Many Mexican leaders have perished by treason and the sword, but none died as tragically as Venustiano Carranza, first chief of the constitutionalists and president of Mexico. Having failed to dictate his successor and faced with military disaster, Carranza fled Mexico City for Veracruz, where one of his commanders had sworn to protect him. No sooner was he out of the capital, however, than his subordinate betrayed him. Unable to continue his flight by railroad, Carranza fled on horseback into the mountains of Puebla, where he expected friends to offer haven. He was betrayed again. When he stopped for the night in the village of Tlaxcalantongo on the advice of his followers, he was treacherously slain in bed by those who had sworn to defend him.
Francisco L. Urquizo, a loyal Carranzista, tells the story vividly, and no one is better qualified to describe the death of the Mexican leader, for General Urquizo was with his chief on that fateful night. Originally titled México-Tlaxcalantongo, the Asesinato de Carranza is a reissue of a book that recounts one of Mexico’s tragic episodes as only an eye-witness with a flair for fine prose could have written it.
