812.00/24098
The Chargé in Mexico (Summerlin) to the Secretary of
State
Mexico, May 13,
1920.
[Received May 25.]
No. 3149
Sir: In view of the number of references to
the Plan of “Agua Prieta” in the Embassy’s telegrams to the
Department, I have the honor to send enclosed, even at this late
date, copy and translation of that document.
I have [etc.]
[Enclosure—Translation]
The Plan of Agua Prieta
Whereas:
- I.
- —The National Sovereignty rests essentially and
originally in the people; all Public Power emanates from
the people and is instituted for its benefit; and the
power of public officials is only a partial delegation
of the popular sovereignty, made by the same
people.
- II.
- —The present President of the Republic, Venustiano
Carranza, has constituted himself the leader of a
political party and, pursuing the triumph of that party,
has systematically made a mockery of the popular vote,
has suspended, in fact, individual guarantees and has
made repeated attempts against the sovereignty of the
States thus radically weakening the political
organization of the Republic.
- III.
- —These acts and this procedure, openly exposed,
constitute, at the same time, flagrant violations of our
Supreme Law, grave crimes of a common order and absolute
betrayal of the fundamental aspirations of the
Constitutionalist Revolution.15
- IV.
- —All the peaceful means to direct the action of the
aforementioned First Chief of the Federation into
constitutional channels, having been exhausted without
the achievement of such an end, the
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moment has arrived when
the Mexican people resumes all its sovereignty, revokes
the power which it has conferred upon this faithless
agent and reassert[s] the absolute rule of its
institutions and its laws.
In virtue of the above, we, the undersigned Mexican citizens in
full exercise of our political rights, have adopted in all its
parts and swear to sustain in its entirety the following:
organic plan of the movement
to revindicate democracy and the law
- Article I.—Venustiano Carranza
ceases in the exercise of the Executive Power of the
Federation.
- Article II.—Recognition is
refused to the public officials whose assumption of office
had its origin in the recent elections of local powers which
took place in the States of Guanajuato, San Luis Potosí,
Queretaro, Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas.
- Article III.—Recognition is
likewise refused to the citizens elected in the capacity of
Councilmen of the Municipal Government of the City of Mexico
during the last elections held in said capital.
- Article IV.—Jose Santos Godinez
is recognized as Constitutional Governor of the State of
Nayarit.
- Article V.—All the other
legitimate authorities of the Federation and the States are
also recognized. The Liberal Constitutionalist Army will
sustain said authorities provided they do not combat nor
molest the present movement.
- Article VI.—The Political
Constitution of February 5, 191716 is hereby recognized as the
fundamental law of the Republic.
- Article VII.—All the generals,
military leaders, officers and soldiers seconding this plan
shall constitute the Liberal Constitutionalist Army. The
present Constitutional Governor of Sonora, Adolfo de la
Huerta, shall temporarily have the character of Supreme
Chief of the Army with all the faculties necessary for the
military, political and administrative organization of this
movement.
- Article VIII.—The Constitutional
Governors of the States who recognize and adhere to this
movement within the space of thirty days, reckoned from the
date of promulgation of this plan, shall each name a duly
authorized representative to the end that said delegates,
assembled within sixty days after the present date, in the
place designated by the man who is temporarily Supreme
Chief, take measures for the definite appointment, by a
majority of votes, of the Supreme Chief of the Liberal
Constitutionalist Army.
- Article IX.—If in view of the
circumstances arising from the campaign, the Assembly of
Delegates of the Constitutional Governors
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referred to in the previous
article does not secure a majority on the date set, the
present Constitutional Governor of the State of Sonora,
Adolfo de la Huerta, shall definitely remain the Supreme
Chief of the Liberal Constitutionalist Army.
- Article X.—As soon as the
present Plan is adopted by the majority of the Nation and
the City of Mexico is occupied by the Liberal
Constitutionalist Army, measures shall be taken to designate
a Provisional President of the Republic in the manner
provided by the following articles:—
- Article XI.—If the movement
should be consummated before the end of the present period
of the Federal Congress, the Supreme Chief of the Liberal
Constitutionalist Army shall convoke Congress to extra
sessions wherever it may be able to meet and the members of
both Chambers shall elect the Provisional President in
conformance to the Constitution in force.
- Article XII.—If the case
foreseen by Article VIII should arise after the end of the
constitutional period of the present Chambers, the Supreme
Chief of the Liberal Constitutionalist Army shall assume the
Provisional Presidency of the Republic.
- Article XIII.—The Provisional
President shall call elections of the Executive and
Legislative Powers of the Federation immediately after he
takes possession of his post.
- Article XIV.—The Supreme Chief
of the Liberal Constitutionalist Army shall name Provisional
Governors of the States of Guanajuato, San Luis Potosí,
Queretaro, Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas; of those which do not
have a Constitutional Governor; and of all the other Federal
entities whose administrators combat or refuse to recognize
this movement.
- Article XV.—After the triumph of
this Plan has been assured, the Provisional President shall
authorize the Provisional Governors to call immediately
elections of Local Powers in conformance to the respective
laws.
- Article XVI.—The Liberal
Constitutionalist Army shall rule in accord with the General
Orders and Military Laws at present in force in the
Republic.
- Article XVII.—The Supreme Chief
of the Liberal Constitutionalist Army and all the civil and
military authorities who second this Plan shall give
guarantees to nationals and foreigners and shall give very
special protection to the development of industry, commerce
and all business.
Effective Suffrage.—No Reelection.
Agua Prieta, Sonora, April 23, 1920.
