Chapter VIII: Diplomatic Work in Washington

From the inception of the Constitutionalist revolution, Carranza appreciated the necessity of having a representative in Washington. Alberto Pani and Roberto V. Pesqueira organized a junta which would counteract the campaign waged against the Constitutionalists by the Huerta agents in conjunction with the American interests, in the vain hope of a recognition of the Huerta régime by the Democratic administration. Pesqueira paid the expenses of the office out of his own pocket until Carranza was able to devote some of the money at the disposal of the revolution, to other purposes besides the buying of arms and ammunition.

The intelligent and effective work done by the two constitutionalist ambassadors concentrated the attention of the American public upon a struggle which had appeared one-sided and hopeless.

After a succession of defeats by the federal generals in the north, Huerta recognized that the great army at his disposal was swiftly crumbling to pieces, and the three divisions under the Constitutionalist generals were determinedly closing in upon him, he became afraid, and with the same unscrupulousness of former reactionary despots in Mexico, he plucked a leaf from the history of Mexico, attempting to repeat the feat successfully carried out by the clericals in 1847, when American intervention was forced, and in 1861 when French intervention was deliberately invited, to save clericalism from utter annihilation.

Carranza foresaw the move, as the members of Huerta’s cabinet had openly boasted to bring about American intervention to save their interests and their lives. With Carranza in Hermosillo was a Mr. Rafael Zubáran Capmany, a young Mexican lawyer from Campeche, who acted as his Secretary of the Interior in the Provisional Cabinet. Carranza picked out Mr. Zubáran as the one man in Mexico to play the diplomatic game in Washington which would ward off American intervention, even after the American troops had occupied Vera Cruz.

It is quite true that the landing of American marines meant intervention, but President Wilson had declared that it was done against General Huerta, the Dictator, and not against the Mexican people; that American soldiers would be satisfied to occupy the Mexican port until the usurper was driven out.

To make the average Mexican understand this complicated situation, and to convince the Americans that Carranza’s protest was not only necessary but was the only manly and patriotic act possible for any Mexican leader, was the task which befell Sr. Zubáran.

The lifting of the embargo on arms and ammunition at the border, without arousing the hostility of the War Department in Washington, was another difficult mission.

To prevent the Mexican constitutionalists from crossing the American border, thereby playing into the hands of Huerta, was as perilous and risky a game as putting out a lighted fuse near a powder magazine.

A talented writer and lawyer, Don Luis Cabrera, ably assisted Rafael Zubáran. The sympathetic attitude of President Wilson and Secretary Bryan helped to crown the efforts with success. Also, the unofficial and friendly co-operation of ex-Governor Lind was of incalculable value to the Mexican diplomats.

But any other less experienced and less discreet personality, a mind less acute, keen and masterly, would have failed ignominiously. Americans as well as Mexicans are discovering that diplomatic victories, although silent and modest, are as effective and useful as military achievements.