Saturday, December 05, 2009

Facial Hair of the Weekend

Victoriano Huerta, who (as Grigori noted) plotted with U.S. ambassador Henry Lane Wilson to overthrow Francisco Madero in 1913. Huerta quickly set up a quasi-military dictatorship upon assuming the presidency after Madero's murder. Newly-elected president Woodrow Wilson demanded Huerta step aside and let Mexico return to democracy, and recalled Wilson. When Huerta refused, Wilson began to support Venustiano Carranza's Constitutional Army (which included Álvaro Obregón, Francisco "Pancho" Villa, and Emiliano Zapata. Wilson's opposition and a series of military defeats led to Huerta's resignation in 1914. He went into exile, ending up in the United States, where he continued to plot a coup in Mexico, leading to the U.S. putting him under house arrest, where he remained until 1916, when he died from cirrhosis, leaving one to wonder just how much of an alcoholic Huerta had been as president.

(For other Mexican political leaders, see here)