In any good story, there are heroes and villains, clear-cut in their intentions and motives. History however, is not always so black and white; the man who is a savior to some is a killer to others. It takes a lot to impact a country so completely that its citizens revile you almost universally for the next century - but Victoriano Huerta managed to do so. While serving as the President of Mexico during the first year of the Mexican Revolution, he became so vilified that modern day citizens still refer to him as 'El Chacal', or The Jackal.
Before his impact on Mexico's history can be understood, it's important to know who he was. Victoriano was born in 1850 in the state of Jalisco and while little is known about his childhood, he learned to read and write very early on. A major army general selected him, at the age of nineteen, to be his personal secretary; he was ambitious and his career prospects looked good. Liberal President Benito Juarez, was instrumental in Huerta's enrollment in the National Military Academy in 1872.
When Porfirio Diaz took over the presidency in 1876, the military found themselves serving a large role as their leader became more and more dictatorial. He helped to quash rebels like Emiliano Zapata, amongst others, and eventually rose to the rank of general; however, when the President was overthrown in 1910 and the Revolution began, Victoriano was innocuously reforming the army's uniforms and was far away from the initial action.
The new President, Francisco Madero, retained Huerta to help quash revolts against the new regime. However, despite initially pledging his allegiance to the new leader, Victoriano secretly plotted against him. He joined forces with the U.S ambassador, Henry Wilson; cashiered general Bernardo Reyes and Felix Diaz, who was Porfirio's nephew. The Ten Tragic Days was a successful coup that they engineered in the government and bloody and confused fights erupted in the streets of Mexico City.
He managed to give a coup a very thin look of legitimacy, by using a loophole in Mexico's constitution (1813), and he deposed and killed Madero and his Vice-President. The United States even retaliated with hostilities, when he established a military dictatorship as soon as he gained power. Unsuited to navigating such hostile political territory, Francisco's popularity waned, and he was seen as a weak leader with poor political skills. Nonetheless, his violent betrayal and death was met with riots and enraptured the country. He was the Revolution's martyr and Victoriano, is still seen as a villain (serving the country as President for only one year)..
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