1911, The Plan de Ayala.
Liberating Plan of the sons of the State of
We who undersign, constituted in a revolutionary junta to sustain
and carry out the promises which the revolution of November 20, 1910 just past,
made to the country, declare solemnly before the face of the civilized world
which judges us and before the nation to which we belong and which we call [sic,
llamamos, misprint for amamos,
love], propositions which we have formulated to end the tyranny which oppresses
us and redeem the fatherland from the dictatorships which are imposed on us,
which [propositions] are determined in the following plan:
1. Taking into consideration that the Mexican people led by Don
Francisco I. Madero went to shed their blood to reconquer
liberties and recover their rights which had been trampled on, and not for a
man to take possession of power, violating the sacred principles which he took
an oath to defend under the slogan "Effective Suffrage and No
Reelection," outraging thus the faith, the cause, the justice, and the
liberties of the people: taking into consideration that that man to whom we
refer is Don Francisco I. Madero, the same who initiated the above-cited
revolution, who imposed his will and influence as a governing norm on the
Provisional Government of the ex-President of the Republic Attorney Francisco
L. de Barra [sic], causing with this deed
repeated sheddings of blood and multiplicate
misfortunes for the fatherland in a manner deceitful and ridiculous, having no
intentions other than satisfying his personal ambitions, his boundless
instincts as a tyrant, and his profound disrespect for the fulfillment of the
preexisting laws emanating from the immortal code of '57, written with the
revolutionary blood of Ayutla;
Taking into account that the so-called Chief of the Liberating
Revolution of Mexico, Don Francisco I. Madero, through lack of integrity and
the highest weakness, did not carry to a happy end the revolution which
gloriously he initiated with the help of God and the people, since he left
standing most of the governing powers and corrupted elements of oppression of
the dictatorial government of Porfirio Díaz, which are not nor can in any way be the
representation of National Sovereignty, and which, for being most bitter
adversaries of ours and of the principles which even now we defend, are
provoking the discomfort of the country and opening new wounds in the bosom of
the fatherland, to give it its own blood to drink; taking also into account
that the aforementioned Sr. Francisco I. Madero, present President of the
Republic, tries to avoid the fulfillment of the promises which he made to the
Nation in the Plan of San Luis Potosí, being [sic, siendo,
misprint for ciñendo, restricting] the
above-cited promises to the agreements of Ciudad Juárez,
by means of false promises and numerous intrigues against the Nation
nullifying, pursuing, jailing, or killing revolutionary elements who helped him
to occupy the high post of President of the Republic;
Taking into consideration that the so-often-repeated Francisco I.
Madero has tried with the brute force of bayonets to shut up and to drown in
blood the pueblos who ask, solicit, or demand from him the fulfillment of the
promises of the revolution, calling them bandits and rebels, condemning them to
a war of extermination without conceding or granting a single one of the
guarantees which reason, justice, and the law prescribe; taking equally into
consideration that the President of the Republic Francisco I. Madero has made
of Effective Suffrage a bloody trick on the people, already against the will of
the same people imposing Attorney José M. Pino Suárez in the Vice-Presidency of the Republic, or [imposing
as] Governors of the States [men] designated by him, like the so-called General
Ambrosio Figueroa, scourge and tyrant of the people
of Morelos, or entering into scandalous cooperation with the científico party, feudal landlords, and oppressive bosses,
enemies of the revolution proclaimed by him, so as to forge new chains and
follow the pattern of a new dictatorship more shameful and more terrible than
that of Porfirio Díaz, for
it has been clear and patent that he has outraged the sovereignty of the
States, trampling on the laws without any respect for lives or interests, as
has happened in the State of Morelos, and others, leading them to the most
horrendous anarchy which contemporary history registers.
For these considerations we declare the aforementioned Francisco
I. Madero inept at realizing the promises of the revolution of which he was the
author, because he has betrayed the principles with which he tricked the will
of the people and was able to get into power: incapable of governing, because
he has no respect for the law and justice of the pueblos, and a traitor to the
fatherland, because he is humiliating in blood and fire Mexicans who want
liberties, so as to please the científicos,
landlords, and bosses who enslave us, and from today on we begin to continue
the revolution begun by him, until we achieve the overthrow of the dictatorial
powers which exist.
2. Recognition is withdrawn from Sr. Francisco I. Madero as Chief
of the Revolution and as President of the Republic, for the reasons which
before were expressed, it being attempted to overthrow this official.
3. Recognized as Chief of the Liberating Revolution is the
illustrious General Pascual Orozco, the second of the
Leader Don Francisco I. Madero, and in case he does not accept this delicate
post, recognition as Chief of the Revolution will go to General Don Emiliano Zapata.
4. The Revolutionary Junta of the State of Morelos manifests to
the Nation under formal oath: that it makes its own the plan of San Luis
Potosí, with the additions which are expressed below in benefit of the
oppressed pueblos, and it will make itself the defender of the principles it
defends until victory or death.
5. The Revolutionary Junta of the State of
6. As an additional part of the plan we invoke, we give notice:
that [regarding] the fields, timber, and water which the landlords, científicos, or bosses have usurped, the pueblos or
citizens who have the titles corresponding to those properties will immediately
enter into possession of that real estate of which they have been despoiled by
the bad faith of our oppressors, maintaining at any cost with arms in hand the
mentioned possession; and the usurpers who consider themselves with a right to
them [those properties] will deduce it before the special tribunals which will
be established on the triumph of the revolution.
7. In virtue of the fact that the immense majority of Mexican
pueblos and citizens are owners of no more than the land they walk on,
suffering the horrors of poverty without being able to improve their social
condition in any way or to dedicate themselves to Industry or Agriculture,
because lands, timber, and water are monopolized in a few hands, for this cause
there will be expropriated the third part of those monopolies from the powerful
proprietors of them, with prior indemnization, in order
that the pueblos and citizens of Mexico may obtain ejidos,
colonies, and foundations for pueblos, or fields for sowing or laboring, and
the Mexicans' lack of prosperity and wellbeing may improve in all and for all.
8. [Regarding] The landlords, científicos,
or bosses who oppose the present plan directly or indirectly, their goods will
be nationalized and the two third parts which [otherwise would] belong to them
will go for indemnizations of war, pensions for
widows and orphans of the victims who succumb in the struggle for the present
plan.
9. In order to execute the procedures regarding the properties
aforementioned, the laws of disamortization and
nationalization will be applied as they fit, for serving us as norm and example
can be those laws put in force by the immortal Juárez
on ecclesiastical properties, which punished the despots and conservatives who
in every time have tried to impose on us the ignominious yoke of oppression and
backwardness.
10. The insurgent military chiefs of the Republic who rose up with
arms in hand at the voice of Don Francisco I. Madero to defend the plan of San
Luis Potosí, and who oppose with armed force the present plan, will be judged
traitors to the cause which they defended and to the fatherland, since at present
many of them, to humor the tyrants, for a fistful of coins, or for bribes or
connivance, are shedding the blood of their brothers who claim the fulfillment
of the promises which Don Francisco I. Madero made to the nation.
11. The expenses of war will be taken in conformity with Article
II of the Plan of San Luis Potosí, and all procedures employed in the
revolution we undertake will be in conformity with the same instructions which
the said plan determines.
12. Once triumphant the revolution which we carry into the path of
reality, a Junta of the principal revolutionary chiefs from the different
States will name or designate an interim President of the Republic, who will
convoke elections for the organization of the federal powers.
13. The principal revolutionary chiefs of each State will
designate in Junta the Governor of the State to which they belong, and this
appointed official will convoke elections for the due organization of the
public powers, the object being to avoid compulsory appointments which work the
misfortune of the pueblos, like the so-well-known appointment of Ambrosio Figueroa in the State of Morelos and others who
drive us to the precipice of bloody conflicts, sustained by the caprice of the
dictator Madero and the circle of científicos and
landlords who have influenced him.
14. If President Madero and other dictatorial elements of the
present and former regime want to avoid the immense misfortunes which afflict
the fatherland, and [if they] possess true sentiments of love for it, let them
make immediate renunciation of the posts they occupy and with that they will
with something staunch the grave wounds which they have opened in the bosom of
the fatherland, since, if they do not do so, on their heads will fall the blood
and the anathema of our brothers.
15. Mexicans: consider that the cunning and bad faith of one man
is shedding blood in a scandalous manner, because he is incapable of governing;
consider that his system of government is choking the fatherland and trampling
with the brute force of bayonets on our institutions; and thus, as we raised up
our weapons to elevate him to power, we again raise them up against him for
defaulting on his promises to the Mexican people and for having betrayed the
revolution initiated by him, we are not personalists,
we are partisans of principles and not of men!
Mexican People, support this plan with
arms in hand and you will make the prosperity and well-being of the fatherland.
Ayala, November 25, 1911
Liberty, Justice, and Law
Signed, General in Chief Emiliano Zapata; Generals Eufemio Zapata, Francisco Mendoza, Jesús
Morales, Jesús Navarro, Otilio
E. Montaño, José Trinidad Ruiz, Próculo
Capistrán; Colonels Felipe Vaquero, Cesáreo Burgos, Quintín González, Pedro Salazar, Simón
Rojas, Emigdio Marmolejo,
José Campos, Pioquinto Galis,
Felipe Tijera, Rafael Sánchez,
José Pérez, Santiago Aguilar, Margarito
Martínez, Feliciano Domínguez,
Manuel Vergara, Cruz Salazar, Lauro
Sánchez, Amador Salazar, Lorenzo Vázquez,
Catarino Perdomo, Jesús Sánchez, Domingo Romero, Zacarías Torres, Bonifacio García, Daniel Andrade, Ponciano Domínguez, Jesús Capistrán; Captains Daniel Mantilla, José M. Carrillo,
Francisco Alarcón, Severiano
Gutiérrez; and more signatures follow. [This] is a
true copy taken from the original. Camp in the Mountains of
From John Womack, Jr, Zapata
and the Mexican Revolution (New York: Vintage Books, 1968, 400-404).