Post by ukron on Apr 24, 2024 12:30:39 GMT
Chapter 4: A big blow....in the water.
On June 18, 1936, at 3:30 a.m., the first shots were fired in the "Palacio Nacional", the perpetrators being members of the conspiracy who had infiltrated the presidential guard. Their objective: to bring down the communist hydra by killing President Cárdenas, and to eliminate in one fell swoop the only serious obstacle to the establishment of a fascist dictatorship in Mexico, but as Napoleon so aptly put it: "There are only two kinds of campaign plans, the good and the bad. The good ones almost always fail through unforeseen circumstances, which often make the bad ones succeed".
On that fateful day in June 36, the coup plotters had pulled the wrong card, for in addition to the imminent prospect of a coup d'état having been leaked by the president's men for at least several days, Cárdenas had put in place a plan to evacuate the key players in the Mexican presidential regime towards the United States, which would not fail to oppose the new Mexican junta.
As the rebels advanced through the heart of the presidential palace towards the presidential apartments on the third floor (the third floor was a very recent construction, and the putschists didn't have all the plans), they were ambushed by a light machine gun, which, if legend is to be believed, was fired by El Presidente himself!
Young Cárdenas (18) joined the constitutionalist army in 1913, and his courage and leadership, already noted at the time, enabled him to triumph over the short-lived Mexican fascist junta.
The mutinous forces inside the presidential palace had to face the facts: they couldn't advance and fulfill their mission without reinforcements, the same reinforcements that were scattered all over Mexico City.
For President Cárdenas and those close to him, this very small victory could unfortunately not reverse the advance of the fascists throughout the country, who had the support of the army and the big landowners; the only chance was to exfiltrate the courageous President to the United States and support a counter-revolution from abroad.
At 5.30 a.m., after almost two hours of fighting, President Cárdenas and his entourage escaped from the third floor of the presidential palace (set on fire by the mutineers) using sheets tied together. They were picked up by an unmarked car and driven in extremis to Mexico City airport, where a Ford Trimotor awaited them, bound for Los Angeles.
Mexico City's Presidential Palace in 2013, burnt down in 1936 and partially rebuilt under the direction of German architect Leonhard Gall (1884-1952) in 1938, the Palace was not finally completed (and purged of its völkisch/neo-Aztek style) until 1948.
President Cárdenas, nicknamed "El Machete" (the machete) in his famous speech on June 21, 1936 at the KNX in Los Angeles, calling on Mexicans to resist.
Throughout Mexico, a brutal civil war began between supporters of the democratic regime, communists and indigenous rebels against the new military junta.
But here again, the balance of power was unequal, with the better-equipped and more numerous rebels rapidly gaining the upper hand, and on September 15, 1936, the last pocket of resistance in Durango province was destroyed: Mexico was in the hands of the Cedillo-Abascal-Guizar triarchy.
Unleashed in July 1936, the Spanish Civil War largely overshadowed the second Mexican Civil War and its repression.
But if the putschists had struck a blow in the water, they would accidentally be the trigger for another blow, which would upset the balance of power.....
Incumbent President Roosevelt's re-election in November is looking promising.
On June 18, 1936, at 3:30 a.m., the first shots were fired in the "Palacio Nacional", the perpetrators being members of the conspiracy who had infiltrated the presidential guard. Their objective: to bring down the communist hydra by killing President Cárdenas, and to eliminate in one fell swoop the only serious obstacle to the establishment of a fascist dictatorship in Mexico, but as Napoleon so aptly put it: "There are only two kinds of campaign plans, the good and the bad. The good ones almost always fail through unforeseen circumstances, which often make the bad ones succeed".
On that fateful day in June 36, the coup plotters had pulled the wrong card, for in addition to the imminent prospect of a coup d'état having been leaked by the president's men for at least several days, Cárdenas had put in place a plan to evacuate the key players in the Mexican presidential regime towards the United States, which would not fail to oppose the new Mexican junta.
As the rebels advanced through the heart of the presidential palace towards the presidential apartments on the third floor (the third floor was a very recent construction, and the putschists didn't have all the plans), they were ambushed by a light machine gun, which, if legend is to be believed, was fired by El Presidente himself!
Young Cárdenas (18) joined the constitutionalist army in 1913, and his courage and leadership, already noted at the time, enabled him to triumph over the short-lived Mexican fascist junta.
The mutinous forces inside the presidential palace had to face the facts: they couldn't advance and fulfill their mission without reinforcements, the same reinforcements that were scattered all over Mexico City.
For President Cárdenas and those close to him, this very small victory could unfortunately not reverse the advance of the fascists throughout the country, who had the support of the army and the big landowners; the only chance was to exfiltrate the courageous President to the United States and support a counter-revolution from abroad.
At 5.30 a.m., after almost two hours of fighting, President Cárdenas and his entourage escaped from the third floor of the presidential palace (set on fire by the mutineers) using sheets tied together. They were picked up by an unmarked car and driven in extremis to Mexico City airport, where a Ford Trimotor awaited them, bound for Los Angeles.
Mexico City's Presidential Palace in 2013, burnt down in 1936 and partially rebuilt under the direction of German architect Leonhard Gall (1884-1952) in 1938, the Palace was not finally completed (and purged of its völkisch/neo-Aztek style) until 1948.
President Cárdenas, nicknamed "El Machete" (the machete) in his famous speech on June 21, 1936 at the KNX in Los Angeles, calling on Mexicans to resist.
Throughout Mexico, a brutal civil war began between supporters of the democratic regime, communists and indigenous rebels against the new military junta.
But here again, the balance of power was unequal, with the better-equipped and more numerous rebels rapidly gaining the upper hand, and on September 15, 1936, the last pocket of resistance in Durango province was destroyed: Mexico was in the hands of the Cedillo-Abascal-Guizar triarchy.
Unleashed in July 1936, the Spanish Civil War largely overshadowed the second Mexican Civil War and its repression.
But if the putschists had struck a blow in the water, they would accidentally be the trigger for another blow, which would upset the balance of power.....
Incumbent President Roosevelt's re-election in November is looking promising.