Pact of the Embassy

Pact of the Embassy is an agreement, also known as the Pact of the Ciudadela, signed in the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City early in the morning of February 19, 1913, that ended the Decena Trágica. After General Victoriano Huerta, commander of the government forces, seized control by deposing President Francisco Madero, U.S. Ambassador Henry Lane Wilson intervened to end the destructive artillery duel in the heart of Mexico City. In the U.S. Embassy Wilson convened and mediated negotiations between Huerta and rebel commander General Felix Díaz, whose forces remained in control of parts of the capital.

Negotiations lasted several hours, ending at one a.m. on February 19 in an accord between the two rival generals. Under its terms, Díaz recognized Huerta as provisional president, while Huerta allowed Díaz to name his cabinet and pledged to support Díaz in the election that the constitution required within a year. A few hours later the Chamber of Deputies duly accepted the resignations of President Madero and Vice President José María Pino Suárez, and confirmed General Huerta as president.

While not formally part of the pact, Díaz and Huerta orally agreed, at the insistence of Ambassador Wilson, to a number of stipulations, which included joint action between their forces to maintain order in the capital and the release of Madero's cabinet ministers. It conspicuously omitted the president and vice president, who were assassinated on February 22. Various accusations ascribed responsibility to either Huerta or Díaz. Other leaders soon launched the second stage of the Mexican Revolution, leading to a civil war that eventually deposed Huerta in July 1914.

See alsoDecena Trágica .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Arnáiz y Freg, Arturo. Madero y Pino Suárez, en el cinquentenario de su sacrificio, 1913–1963. Testimonios históricos seleccionados por Arturo Arnáiz y Freg (1963).

Grieb, Kenneth J. The United States and Huerta. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1969.

Meyer, Michael C. Huerta: A Political Portrait. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1972.

Ross, Stanley R. Francisco I. Madero: Apostle of Mexican Democracy. New York: Columbia University Press, 1955.

                                       Kenneth J. Grieb