Editing Pancho Villa (section)

==Villa during the Madero presidency, 1911–1913==
[[File:General Villa Before The Firing Squad, Sentenced To Death.jpg|thumb|left|Honorary Brigadier-General Pancho Villa before a Federal Army firing squad in Jiménez, Chihuahua, in 1912. His execution by General [[Victoriano Huerta]] was averted at the last moment by a telegram from President Madero.<ref>Inv. #68170. Fondo Casasola, SINAFO-Fototeca Nacional del INAH.</ref>{{sfn|Mraz|2012|pp=4–34, 89}}]]
The rebel forces, including Villa, were demobilized, and Madero called on the men of action to return to civilian life. Orozco and Villa demanded that hacienda land seized during the violence bringing Madero to power be distributed to revolutionary soldiers. Madero refused, saying that the government would buy the properties from their owners and then distribute them to the revolutionaries at some future date.<ref>John Mason Hart, ''Revolutionary Mexico: The Coming and Process of the Mexican Revolution'', Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press 1987, pp. 254–255.</ref> According to a story recounted by Villa, he told Madero at a banquet in Ciudad Juárez after the victory in 1911, "You, sir [Madero], have destroyed the revolution... It's simple: this bunch of dandies have made a fool of you, and this will eventually cost us our necks, yours included."<ref>quoted in Katz, ''The Life and Times of Pancho Villa'', p. 117.</ref> This proved to be the case for Madero, who was murdered during a military coup in February 1913 in a period known as the [[Ten Tragic Days]] (''Decena Trágica'').

[[File:Fierro Pancho Villa Ortega Medina (cropped).jpg|alt=|thumb|Villa with his staff in 1913. Villa is in gray suit in center. His aide, Gen. [[Rodolfo Fierro]], is to Villa's right. To Villa's left is Gen. [[Toribio Ortega Ramírez|Toribio Ortega]] and far right of photo is Colonel Juan Medina. Villa and Fierro served in the [[Constitutionalist Army]] opposing Huerta.]]

Once elected president in November 1911, Madero proved a disastrous politician, dismissing his revolutionary supporters and relying on the existing power structure. Villa strongly disapproved of Madero's decision to name [[Venustiano Carranza]] (who previously had been a staunch supporter of Diaz until Diaz refused to appoint him as Governor of Coahuila in 1909<ref name=upiqpz />) as his Minister of War.<ref name=upiqpz /> Madero's "refusal personally to accommodate Orozco was a major political blunder."{{cn|date=October 2024}} Orozco rebelled in March 1912, both for Madero's continuing failure to enact land reform and because he felt insufficiently rewarded for his role in bringing the new president to power. At the request of Madero's chief political ally in the state, Chihuahua Governor Abraham González, Villa returned to military service under Madero to fight the rebellion led by his former comrade Orozco. Although Orozco appealed with him to join his rebellion,{{sfn|Krauze|1997|p=309}} Villa again gave Madero key military victories. With 400 cavalrymen, he captured Parral from the Orozquistas and then joined forces in the strategic city of Torreón with the Federal Army under the command of General [[Victoriano Huerta]].{{sfn|Osorio|1997|p=1530}}{{sfn|Krauze|1997|p=309}}

Huerta initially welcomed the successful Villa, and sought to bring him under his control by naming Villa an honorary brigadier general in the Federal Army, but Villa was not flattered or controlled easily.{{sfn|Osorio|1997|p=1530}} Huerta then sought to discredit and eliminate Villa by accusing him of stealing a fine horse and calling him a bandit. Villa struck Huerta, who then ordered Villa's execution for insubordination and theft. As he was about to be executed by firing squad, he made appeal to Generals [[Emilio Madero]] and [[Raúl Madero (politician)|Raul Madero]], brothers of President Madero. Their intervention delayed the execution until the president could be contacted by telegraph, and he ordered Huerta to spare Villa's life but imprison him.{{citation needed|date=October 2021}}

Villa first was imprisoned in [[Belem Prison]], in Mexico City. While in prison he was tutored in reading and writing by [[Gildardo Magaña]], a follower of [[Emiliano Zapata]], revolutionary leader in Morelos. Magaña also informed him of Zapata's [[Plan de Ayala]], which repudiated Madero and called for land reform in Mexico.{{sfn|Krauze|1997|p=309}}<ref name="Scheina">{{cite book |last=Scheina |first=Robert L. |date=2004 |title=Villa: Soldier of the Mexican Revolution |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mLKoLzvYmzoC&q=Gildardo+Maga%C3%B1a&pg=PT20 |publisher=[[Potomac Books]] |isbn=978-1-57488-513-2 |access-date=10 January 2015 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=O'Reilly |first=Edward S. |author-link1=Tex O'Reilly |date=2012 |title=Roving And Fighting (Adventures Under Four Flags) |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=684wP_LjC1gC&q=Emilio+Madero&pg=PT199 |publisher=JazzyBee Verlag Jürgen Beck |isbn=978-3-8496-2276-3 |access-date=10 January 2015 }}</ref>{{sfn|Knight|1990|p=34}} Villa was transferred to the Santiago Tlatelolco Prison on 7 June 1912. There he received further tutelage in civics and history from imprisoned Federal Army general [[Bernardo Reyes]]. Villa escaped on Christmas Day 1912, crossing into the United States near Nogales, Arizona on 2 January 1913. Arriving in El Paso, Texas, he attempted to convey a message to Madero via Abraham González about the upcoming coup d'état, to no avail; Madero was murdered in February 1913, and Huerta became president.<ref name="Scheina" /> Villa was in the U.S. when the coup occurred. With just seven men, some mules, and scant supplies, he returned into Mexico in April 1913 to fight Madero's [[usurper]] and his own would-be executioner, President Victoriano Huerta.{{sfn|Krauze|1997|p=310}}