Madero’s “Plan of Ayala,” Part I & III (1911)
DOCUMENT H
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BACKGROUND: From the 1830s to the 1860s caudillos, local military leaders left over from the wars of independence, often seized national office, pillaged the treasury, and were in turn deposed by others. Social unrest along with often inflexible political regimes has led to a series of revolutions and other upheavals in twentieth-century Latin America. During the late-nineteenth century, when Latin America began exporting raw materials (e.g, metals, fertilizers) and food (e.g., sugar, coffee, wheat, bananas), elites closely linked to the export economy consolidated political power to a narrow few and excluding commoners through voting restrictions This selection comes from the Mexican Revolution of 1910. It was issued by the most radical peasant leader, Emilio Zapata. Zapata never seized control of the Mexican Revolution, but the radical economic demands of his Plan of Ayala influenced the course of Mexican social development for the next 30 years.
The liberating Plan of the sons of the State of Morelos, affiliated with the Insurgent Army which defends the fulfillment of the Plan of San Luis Potosi, with the reforms which they have believed necessary to add for the benefit of the Mexican Fatherland.
We, the subscribers [to this Plan], constituted in a Revolutionary Council...declare solemnly before the countenance of the civilized world which judges us and before the Nation to which we belong and love, the principles which we have formulated to terminate the tyranny which oppresses us and redeem the Fatherland from the dictatorships which are imposed on us, which are determined in the following Plan:
1. [Accuses Francisco I. Madero, the leader of the 1910 revolution and the President of Mexico, of betraying the Revolution and allying himself with the oppressive old guard in the State of Morelos.]
2. Francisco I. Madero is disavowed as Chief of the Revolution and as President of the Republic, for the above reasons, [and we will] endeavor to overthrow this official.
3. The illustrious General Pascual Orozco, second of the caudillo Don Francisco I. Madero, is recognized as Chief of the Liberating Revolution, and in case he does not accept this delicate post, General Emiliano Zapata is recognized as Chief of the Revolution.
4. The Revolutionary Junta of the State of Morelos manifests the following formal points...and will make itself the defender of the principles that it will defend until victory or death.
5. The Revolutionary Junta of the State of Morelos will not admit transactions or political coμipromises until the overthrow of the dictatorial elements of Porfirio Diaz and Francisco I. Madero, since the Nation is tired of false men and traitors who make promises as liberators but once in power, forget them and become tyrants
10. The insurgent military chiefs of the Republic, who rose up in armed revolt at the behest of Francisco I. Madero to defend the Plan of San Luis Potosí and who now oppose by force the present Plan, are to be judged traitors to the cause they defended and to the Fatherland, given the fact that in actuality many of them to pleas the tyrants for a handful of coins, or for bribes, are spilling the blood of their brethren who demand the fulfillment of the promises which don Francisco I. Madero made to the Nation.
11-14. [Details the payment of the expenses of war, the administration of the country after the Plan's success, and, bids Madero to step down voluntarily.]
15. Mexicans: Consider that the cleverness and the bad faith of one man is spilling blood in a scandalous manner because of his inability to govern; consider that his system of government is putting the Fatherland in chains and by brute force of bayonets trampling under foot our institutions; and as we raised our arms, to elevate him to power today we turn them against him for having gone back on his agreements with the Mexican people and having betrayed the Revolution he initiated; we are not personalists, we are believers in principles, not in men.
People of Mexico: Support with your arms in hand this Plan and you will create prosperity and happiness for the Fatherland.
Justicia y ley [Justice and Law.]
AYALA, 28 OF NOVEMBER, 1911.
Signed, General in Chief Emiliano Zapata; Generals Eufemio Zapata, Francisco Mendoza, Jesús Morales, Jesús Navarro, Otilio E. Montaño, José Trinidad Ruiz, Próculo Capistrán; Colonels...; Captains...
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