Venustiano Carranza

Biography

Venustiano Carranza de la Garza was born on December 29, 1859, in Cuatro Ciénegas, Coahuila, into a landowning family of Spanish descent. He served in various local and state political offices under the Díaz regime before shifting to Madero's cause. As governor of Coahuila, he refused to recognize Huerta's coup and issued the Plan de Guadalupe on March 26, 1913, declaring himself First Chief of the Constitutionalist Army — placing himself at the head of the anti-Huerta coalition. Carranza was a political operator rather than a military commander, and he shrewdly maneuvered among the competing revolutionary factions while never fully surrendering power to any of them. He cultivated Villa and Obregón as subordinates while Huerta remained the common enemy, but once Huerta fled in 1914, the contradictions within the revolutionary coalition exploded. At the Aguascalientes Convention of October 1914, Villa and Zapata united to demand Carranza's resignation; he refused and the country plunged into a second civil war, this time among the victors. Carranza's greatest achievement was the Constitution of 1917, adopted at a convention in Querétaro while fighting still raged. The document was far more radical than Carranza himself intended — the convention was dominated by radical delegates who wrote in provisions for land reform (Article 27, which limited foreign ownership and enabled the expropriation of haciendas), labor rights (Article 123, which established minimum wages, eight-hour days, and the right to strike), and restrictions on the Catholic Church. The 1917 Constitution was the most progressive document of its kind in the world at the time and influenced constitutions across Latin America. Carranza's presidency (1917–1920) was increasingly authoritarian. He arranged the assassination of Zapata in 1919. When he attempted to impose a puppet successor rather than allowing Obregón to win the 1920 election, Obregón's supporters staged the Agua Prieta revolt. Carranza fled Mexico City with a train carrying the national treasury, was abandoned by most of his followers, and was assassinated while sleeping in a small village on May 21, 1920. He was 60 years old.

Key Battles