The Morelos Election

     When the governor of Morelos, a man by the name of Manuel Alarcon, died in 1908, the “election” to determine his successor would see tensions boil over.  Diaz had selected his personal aide, Pablo Escandon, to take over Morelos after Alacron’s death.  Typically, under the Diaz regime, whoever the president nominated would win, as elections were, at best, little more than a formality.  Despite the precedence that had been set over the last thirty years, many within Morelos held hope for a fair election.  This hope was, largely, spurred by Diaz himself.  In his famous interview with James Creelman, a writer for Pearson’s Magazine, in March 1908, Diaz stated, “I welcome an opposition party in the Mexican Republic.  If it appears, I will regard it as a blessing, not as an evil.  And if it can develop power, not to exploit but to govern, I will stand by it, support it, advise it and forget myself in the successful inauguration of a complete democratic government in the country.” 

     The gubernatorial candidate favored by the middle and lower classes in Morelos, including Zapata, was Patricio Leyva.  Running on a platform of pueblo land restoration, the Leyva campaign would grow incredibly popular, attracting large, enthusiastic, crowds at political rallies.  Escandon, by contrast, was met with hostility and resentment at each stop on his political campaign, as people did not wish to see the establishment candidate elected, thus continuing the unpopular policies of land forfeiture.  Crowds would respond to Escandon’s platform with shouts of “death to the gachupines!” and calls for Escandon’s death.  At one such rally, of which Zapata may have been in attendance, Escandon responded to the tirade of insults by unleashing a storm of derogatory remarks.  This prompted the crowd to begin throwing rocks at the stage, growing violent to the point that soldiers were forced to break apart the agitated mass.  This political upheaval, understandably, alarmed Diaz, who was not as willing to accommodate an opposition party as he had let on in the Creelman interview.  In response to the heightened political tensions, Diaz would order the local authorities to begin arresting political dissidents.  As the day of the election drew closer and closer, more and more Leyva supporters would be jailed, including Genovo de la O, a prominent figure in the later Zapatismo movement.  It is unsurprising, then, that Escandon handily won the gubernatorial election. Following his “victory”, Escandon would begin to crack down against those who had opposed him.  Many people would be arrested, only to then disappear.  Others, such as Zapata, would go into hiding, waiting for tensions to settle and things to quiet down and before reemerging, their hope for a democratic solution thoroughly crushed. 

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