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Plan of Ayala 1911
See also
Emiliano Zapata and
the entry in the
Timeline of the Mexican Revolution.
It follows the English translation transcript of the Plan of
Ayala, 1911.
THE PLAN OF AYALA - 1911
ENGLISH TRANSCRIPT
Liberating Plan of the sons of the State of Morelos, affiliated with
the Insurgent Army which defends the fulfillment of the Plan of San
Luis, with the reforms which it has believed proper to add in
benefit of the Mexican Fatherland.
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 Morelos will admit no
transactions or compromises until it achieves the overthrow of the
dictatorial elements of Porfirio Díaz and Francisco I. Madero, for
the nation is tired of false men and traitors who make promises like
liberators and who on arriving in power forget them and constitute
themselves as tyrants.
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 Puebla, December 11, 1911. Signed, General
in Chief Emiliano Zapata.
From John Womack, Jr, Zapata and the Mexican Revolution
(New
York: Vintage Books, 1968, 400-404)
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