Lascuráin served for forty-five minutes, sufficient time to name Victoriano Huerta as Minister of the Interior and to present his own resignation. After Lascuráin's resignation was accepted by the Chamber, Huert was asked to take his place. As Interior Minister, he was the next in line to the presidency. Despite several efforts made by various members of the diplomatic corps accredited in Mexico and the families of both men, the new de facto government headed by Victoriano Huerta never allowed them to go into exile.
Assassination On the night of 22 February, Madero and Pino Suárez were taken from the National Palace, where they were being held captive, to be transferred in two vehicles to
Lecumberri Prison. Ostensibly, this would be a safe site to detain the two men while the government decided their fate. When they arrived at Lecumberri, the cars passed the main entrance, turning towards the farthest end of the compound. There, Francisco Cárdenas, a corporal in the
Rurales, ordered Madero to get out of the car and, given his refusal to comply, shot him in the head, killing him instantly. Following this act, Lieutenant Rafael Pimienta shot Pino Suárez, whose body registered a total of thirteen bullet shots. The assassination was carried out by express order of General Huerta and his cabinet. The Huerta government explained, however, that a group of supporters had attempted to rescue the former president and vice-president and that both men had been shot while trying to escape.
Francisco León de la Barra, the Foreign Secretary, sent a diplomatic cable with this version of events, which "circulated through all the foreign ministries of the world [...] describing, in a tone worthy a novel, this sensational version of the events... In Mexico, where the
Ley Fuga [killing someone who escapes] has been applied too many times [as an excuse for assassinating your enemies] [...] nobody, supporter or opponent of the government, believed the official fable." In the United States, "public opinion was so shaken that it was impossible for President
William Howard Taft to recognize the Huerta government." His successor, Woodrow Wilson, had sympathized with Madero and would support the constitutionalist forces of
Venustiano Carranza who would succeed in overthrowing the Huerta dictatorship in August 1914. Huerta's military dictatorship had de facto recognition from some European governments, including Great Britain. as well as China and Japan. On the other hand, the United States and
Latin American countries (with the exception of
Guatemala) avoided granting recognition. Eventually, Woodrow Wilson, was able to convince the British government to change their attitude towards Huerta. María Cámara Vales, Pino's widow, wanted to go to identify her husband's body, but was convinced by family and friends that she would not "suffer the torture of seeing him." But it was Alfredo Pino Cámara, his eldest son, then only a fourteen-year-old teenager, who "examined with horror the swollen features of his father and the strip of cardboard, bound by a bandage, that held the dismembered skull together." == Legacy ==