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.