Federalism and Caudillismo in the Mexican Revolution: The Genesis of the Oaxaca Sovereignty Movement (1915–20)

Abstract

On 3 June 1915 the state legislature of Oaxaca in southern Mexico issued a decree which proclaimed that the ‘free and sovereign state of Oaxaca reassumes its sovereignty until such time as constitutional order is restored in the republic’ (i.e. in accordance with the Constitution of 1857). Governor José Inés Dávila therefore declared that the executive and legislative branches of the state government would assume control and responsibility over the federal agencies and services within the state. The justification for this dramatic course of action, taken at the height of a period of intense civil war in Mexico, was the decree issued by Venustiano Carranza in December 1914, which had suspended the Constitution in favour of a ‘temporary’ period of pre-constitutional government over which he was personally to retain strict executive control as First Chief of the Constitutionalist Army – thus effectively dissolving the constitutional base of the federation. The immediate casus belli was the occupation of the town of Pochutla on Oaxaca's Pacific coast on 1 May by a detachment of Constitutionalist troops, in what Governor Inés Dávila described as ‘a preconceived plan of attack on the sovereignty of the state’.

Collective narcissism and its social consequences.

“…The lack of correlation between collective narcissism and authoritarianism in the Mexican sample may be due to the specific form that authoritarianism takes in the Mexican context. It seems to be defined mostly by submission to strong, charismatic, and idealized leaders ( caudillos ; e.g., Garner, 1985) and less related to concern for ingroup cohesiveness. Because concern for group cohesiveness was the main assumed reason for the overlap between the two variables, its lower importance in this context may explain the lack of the expected relationship.…”

“…It seems to be defined mostly by submission to strong, charismatic and idealized leaders (caudillos; e.g. Garner, 1985) and less related to concern for inHgroup cohesiveness.…”

Defending “Our Beautiful Freedom”: State Formation and Local Autonomy in Oaxaca, 1930–1940

“…42 Although, as Paul Garner and Patrick J. Mcnamara argue, its peasant members displayed a degree of self-government, it had also empowered a cabal of military caciques, including Ibarra and Jiménez. 43 These generals had split from the original Soberanista leader, Guillermo Meixueiro, in 1920. During the next decade, careful politicking and the control of former Soberanista movement soldiers had permitted both leaders to maintain a degree of political power in the state.…”

The State, Society, and Politics in Peru and Mexico in the Late Colonial and Early Republican Periods

“…These areas served as the base for the Revolution of Ayutla, which brought the liberals to power in 1855 (Diaz y Diaz, 1972a: 95-96,104,287;Gonz6lez Navarro, 1983 : 433 ;Mallon, 1988). Liberal mobilization spread to the mountains of Puebla and Oaxaca in the 1860s (Thomson, 1985b(Thomson, , 1990Garner, 1985). The eventual victory of the liberals resulted from a number of factors, including their control of foreign trade, the gradual exhaustion of church wealth, and their success in expanding their upper-class base by distributing this wealth after 1856.…”