The Mexican presidential election of 1910 was stolen when Porfirio Diaz - the
longtime dictator, had his opponent Madero arrested and imprisoned. Madero took refuge
infled to San Antonio, and issued the Plan of San Luis Potosi calling for the
nullification of the elections and upon Mexicans to take up arms against the government.
The date of its issue marks the beginning of the Mexican Revolution.
Peoples, in their constant efforts for the triumph of the ideal of liberty and
justice, are forced, at precise historical moments, to make their greatest sacrifices.
Our beloved country has reached one of those moments. A force of tyranny which we
Mexicans were not accustomed to suffer after we won our independence oppresses us in such
a manner that it has become intolerable. In exchange for that tyranny we are offered
peace, but peace full of shame for the Mexican nation, because its basis is not law, but
force; because its object is not the aggrandizement and prosperity of the country, but to
enrich a small group who, abusing their influence, have converted the public charges into
fountains of exclusively personal benefit, unscrupulously exploiting the manner of
lucrative concessions and contracts.
The legislative and judicial powers are completely subordinated to the executive; the
division of powers, the sovereignty of the States, the liberty of the common councils, and
the rights of the citizens exist only in writing in our great charter; but, as a fact, it
may almost be said that martial law constantly exists in Mexico; the administration of
justice, instead of imparting protection to the weak, merely serves to legalize the
plunderings committed by the strong; the judges instead of being the representatives of
justice, are the agents of the executive, whose interests they faithfully serve; the
chambers of the union have no other will than that of the dictator; the governors of the
States are designated by him and they in their turn designate and impose in like manner
the municipal authorities.
From this it results that the whole administrative, judicial, and legislative machinery
obeys a single will, the caprice of General Porfirio Diaz, who during his long
administration has shown that the principal motive that guides him is to maintain himself
in power and at any cost.
For many years profound discontent has been felt throughout the Republic, due to such a
system of government, but General Diaz with great cunning and perseverance, has succeeded
in annihilating all independent elements, so that it was not possible to organize any sort
of movement to take from him the power of which he made such bad use. The evil constantly
became worse, and the decided eagerness of General Diaz to impose a successor upon the
nations in the person of Mr. Ramon Corral carried that evil to its limit and caused many
of us Mexicans, although lacking recognized political standing, since it had been
impossible to acquire it during the 36 years of dictatorship, to throw ourselves into the
struggle to recover the sovereignty of the people and their rights on purely democratic
grounds....
In Mexico, as a democratic Republic, the public power can have no other origin nor
other basis than the will of the people, and the latter can not be subordinated to
formulas to be executed in a fraudulent manner. . . ,
For this reason the Mexican people have protested against the illegality of the last
election and, desiring to use successively all the recourses offered by the laws of the
Republic, in due form asked for the nullification of the election by the Chamber of
Deputies, notwithstanding they recognized no legal origin in said body and knew beforehand
that, as its members were not the representatives of the people, they would carry out the
will of General Diaz, to whom exclusively they owe their investiture.
In such a state of affairs the people, who are the only sovereign, also protested
energetically against the election in imposing manifestations in different parts of the
Republic; and if the latter were not general throughout the national territory, It was due
to the terrible pressure exercised by the Government, which always quenches in blood any
democratic manifestation, as happened in Puebla, Vera Cruz, Tlaxcala, and in other places.
But this violent and illegal system can no longer subsist.
I have very well realized that if the people have designated me as their candidate. for
the Presidency it is not because they have had an opportunity to discover in me the
qualities of a statesman or of a ruler, but the virility of the patriot determined to
sacrifice himself, if need be, to obtain liberty and to help the people free themselves
from the odious tyranny that oppresses them.
From the moment I threw myself into the democratic struggle I very well knew that
General Diaz would not bow to the will of the nation, and the noble Mexican people, in
following me to the polls, also knew perfectly the outrage that awaited them; but in spite
of it, the people gave the cause of liberty a numerous contingent of martyrs when they
were necessary and with wonderful stoicism went to the polls and received every sort of
molestation.
But such conduct was indispensable to show to the whole world that the Mexican people
are fit for democracy, that they are thirsty for liberty, and that their present rulers do
not measure up to their aspirations.
Besides, the attitude of the people before and during the election, as well as
afterwards, shows clearly that they reject with energy the Government of General Diaz and
that, if those electoral rights had been respected, I would have been elected for
President of the Republic.
Therefore, and in echo of the national will, I declare the late election illegal and,
the Republic being accordingly without rulers, provisionally assume the Presidency of the
Republic until the people designate their rulers pursuant to the law. In order to attain
this end, it is necessary to eject from power the audacious usurpers whose only title of
legality involves a scandalous and immoral fraud.
With all honesty I declare that it would be a weakness on my part and treason to the
people, who have placed their confidence in me, not to put myself at the front of my
fellow citizens, who anxiously call me from all parts of the country, to compel General
Diaz by force of arms, to respect the national will.
Source:
From United States Congress, Senate Subcommittee on Foreign Relations, Revolutions
in Mexico, 62nd Congress, 2nd Session (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office,
1913), pp. 730-736, passim.
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© Paul Halsall, July 1998
