Francisco I. Madero

Francisco I. Madero

Francisco Indalecio Madero González (30 October 1873 – 22 February 1913) was a Mexican statesman, writer and revolutionary who served as 33rd President of Mexico from 1911 until his assassination in 1913. A campaigner for social justice and democracy, he was instrumental in creating the revolutionary movement in 1910, which led to the fall of the dictatorship of Porfirio Diaz.

Born into a very wealthy landowning family in the north of Mexico, he was the proto-type of the respectable upper-class politician; a background which supplied the centre around which opposition to the dictatorship of Porfirio Díaz could coalesce. Writing the book The Presidential Succession in 1910 (1908), he called on voters to prevent the sixth re-election of Porfirio Díaz, which he considered anti-democratic. His vision was to lay the foundation for a democratic 20th Century Mexico, but without polarizing the social classes. To that effect, he founded the Anti-Reelectionist Party (later the Progressive Constitutional Party) and incited the Mexican people to rise up against General Díaz, which ignited the Mexican Revolution in 1910. Arrested by the dictatorship shortly after being declared Presidential candidate by his party, the opposition leader escaped from prison and launched the Plan of San Luis Potosí from the United States, in this manner beginning the Mexican Revolution.

Following the resignation of Díaz from the presidency on the 25th May 1911 after the signing of the Treaty of Ciudad Juárez, Madero became the highest political leader of the country. His followers, known as Maderistas, called him caudillo de la revolución, or leader of the Revolution. He was elected President on the 15th of October by almost 90 per cent of the voters, in one of Mexico´s cleanest elections. Sworn into office on the 6th November, he became one of Mexico´s youngest elected presidents having just turned 38. Despite considerable popularity amongst the people, Madero´s administration soon encountered opposition both from more radical revolutionaries and from remnants of the former regime. In February 1913, a military coup took place in the Mexican capital led by General Victoriano Huerta, the military commander of the city. Madero was arrested and a short time later assassinated along with his Vice-President, José María Pino Suárez on the 22nd of February 1913, following the series of events known as the Ten Tragic Days (la Decena Tragica). The death of Madero and Pino Suárez led to a national and international outcry which eventually paved the way for the fall of the Huerta Dictatorship, the triumph of the Mexican Revolution and the establishment of the 1917 Constitution of Mexico under maderista President Venustiano Carranza.