| Liberation Army of the South Zapatistas | |
|---|---|
| Ejército Libertador del Sur | |
 | |
| Leaders |
|
| Dates of operation | 1911–1920 |
| Allegiance |  Morelos Commune |
| Headquarters | VariouslyAyala orthe mountains |
| Active regions | Based inMorelos, with incursions intoPuebla,Guerrero, andMexico City |
| Ideology | Zapatismo Agrarian socialism Indigenism |
| Political position | Far-left |
| Size | 25,000 (1914)[1] |
| Part of | Conventionists (1914–1917) |
| Allies | Francisco I. Madero (until November 1911) |
| Opponents | Presidents of Mexico
Factions |
| Battles and wars | Mexican Revolution |
TheLiberation Army of the South (Spanish:Ejército Libertador del Sur,ELS) was aguerrilla force led for most of its existence byEmiliano Zapata that took part in theMexican Revolution from 1911 to 1920.[1] During that time, theZapatistas fought against thenational governments ofPorfirio Díaz,Francisco Madero,Victoriano Huerta, andVenustiano Carranza. Their goal was ruralland reform, specifically reclaimingcommunal lands stolen byhacendados in theperiod before the revolution. Although rarely active outside their base inMorelos, they allied withPancho Villa to support theConventionists against theCarrancistas. After Villa's defeat, the Zapatistas remained in open rebellion. It was only after Zapata's 1919 assassination and the overthrow of the Carranza government that Zapata's successor,Gildardo Magaña, negotiated peace with PresidentÁlvaro Obregón.
The Zapatistas were formed inMorelos, a small and densely populated state with a largelyagricultural economy. Most inhabitants lived in indigenousNahua villages and workedcommon land prior to thePorfiriato.[2] However, the completion of theInteroceanic Railway betweenMexico City andVeracruz in 1891 led to significant change in the local economy.[3] It became profitable to producesugar for export, and these newhaciendas came in conflict over land, labor, and water with the indigenous villages.[4][5] Hacendado-friendly courts awarded the orchards, fields, and water sources of the villages to the haciendas. Between 1884 and 1905, eighteen towns in Morelos disappeared as lands were taken away.[6] Deprived of their means of subsistence, the population of Morelos was suffering fromfamine and general impoverishment by the turn of the century. Thousands had become wage laborers on the haciendas or left the state entirely to seek work elsewhere.[4]In 1909,Pablo Escandón y Barrón becamegovernor in arigged election, siding even more aggressively with the hacendados. In response, village leaders includingEmiliano Zapata,Gabriel Tepepa, andPablo Torres Burgos formed a local defense committee. When news ofFrancisco Madero'sPlan of San Luis Potosí reached Morelos, the committee took up arms to support his cause in February 1911.[3]
The Morelos' defense committee originally aligned with Madero due to the promises ofland reform in thePlan of San Luis Potosí,[5] with Torres Burgos being appointedcommanding officer. However, there was essentially no coordination withPascual Orozco's forces in the north. They saw great early success in recruiting from among the desperate population, amassing a force of around 5,000.[1] Governor Escandón fled the state with a portion of thefederal forces, giving the rebels an opening to attack cities. In March, Torres Burgos was killed and Zapata was elected leader. He managed to avoid a trap laid by reactionary rebels under the Figueroa brothers and continue to gather strength. In May, Zapata scored a series of victories, first atJojutla and then atCuautla. The Battle of Cuautla was bloody and prolonged, pitting numerically superior rebels against a better-equipped and well-entrenched federal army. After suffering mass casualties from machine guns, the rebels had to take the citystreet by street. Nonetheless, Zapata's eventual victory put him dangerously close to the capital, and helped convince Porfirio Díaz to resignthe presidency.[1]
During the interim presidency ofFrancisco León de la Barra, Madero insisted Zapata disarm and disband his forces.[1][7] Madero's reluctance to take action on land reform made Zapata reluctant, but he had little choice but to comply. Tensions flared when the hacendado governor attempted to block Zapata from taking up his promised position as commander of thelocal police.[8] In July, news of a plot toassassinate Madero in the neighboring state ofPuebla alarmed Zapata, and he rapidly re-mobilized to march to the politician's defense. Although the march was called off, Zapata and the other rebel commanders were now much more wary of laying down their arms. De la Barra ordered GeneralHuerta to force Zapata to surrender unconditionally.[9] Huerta quickly took over the state, and civil lawwas suspended in August.[8] Although Madero attempted negotiations to avoid violence, on August 23 Huerta and Ambrosia Figueroa (now allied with the regime) began military operations against the rebels. This made them feel that Madero had betrayed them, and set the stage for their break with him three months later. The small rebel force evaded destruction by first fleeing to Puebla, then reappearing in Morelos once Huerta had moved his army to follow them. The Morelos rebels swelled to around 1,500 and by late October lay claim toimportant territory near Mexico City.[8]
After Madero's inauguration on November 6, it appeared as if the rebellion in Morelos could end peacefully. Negotiations in Ayala seemed to be proceeding well when the federal army underCasso Lopez suddenly surrounded Zapata's forces. Madero issued an order for Zapata to surrender with the promise the compromise would be honored.[8] Zapata refused, as he received this order as the federal forces were already preparing to attack. His forces escaped into the Puebla mountains and there Zapata issued thePlan of Ayala, written byOtilio Montaño.[1]
In February 1913,Madero was assassinated andVictoriano Huerta ascended to the presidency. However,Emiliano Zapata continued his rebellion under thePlan of Ayala (while expunging the name of counter-revolutionary Pascual Orozco from it), calling for the expropriation of land and redistribution to peasants. Huerta offered peace to Zapata, who rejected it.[10] The Zapatistas thus played a remarkably similar role in the fight against Huerta as they had in the fight against Diaz, tying down Federal soldiers in the south while a rebel army marched down from the north. As the Huerta regime began to collapse, Zapata advanced. His forces tookChilpancingo in mid-March 1914; he followed this soon afterward with the capture ofAcapulco,Iguala,Taxco, andBuenavista de Cuellar. Next he confronted the federal garrisons in Morelos, the majority of which defected to him with their weapons. Finally he moved against Mexico City itself.[11]
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Rather than First Chief Carranza being named president of Mexico at the convention, GeneralEulalio Gutiérrez was chosen for a term of 20 days. The convention declared Carranza in rebellion against it. Civil war resumed, this time between revolutionary armies that had fought in a united cause to oust Huerta in 1913–14. Although during the Convention Constitutionalist GeneralÁlvaro Obregón had attempted to be a moderating force and had been the one to convey the convention's call for Carranza to resign, when the convention forces declared Carranza in rebellion against it, Obregón supported Carranza rather than Villa and Zapata.
In 1914, Zapata met at the head of his army withPancho Villa and his forces atMexico City to determine the course of the revolution.[12] In practice, the alliance between Villa and Zapata as the Army of the Convention did not continue to function when the two parted. The Zapatistas fortified themselves and focused on creating theMorelos Commune, rather than venturing out to attack the Constitutionalists.[13]
Eliminating Zapata was a top priority for President Carranza. Carranza was unwilling to compromise with domestic foes and wanted to demonstrate to Mexican elites and to American interests that Carranza was the "only viable alternative to both anarchy and radicalism."[14] In mid-March 1919, General Pablo González ordered his subordinate Jesús Guajardo to begin operations against the Zapatistas in the mountains aroundHuautla. Zapata was deceived into believing that Guajardo planned to defect, and agreed to a final meeting on April 10, 1919.[15][16] However, when Zapata arrived at the Hacienda de San Juan, in Chinameca,Ayala, Guajardo's men riddled him with bullets. His body was photographed and his death widely publicized in an attempt to demoralize the Zapatistas.[17]
Although Zapata's assassination weakened the Liberation Army of the South, they continued the fight against Carranza.[14] For Carranza the death of Zapata was the removal of an ongoing threat, for many Zapata's assassination undermined "worker and peasant support for Carranza and [Pablo] González."[18] In spite of González's attempts to sully the name of Zapata and the Plan de Ayala during his 1920 campaign for the presidency,[19] the people of Morelos continued to support Zapatista generals, providing them with weapons, supplies and protection. Carranza was wary of the threat of a U.S. intervention, and Zapatista generals decided to take a conciliatory approach. Bands of Zapatistas started surrendering in exchange for amnesties, and many Zapatista generals went on to become local authorities, such as Fortino Ayaquica who became municipal president ofTochimilco.[20]
As Venustiano Carranza moved to curb his former allies and now rivals in 1920 to impose a civilian,Ignacio Bonillas, as his successor in the presidency, Obregón sought to align himself with the Zapatista movement against that of Carranza. Genovevo de la O and Magaña supported him in the coup by former Constitutionalists, fighting in Morelos against Carranza and helping prompt Carranza to flee Mexico City toward Veracruz in May 1920. "Obregón and Genovevo de la O entered Mexico City in triumph."[21] Zapatistas were given important posts in the interim government ofAdolfo de la Huerta and the administration of Álvaro Obregón, following his election to the presidency after the coup. Zapatistas had almost total control of the state of Morelos, where they carried out a program of agrarian reform and land redistribution based on the provisions of the Plan de Ayala and with the support of the government.[22]
Media related toZapatistas of the Mexican Revolution at Wikimedia Commons
