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| image name=V_Huerta.jpg | order=40th President | date1= February 19 1913 | date2= July 14 1914 | preceded= Pedro Lascuráin ''Interim'' | succeeded= Francisco S. Carvajal ''Interim'' | date of birth= December 23 1850 | place of birth= Colotlán , Jalisco | date of death= January 13 1916 | place of death= El Paso , Texas , United States | profession= Soldier | wife=Emilia Aguila | party= }} José Victoriano Huerta Márquez ( March 23 1854 – January 13 1916 ) was a Mexican military officer and President Of Mexico . Huerta was born in the town of Colotlán , Jalisco , son of Jesús Huerta and Refugio Márquez who were of Mestizo descent. He entered the Mexican Army at the age of 17, distinguished himself and gained admission to the Military Academy at Chapultepec . During the Porfirio Díaz administration he rose to the rank of General , and fought to subdue the Chan Santa Cruz Maya People of Yucatán and against the rebels of Emiliano Zapata . On the eve of the 1910 revolution against the long established Diaz regime, Huerta was involved in the innocuous project of reforming the uniforms of the Federal Army. After Díaz went into exile Huerta initially pledged allegiance to the new administration of Francisco Madero , and he was retained by the Madero administration. However, Huerta secretly entered into a plot — ''el Pacto de la Ciudadela'' — with the U.S. Ambassador to Mexico, Henry Lane Wilson , and Félix Díaz , Porfirio Díaz's nephew, to overthrow Madero. Following a confused few days of fighting in Mexico City between loyalist and rebel factions of the Army, Huerta had Madero and vice-president José María Pino Suárez siezed and briefly imprisoned. After a very short term of office by Pedro Lascuráin ) on February 18 1913 Huerta proclaimed himself provisional president of Mexico. Four days later Madero and Pino Suárez were taken from their prison at night and shot by officers of the Rurales (Federal mounted police) who were assumed to be acting on Huerta's orders. Huerta established a harsh military dictatorship. US President Woodrow Wilson became hostile to the Huerta administration, recalled ambassador Henry Lane Wilson, and demanded Huerta step aside for democratic elections. When Huerta refused, and with the situation further exacerbated by the Tampico Affair , President Wilson landed US troops to take over Mexico's most important seaport, Veracruz . There were also numerous domestic revolts against Huerta, including those led by Zapata , Pancho Villa , and Venustiano Carranza . Victoriano Huerta bowed to pressure and resigned the Presidency on July 14 , 1914 . He went into exile, first traveling to Kingston, Jamaica aboard the German cruiser SMS Dresden . From there, he moved to England , then Spain , then to the United States. He was discovered to be plotting to return to power in Mexico — in both Spain and Washington, he had been negotiating with German agents to secure the Kaiser 's support for a coup d'état. He was arrested in Newman, New Mexico , USA, on June 27 , 1915 together with Pascual Orozco and charged with Conspiracy to violate US neutrality laws. After some time in a US Army prison at Fort Bliss , he was released on bail but remained under house arrest due to risk of flight to Mexico. While so confined, he drank very heavily and died of Alcohol Poisoning in El Paso, Texas . Huerta is still vilified by modern-day Mexicans, who generally refer to him as ''El Chacal'' — "The Jackal ". See also External links
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