Manuel Peláez
Encyclopedia
Manuel Peláez Gorrochotegui (1885-1959) Mexican
military officer, noteworthy for his participation in the Mexican Revolution
of 1910 to 1920.
Manuel Peláez was born in 1885 in the Huasteca region of the state of Veracruz
, in the coastal area roughly between Tampico, Tamaulipas, and the port of Veracruz. He is primarily known in the Mexican Revolution
as an independent general who kept the Carrancista forces at bay between 1915 and 1920. He fought to uphold the local political and economic autonomy of the region, and opposed the central government of Mexico City
.
In 1901, oil was discovered in the Huasteca, and several foreign oil companies came into the region of buy or lease subsoil right from the local ranchers. The Peláez family was one of the first families to deal with the oil companies, and Manuel Peláez quickly emerged as a respected and influential broker between the local families and the oil companies. His experiences led him to become a successful businessman, labor contractor, and labor mediator.
The 1910 Revolution brought uncertainty to the region, for both the oil companies and the local ranchers. The ranchers decided to join the Francisco Madero revolution hoping to keep economic and political control of the Huasteca away from the central government of Porfirio Díaz
. In late 1910, Peláez organized a small local group to fight for Madero. In October 1911, after Díaz was deposed, Peláez was elected mayor of the municipality of Álamo
as a supporter of Madero.
He soon became disenchanted with Madero, however, when Madero began demobilizing the local paramilitary forces, and began restricting the operations of the foreign oil companies. He also became disillusioned with Madero because the new government seemed incapable of quelling the banditry and social unrest that followed the revolution. In October 1912, he joined the revolt of conservative Félix Díaz, nephew of Porfirio Díaz
. When that revolt was failed, he fled to the United States.
Victoriano Huerta
deposed Madero in February 1913, and Peláez returned to the Huasteca in April of the same year. But he found that the area had become inundated with marauding bands calling themselves Constitutionalists. Some time after June 1913, Peláez went to Mexico City and conferred with the Huerta government, asking for assistance in quelling the marauders. The War Department commissioned Peláez a Major in the Home Guard and gave him funds to arm about 500 men. Peláez took to the field again to battle men claiming to support Venustiano Carranza
.
In October 1913, Pancho Villa
won a major battle over seasoned federal troops and took the city of Torreón
, Coahuila
. Congress then began to question Huerta’s ability to bring peace to the land. Huerta responded by closing congress and arresting 84 congressmen. This caused Peláez to become disillusioned with Huerta, and he decided to follow an independent course, following neither Huerta nor the Carranza revolutionaries.
In late April 1914, U.S. forces took the city of Veracruz, and then in May, Constitutional forces took the city of Tampico
. Peláez seeing that the Huerta government would collapse, and fearing he would be taken by the victorious revolutionary forces, fled to the United States. In July of the same year, Huerta fled Mexico when his government collapsed.
Peláez returned to Mexico in October 1914, but found the victorious revolutionaries split into two opposing factions: those who supported the continued leadership of Carranza, and those who supported the new government called the Government of the Convention. Greatly disliking Carranza and his followers, he decided to support the Government of the Convention ostensibly headed up by President Eulalio Gutiérrez
, but actually controlled by Pancho Villa
and Emiliano Zapata
. When Pancho Villa
suffered a major defeated by Carranza’s General Álvaro Obregón
in the spring of 1915, the Convention Government collapsed, and Carranza declared himself in control of the Mexico.
Peláez could not abide Carranza or his plans to bring the oil industry under control of his central government, so he reorganized his irregular forces and took to the field again. Calling himself a General, he imposes taxes on the local oil companies to support a small loyal and well armed rebel force. Between 1915 and 1920, General Peláez and his forces held off several attempts by the Carranza government to control the Huasteca.
In January 1915, two months after Peláez began his rebellion, one of the major oil wells in the Huasteca caught fire, and burned spectacularly for three months. It was unclear what caused the fire, and both sides claimed the fire was due to malicious actions of the other. The prevailing opinion for many years was that Peláez and his forces started the fire when the oil companies refused to pay him money he demanded. Current scholarship now says the oil fire was started by lightning, but exacerbated because the local Carranza commander had closed a water pumping station in retaliation for the oil company not paying a levied fine.
Peláez was a successful strategist who kept Carranza’s armies on the defensive for five years. His loosely coordinated but well-paid guerrilla forces never numbered more than 3,000. While he never occupied a major city, his control of the countryside was seldom challenged. The heavily thicketed terrain, the extensive waterways, his access to weapons and ammunitions, and the support of the local population worked to his advantage in launching random surprise attacks on Carranza garrisons, payroll trains, and pipelines. His soldiers intimidated, killed, stole, and set fire to Carrancista garrisons and oil company properties at will, while leaving the Huasteca natives for the most part unharmed. Five Carrancista campaigns between 1917 and 1918 failed to subdue him.
In 1916 and 1917, Félix Díaz attempted to overthrow the government. Both times Peláez offered him financial and moral support, but in 1918, he formally withdrew support from Diaz when it became apparent that Díaz had neither the ability nor the capacity to succeed. Peláez also entered into negotiations with the Zapata movement during 1918 and 1919, but the two sides had only their hatred of Carranza in common, and never reached an agreement.
In October 1919, Peláez had American consular agent William O. Jenkins
from Puebla
‘arrested’ to embarrass the Carranza government; demonstrating to the U.S. government that Carranza was unable to police the major cities. Jenkins was released unharmed later the same month, but was immediately arrested by Carranza’s police for conspiring to embarrass the government.
Peláez is often dismissed as just a tool of the foreign oil companies, but his life is more complex than that. He enjoyed a large measure of genuine local popular support. While the civil war raged on in Mexico, bringing destruction, poverty, and hunger to most parts of the country; the oil-producing Huasteca region remained an enclave of prosperity. Oil operations were constantly expanding, and the oil companies provided their workers with regular pay and supplies of food and other goods, which were easily imported. Oil workers saw themselves as better than the revolutionary bandits, and saw Peláez as a defender of their interests.
On September 9, 1919, Peláez, Félix Díaz and Gildardo Magaña
, Zapata’s successor, issued a joint communiqué to U.S. President Wilson
urging his recognition of their belligerencies, in the hope that the United States would somehow internee on their behalf and oppose Carranza, but nothing came of this.
By 1919, Carranza was proving to be ineffective and unpopular. The population favored the accession of Álvaro Obregón
for the 1920 election, but Carranza did everything in his power to prevent Obregón’s election. In the spring of 1920, Obregón’s Sonoran supporters initiated the Agua Prieta Revolt and removed Carranza from power. Peláez agreed to support Obregón’s revolt, and when Carranza was attempting to flee to Veracruz, one of Peláez’s subordinates caught up to him and killed him. For his support, Obregón rewarded Peláez by having his rank of General confirmed, and he was named Chief of Military Operations in the Huasteca.
However in this capacity, he lost his freedom to operate independently, and became accountable to Obregón’s military command. Never really seeing eye-to-eye with Obregón, Peláez fell out of favor in the Obregón government, and so he moved to Los Angeles
in April 1921. His lieutenants attempted to renew hostilities against the central government but they proved no match for the central government’s machinations, and they were all disarmed by the end of 1921.
Peláez returned to Mexico in 1923 with intentions of joining the Adolfo de la Huerta
rebellion, but he was arrested before he could participate. A few months after the rebellion was crushed, he was released and retired to his Tierra Amarilly ranch, where he lived peacefully until his death in 1959. His family still retains extensive holding in the Huasteca.
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
military officer, noteworthy for his participation in the Mexican Revolution
Mexican Revolution
The Mexican Revolution was a major armed struggle that started in 1910, with an uprising led by Francisco I. Madero against longtime autocrat Porfirio Díaz. The Revolution was characterized by several socialist, liberal, anarchist, populist, and agrarianist movements. Over time the Revolution...
of 1910 to 1920.
Manuel Peláez was born in 1885 in the Huasteca region of the state of Veracruz
Veracruz
Veracruz, formally Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave , is one of the 31 states that, along with the Federal District, comprise the 32 federative entities of Mexico. It is divided in 212 municipalities and its capital city is...
, in the coastal area roughly between Tampico, Tamaulipas, and the port of Veracruz. He is primarily known in the Mexican Revolution
Mexican Revolution
The Mexican Revolution was a major armed struggle that started in 1910, with an uprising led by Francisco I. Madero against longtime autocrat Porfirio Díaz. The Revolution was characterized by several socialist, liberal, anarchist, populist, and agrarianist movements. Over time the Revolution...
as an independent general who kept the Carrancista forces at bay between 1915 and 1920. He fought to uphold the local political and economic autonomy of the region, and opposed the central government of Mexico City
Mexico City
Mexico City is the Federal District , capital of Mexico and seat of the federal powers of the Mexican Union. It is a federal entity within Mexico which is not part of any one of the 31 Mexican states but belongs to the federation as a whole...
.
In 1901, oil was discovered in the Huasteca, and several foreign oil companies came into the region of buy or lease subsoil right from the local ranchers. The Peláez family was one of the first families to deal with the oil companies, and Manuel Peláez quickly emerged as a respected and influential broker between the local families and the oil companies. His experiences led him to become a successful businessman, labor contractor, and labor mediator.
The 1910 Revolution brought uncertainty to the region, for both the oil companies and the local ranchers. The ranchers decided to join the Francisco Madero revolution hoping to keep economic and political control of the Huasteca away from the central government of Porfirio Díaz
Porfirio Díaz
José de la Cruz Porfirio Díaz Mori was a Mexican-American War volunteer and French intervention hero, an accomplished general and the President of Mexico continuously from 1876 to 1911, with the exception of a brief term in 1876 when he left Juan N...
. In late 1910, Peláez organized a small local group to fight for Madero. In October 1911, after Díaz was deposed, Peláez was elected mayor of the municipality of Álamo
Alamo, Veracruz
Álamo is a Mexican city in the state of Veracruz. It was elevated to city status in 1973, it has 24,159 inhabitants. The city's name is derived from the many Álamo trees growing along the Pantepec River...
as a supporter of Madero.
He soon became disenchanted with Madero, however, when Madero began demobilizing the local paramilitary forces, and began restricting the operations of the foreign oil companies. He also became disillusioned with Madero because the new government seemed incapable of quelling the banditry and social unrest that followed the revolution. In October 1912, he joined the revolt of conservative Félix Díaz, nephew of Porfirio Díaz
Porfirio Díaz
José de la Cruz Porfirio Díaz Mori was a Mexican-American War volunteer and French intervention hero, an accomplished general and the President of Mexico continuously from 1876 to 1911, with the exception of a brief term in 1876 when he left Juan N...
. When that revolt was failed, he fled to the United States.
Victoriano Huerta
Victoriano Huerta
José Victoriano Huerta Márquez was a Mexican military officer and president of Mexico. Huerta's supporters were known as Huertistas during the Mexican Revolution...
deposed Madero in February 1913, and Peláez returned to the Huasteca in April of the same year. But he found that the area had become inundated with marauding bands calling themselves Constitutionalists. Some time after June 1913, Peláez went to Mexico City and conferred with the Huerta government, asking for assistance in quelling the marauders. The War Department commissioned Peláez a Major in the Home Guard and gave him funds to arm about 500 men. Peláez took to the field again to battle men claiming to support Venustiano Carranza
Venustiano Carranza
Venustiano Carranza de la Garza, was one of the leaders of the Mexican Revolution. He ultimately became President of Mexico following the overthrow of the dictatorial Huerta regime in the summer of 1914 and during his administration the current constitution of Mexico was drafted...
.
In October 1913, Pancho Villa
Pancho Villa
José Doroteo Arango Arámbula – better known by his pseudonym Francisco Villa or its hypocorism Pancho Villa – was one of the most prominent Mexican Revolutionary generals....
won a major battle over seasoned federal troops and took the city of Torreón
Torreón
Torreón is a city and seat of the surrounding municipality of the same name in the Mexican state of Coahuila. As of 2010, the city's population was 608,836 with 639,629 in the municipality. The metropolitan population, including Matamoros, Coahuila, and Gómez Palacio and Lerdo in adjacent Durango,...
, Coahuila
Coahuila
Coahuila, formally Coahuila de Zaragoza , officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Coahuila de Zaragoza is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico...
. Congress then began to question Huerta’s ability to bring peace to the land. Huerta responded by closing congress and arresting 84 congressmen. This caused Peláez to become disillusioned with Huerta, and he decided to follow an independent course, following neither Huerta nor the Carranza revolutionaries.
In late April 1914, U.S. forces took the city of Veracruz, and then in May, Constitutional forces took the city of Tampico
Tampico
Tampico is a city and port in the state of Tamaulipas, in the country of Mexico. It is located in the southeastern part of the state, directly north across the border from Veracruz. Tampico is the third largest city in Tamaulipas, and counts with a population of 309,003. The Metropolitan area of...
. Peláez seeing that the Huerta government would collapse, and fearing he would be taken by the victorious revolutionary forces, fled to the United States. In July of the same year, Huerta fled Mexico when his government collapsed.
Peláez returned to Mexico in October 1914, but found the victorious revolutionaries split into two opposing factions: those who supported the continued leadership of Carranza, and those who supported the new government called the Government of the Convention. Greatly disliking Carranza and his followers, he decided to support the Government of the Convention ostensibly headed up by President Eulalio Gutiérrez
Eulalio Gutiérrez
Eulalio Gutiérrez Ortiz was elected provisional president of Mexico during the Aguascalientes Convention and led the country for a few months between November 6, 1914, and January 16, 1915....
, but actually controlled by Pancho Villa
Pancho Villa
José Doroteo Arango Arámbula – better known by his pseudonym Francisco Villa or its hypocorism Pancho Villa – was one of the most prominent Mexican Revolutionary generals....
and Emiliano Zapata
Emiliano Zapata
Emiliano Zapata Salazar was a leading figure in the Mexican Revolution, which broke out in 1910, and which was initially directed against the president Porfirio Díaz. He formed and commanded an important revolutionary force, the Liberation Army of the South, during the Mexican Revolution...
. When Pancho Villa
Pancho Villa
José Doroteo Arango Arámbula – better known by his pseudonym Francisco Villa or its hypocorism Pancho Villa – was one of the most prominent Mexican Revolutionary generals....
suffered a major defeated by Carranza’s General Álvaro Obregón
Álvaro Obregón
General Álvaro Obregón Salido was the President of Mexico from 1920 to 1924. He was assassinated in 1928, shortly after winning election to another presidential term....
in the spring of 1915, the Convention Government collapsed, and Carranza declared himself in control of the Mexico.
Peláez could not abide Carranza or his plans to bring the oil industry under control of his central government, so he reorganized his irregular forces and took to the field again. Calling himself a General, he imposes taxes on the local oil companies to support a small loyal and well armed rebel force. Between 1915 and 1920, General Peláez and his forces held off several attempts by the Carranza government to control the Huasteca.
In January 1915, two months after Peláez began his rebellion, one of the major oil wells in the Huasteca caught fire, and burned spectacularly for three months. It was unclear what caused the fire, and both sides claimed the fire was due to malicious actions of the other. The prevailing opinion for many years was that Peláez and his forces started the fire when the oil companies refused to pay him money he demanded. Current scholarship now says the oil fire was started by lightning, but exacerbated because the local Carranza commander had closed a water pumping station in retaliation for the oil company not paying a levied fine.
Peláez was a successful strategist who kept Carranza’s armies on the defensive for five years. His loosely coordinated but well-paid guerrilla forces never numbered more than 3,000. While he never occupied a major city, his control of the countryside was seldom challenged. The heavily thicketed terrain, the extensive waterways, his access to weapons and ammunitions, and the support of the local population worked to his advantage in launching random surprise attacks on Carranza garrisons, payroll trains, and pipelines. His soldiers intimidated, killed, stole, and set fire to Carrancista garrisons and oil company properties at will, while leaving the Huasteca natives for the most part unharmed. Five Carrancista campaigns between 1917 and 1918 failed to subdue him.
In 1916 and 1917, Félix Díaz attempted to overthrow the government. Both times Peláez offered him financial and moral support, but in 1918, he formally withdrew support from Diaz when it became apparent that Díaz had neither the ability nor the capacity to succeed. Peláez also entered into negotiations with the Zapata movement during 1918 and 1919, but the two sides had only their hatred of Carranza in common, and never reached an agreement.
In October 1919, Peláez had American consular agent William O. Jenkins
William O. Jenkins
William O. Jenkins was an American businessman who made great wealth in Mexico. He was born May 18, 1878 in Shelbyville, Tennessee. He was originally a mechanic who moved to Mexico. He served during the Mexican Revolution as a minor consular official at Puebla, Mexico. While serving as consul he...
from Puebla
Puebla
Puebla officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Puebla is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 217 municipalities and its capital city is Puebla....
‘arrested’ to embarrass the Carranza government; demonstrating to the U.S. government that Carranza was unable to police the major cities. Jenkins was released unharmed later the same month, but was immediately arrested by Carranza’s police for conspiring to embarrass the government.
Peláez is often dismissed as just a tool of the foreign oil companies, but his life is more complex than that. He enjoyed a large measure of genuine local popular support. While the civil war raged on in Mexico, bringing destruction, poverty, and hunger to most parts of the country; the oil-producing Huasteca region remained an enclave of prosperity. Oil operations were constantly expanding, and the oil companies provided their workers with regular pay and supplies of food and other goods, which were easily imported. Oil workers saw themselves as better than the revolutionary bandits, and saw Peláez as a defender of their interests.
On September 9, 1919, Peláez, Félix Díaz and Gildardo Magaña
Gildardo Magaña
Gildardo Magaña Cerda was a Mexican general, politician and revolutionary.Born on March 7, 1891 in Zamora, Michoacán, to a Liberal trading family and was sent to study economy in the U.S. Back in Mexico he was involved in the anti-reelectionist movement and had to flee to the insurrectionist...
, Zapata’s successor, issued a joint communiqué to U.S. President Wilson
Woodrow Wilson
Thomas Woodrow Wilson was the 28th President of the United States, from 1913 to 1921. A leader of the Progressive Movement, he served as President of Princeton University from 1902 to 1910, and then as the Governor of New Jersey from 1911 to 1913...
urging his recognition of their belligerencies, in the hope that the United States would somehow internee on their behalf and oppose Carranza, but nothing came of this.
By 1919, Carranza was proving to be ineffective and unpopular. The population favored the accession of Álvaro Obregón
Álvaro Obregón
General Álvaro Obregón Salido was the President of Mexico from 1920 to 1924. He was assassinated in 1928, shortly after winning election to another presidential term....
for the 1920 election, but Carranza did everything in his power to prevent Obregón’s election. In the spring of 1920, Obregón’s Sonoran supporters initiated the Agua Prieta Revolt and removed Carranza from power. Peláez agreed to support Obregón’s revolt, and when Carranza was attempting to flee to Veracruz, one of Peláez’s subordinates caught up to him and killed him. For his support, Obregón rewarded Peláez by having his rank of General confirmed, and he was named Chief of Military Operations in the Huasteca.
However in this capacity, he lost his freedom to operate independently, and became accountable to Obregón’s military command. Never really seeing eye-to-eye with Obregón, Peláez fell out of favor in the Obregón government, and so he moved to Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
in April 1921. His lieutenants attempted to renew hostilities against the central government but they proved no match for the central government’s machinations, and they were all disarmed by the end of 1921.
Peláez returned to Mexico in 1923 with intentions of joining the Adolfo de la Huerta
Adolfo de la Huerta
Felipe Adolfo de la Huerta Marcor was a Mexican politician and interim President of Mexico from June 1 to December 1, 1920....
rebellion, but he was arrested before he could participate. A few months after the rebellion was crushed, he was released and retired to his Tierra Amarilly ranch, where he lived peacefully until his death in 1959. His family still retains extensive holding in the Huasteca.
Books
- Brown, Jonathan: OIL and REVOLUTION in Mexico, 1993
- Katz, Friedrich: The Life and Times of Pancho Villa, 1998
- Womack, John: ZAPATA: and the Mexican Revolution, 1969
- Henderson, Peter: FÉLIX DÍAZ, The Porfirians and the Mexican Revolution, 1981
- Salamini, Heather Fowler: ‘Caciquismo and the Mexican Revoltuion: The case of Manuel Pelaez.’
- Chapter 11 of ‘Intellectuals and Power in Mexico’ Papers presented at the VI Conference of Mexican and United States Historians, 1981