Veracruz Mexico

Madero was a wealthy liberal from Coahuila who was on his way to winning the presidential election of 1910 against Porfirio Díaz. Díaz, unready to give up the dictatorship he had held for 34 years, threw Madero in jail on election day for "inciting rebellion and offending the authorities." Bailed out by his influential family — but not before issuing his "letter from jail" declaring the Díaz regime illegal and calling for the country to rise in revolt on Nov. 20 — he jumped bail after Díaz was declared president and spent a short while in San Antonio, Texas. He crossed into Mexico with a few followers, but retreated back across the border when the large force he was expecting didn't materialize. His letter, however, met with greater success, and the revolution was in the capable hands of leaders such as Pancho Villa and Emiliano Zapata. Madero joined the May 1911 battle at Ciudad Juárez that toppled Díaz and made a triumphant entry to the capital in June. He was overwhelmingly elected president that October — only to be deposed and executed two years later.

Route of Democracy: The Zapatista Route
This route encompasses the campaigns of Zapata's Liberation Army of the South, in the states of Morelos, Puebla, Mexico and the Federal District.

Zapata, born to a middle-class family in a village in Morelos, became an early champion of Indian rights. As head of his village's defense committee, he redistributed hacienda lands, sometimes peacefully and sometimes by force. When Madero ran for president against Díaz, Zapata quietly allied with the challenger. He became the general of the Ejército Libertador del Sur (Liberation Army of the South) in Morelos, which supported Madero. Zapata's small force took the city of Cuautla in March 1911 and closed the road to Mexico City. However, Zapata objected to Madero's conservative turn after becoming president. The two couldn't to reach a compromise, and Zapata retreated in November to the mountains of Puebla, where he issued the Plan de Ayala, demanding reforms and denouncing Madero. His reconstituted army joined with other former Madera supporters to oppose the new president.

Zapata soon was the revolution's de facto leader, and his guerilla tactics overthrew city after city. What he got for his troubles was Gen. Victoriano Huerta, formerly Madero's top general, who deposed and executed Madero in 1913. Zapata refused to unite with Huerta, which prevented the general from fighting guerillas in the north under the command of a moderate politician, Venustiano Carranza. Zapata continued to fight independently for a civilian president, occupying first Mexico City and then Puebla, and winning numerous battles. But Carranza defeated Villa in the north in 1917, isolating Zapata, and called a constitutional convention that adopted a reformist constitution (mostly still in force today) and elected him president. Carranza had Zapata assassinated two years later.