Plan of Ayutla

The Plan of Ayutla was the 1854 written plan aimed at removing conservative, centralist president Antonio López de Santa Anna as dictator of Mexico during the Second Federal Republic of Mexico period.

History

Initially drafted on February 24, 1854, by Colonel Florencio Villarreal, it was proclaimed on March 1, 1854, in Ayutla, Guerrero. The Ayutla Plan not only aimed at removing the dictator but also convening a constituent assembly in order to draft a federal constitution.^[1]

Supporters of the Plan of Ayutla included Juan Álvarez, Benito Juárez, the Lerdo de Tejada brothers, José María Jesús Carbajal and Ignacio Comonfort.

Revolution of Ayutla

Forces under Juan Álvarez, a 'strong man' of Guerrero state, rebelled against Santa Anna's government, initiating 19 months of guerrilla warfare and civil unrest against Santa Anna. This uprising is termed the Revolution of Ayutla (1854−1855), since it entailed not just a narrow goal, but a more thoroughgoing change in political direction via armed warfare. With Alvarez's success in mobilizing forces in Guerrero, many of which had formed paramilitary units during the U.S. - Mexican War (1846-1848), there followed uprisings in the states of Michoacán, Morelos, Oaxaca, Mexico state. Those then spread to the northern states of Zacatecas, San Luis Potosí, and Nuevo León. When Mexico City denounced Santa Anna, he fled into exile and Alvarez's forces marched into the capital with a "brigade of rustics called Pintos (ferocious warriors so called because in earlier times, they wore face paint).^[2]

1857 Constitution of Mexico

The Plan paved the way for the La Reforma (the Liberal Reform). The Revolution of Ayutla brought liberals to power. Their leaders initially passed a series of reform laws that were then incorporated into the 1857 Mexican Constitution.

Conservatives opposed La Reforma and the 1857 Constitution in the Plan of Tacubaya and an open civil war, known as the Reform War or Three Years War (1857−1860) .

References

^ http://www.memoriapoliticademexico.org/Textos/3Reforma/1854PDA.html
^ Paul Vanderwood, "Betterment for Whom? The Reform Period: 1855-1875" in The Oxford History of Mexico, Michael C. Meyer and William H. Beezley, eds. New York: Oxford University Press 2000, p.372.

External links

Spanish Wikisource text of Plan de Ayutla - In Spanish.
Text of the Plan of Ayutla - In Spanish

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[1] ttp://www.memoriapoliticademexico.org/Textos/3Reforma/1854PDA.html

[2] Paul Vanderwood, "Betterment for Whom? The Reform Period: 1855-1875" in The Oxford History of Mexico, Michael C. Meyer and William H. Beezley, eds. New York: Oxford University Press 2000, p.372.

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