Venustiano Carranza

José Venustiano Carranza de la Garza (; 29 December 1859 – 21 May 1920) was a wealthy land owner and politician who served as President of Mexico from 1914 until his assassination in 1920, during the Mexican Revolution. He was previously Mexico's de facto head of state as First Chief of the Constitutional Army from 1914 to 1917, and previously served as a senator and governor for Coahuila. As First Chief, he waged a civil war against Emiliano Zapata and Pancho Villa, drove the creation of the Constitution of 1917, and won the election that year. As president, he was recognized as Mexico's leader by the United States, maintained Mexican neutrality in World War I, and defeated Zapata. He was assassinated in 1920 when General Álvaro Obregón switched sides. Born in Coahuila to a prominent landowning family, he served as a senator for his home state during the Porfiriato, appointed by President and de facto dictator Porfirio Díaz. By 1911, he had become alienated from his former ally Díaz. Known as the Primer Jefe or "First Chief" of the Constitutionalist faction in the Mexican Revolution, Carranza was a shrewd civilian politician. He supported the Liberal Francisco Madero's challenge to the Díaz regieme in the 1910 elections, but became a critic of Madero once Díaz was overthrown in May 1911. Madero appointed him the governor of Coahuila. When Madero was murdered during the counter-revolutionary Ten Tragic Days coup in February 1913, Carranza drew up the Plan of Guadalupe, a political plan to oust Madero's usurper, General Victoriano Huerta. As a sitting governor when Madero was overthrown, Carranza held legitimate power and he became the leader of the northern coalition opposed to Huerta. The Constitutionalist faction was victorious and Huerta ousted in July 1914. Carranza did not assume the title of provisional president of Mexico, as called for in his Plan of Guadalupe, since it would have prevented his running for constitutional president once elections were held. His government in this period was in a preconstitutional, extralegal state, to which both his best generals, Álvaro Obregón and Pancho Villa objected. The factions of the coalition against Huerta fell apart and a bloody civil war of the winners ensued, with Obregón remaining loyal to Carranza and Villa, now allied with peasant leader Emiliano Zapata, breaking with him.