1
Carranza, the governor of Coahuila, was the first man of importance in
Mexico to pronounce against Victoriano Huerta following his usurpation of
the presidency and the assassination of Madero on February 23, 1913.
Subsequently he and his followers drew up the Plan de Guadalupe which
disavowed Huerta, declared Carranza First Chief of the “Constitutionalist”
Army, and pledged the signers to work for the restoration of constitutional
government. Following the defeat of Huerta, Carranza designated the period
after 1914 as “pre-constitutional.” During this period he issued numerous
decree reforms to gain support in the campaign against the defection of
Francisco Villa, his erstwhile cohort in the struggle to eliminate Huerta.
Since 1913 the Constitutionalists were devoted to the restoration of
authority under the Constitution of 1857, considered abrogated by Huerta.
But to incorporate the reforms of 1914–1916 into the constitution, it was
found expedient to call the constitutional convention that drafted the
Constitution of 1917. For a comparison of this constitution with that of
1857 see
Branch, H.
N., trans., The Mexican Constitution
of 1917 Compared with the Constitution of 1857. Supplement to the
Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social
Science
Google Scholar, 1917, hereafter referred to as The Mexican
Constitution of 1911. The decrees of the “pre-constitutional”
period are found in Codificación de los Decretos del C. Venustiano
Carranza (Mexico, 1915). For Carranza’s reasons in calling the
constitutional convention, see Decree of September 14, 1916, in
Diario Oficial, Organo del Gobierno Provisional de la
República Mexicana, IX, No. 83 (September 22, 1916), 351–352. See also
Palavicini, Felix
F., Historia de la Constitución de
1911 (2 vols.;
Mexico,
1938)Google Scholar, I, 20–49.
