Orozco y Huerta
Pascual Orozco and Victoriano Huerta were important Mexican revolutionaries that Germany sought to aid in order to secure a strategic ally in the Western Hemisphere. Victoriano Huerta was born in Colotlan, Jalisco, on May 23, 1845, and after attending military college made a name for himself in various military campaigns against native uprisings.
Born in Chihuahua on January 28, 1882, Pascual Orozco Jr. found success as a merchant before taking up the revolutionary cause. Orozco had been a revolutionary from early on and initially supported Francisco Madero’s attempts to consolidate power. In 1912, however, Orozco marched against Madero, but Huerta, a general under Madero, thwarted Orozco’s plan. Within a year, Huerta himself conspired with Felix Diaz, the expelled dictator’s cousin, and U.S. ambassador Henry Lane Wilson to wrest power from Madero, who was later executed. Initially opposed to each other, Orozco agreed to accept Huerta as president if Huerta promised to enact certain reforms. Over the following years, both the United States and Germany repeatedly attempted to influence events in Mexico to their advantages. While the United States supported Venustiano Carranza’s attempts to oust Huerta, the German government sought to turn Mexico into a German protectorate.On April 21, 1914, the U.S. consul in Veracruz informed the White House that the Ypiranga, a German ship, was scheduled to arrive with a shipment of weapons for Huerta. As a result, Woodrow Wilson ordered the occupation of Veracruz. Although citizens in both the United States and Mexico were outraged by Wilson’s maneuver, Huerta was unable to make the invasion work to his advantage. Facing opposition from many sides, he resigned on June 8, 1914. However, Huerta was not finished yet, and several factions approached him with proposals, including a revolutionary movement that was also courting Orozco.
Meanwhile, Germany, seeking an ally in the Western Hemisphere against the United States, who they feared would join in World War I, approached Huerta and Orozco.
Huerta met with German representatives in New York in 1915. The Germans promised to provide Huerta and Orozco with $895,000, along with rifles and ammunition. In return, Germany hoped that Orozco and Huerta would overthrow the Mexican government and set up a pro-German government, thus giving them an ally geographically close to the United States. Orozco rendezvoused with Huerta in Newman, New Mexico, intent on crossing the boarder into Mexico. The rebels’ plan never unfolded, as they were arrested by the Justice Department and charged with conspiracy to violate neutrality laws. Both were freed and placed under house arrest. Orozco managed to escape, which prompted law enforcement to rescind Huerta’s bond. On August 30, 1915, Texas Rangers caught up with Orozco in the Van Horn Mountains, south of Lobo, Texas, and shot and killed him. Huerta soon fell ill from cirrhosis of the liver due to heavy drinking. He died in El Paso on January 13, 1916. As a result of the revolutionaries’ capture and subsequent deaths, plans to set up a pro-German state in Mexico never materialized.Melvin Duane Davis
See also Carranza, Venustiano; Mexico; World War I
References and Further Reading
Grieb, Kenneth. The United States and Huerta. Lincoln: University of Nebraska, 1969.
Meyer, Michael. Mexican Rebel: Pascual Orozco and the Mexican Revolution, 1910—1915. Lincoln: University of Nebraska, 1967.
------. Huerta: A Political Portrait. Lincoln: University of Nebraska, 1972.