Editing Mexican Revolution (section)

===Presidential succession in 1910===
[[File:Bernardo Reyes 1909.jpg|thumb|upright|General [[Bernardo Reyes]], who later rebelled against President Madero]] 
[[File:Francisco I Madero campaigning.jpg|thumb|right|upright|Francisco I. Madero campaigns from the back of a railway car in 1910.]]

Díaz had ruled continuously since 1884. The question of presidential succession was an issue as early as 1900 when he turned 70.<ref name=":5">Garner, Paul. ''Porfirio Díaz''. New York: Pearson, 2001, p. 209.</ref> Díaz re-established the office of vice president in 1906, choosing [[Ramón Corral]]. Rather than managing political succession, Díaz marginalized Corral, keeping him away from decision-making.<ref name=":4"/> Díaz publicly announced in an interview with journalist [[James Creelman]] for ''[[Pearson's Magazine]]'' that he would not run in the 1910 election. At age 80, this set the scene for a possible peaceful transition in the presidency. It set off a flurry of political activity. To the dismay of potential candidates to replace him, he reversed himself and ran again. His later reversal on retiring from the presidency set off tremendous activity among opposition groups.

Díaz seems to have initially considered Finance Minister [[José Yves Limantour]] as his successor. Limantour was a key member of the {{lang|es|Científicos}}, the circle of [[Technocracy|technocratic]] advisers steeped in [[Positivism|positivist]] political science. Another potential successor was General [[Bernardo Reyes]], Díaz's Minister of War, who also served as governor of Nuevo León. Reyes, an opponent of the Científicos, was a moderate reformer with a considerable base of support.<ref name=":5"/> Díaz became concerned about him as a rival and forced him to resign from his cabinet. He attempted to marginalize Reyes by sending him on a "military mission" to Europe,<ref name=":4">Garner, ''Porfirio Díaz'' p. 210.</ref> distancing him from Mexico and potential political supporters. "The potential challenge from Reyes would remain one of Díaz's political obsessions through the rest of the decade, which ultimately blinded him to the danger of the challenge of Francisco Madero's anti-re-electionist campaign."<ref name=":4"/>

In 1910, [[Francisco I. Madero]], a young man from a wealthy landowning family in the northern state of [[Coahuila]], announced his intent to challenge Díaz for the presidency in the [[1910 Mexican general election|next election]], under the banner of the Anti-Reelectionist Party. Madero chose as his running mate [[Francisco Vázquez Gómez]], a physician who had opposed Díaz.<ref>Mark Wasserman, "Francisco Vázquez Gómez", in ''[[Encyclopedia of Mexico]]'', 151.</ref> Madero campaigned vigorously and effectively. To ensure Madero did not win, Díaz had him jailed before the election. He escaped and fled for a short period to [[San Antonio, Texas]].<ref name=clayton285-86>{{cite book |title=A History of Modern Latin America |last=Clayton |first=Lawrence A. |author2=Conniff, Michael L. |year=2005 |publisher=Wadsworth Publishing |location=United States |isbn=0-534-62158-9 |pages=285–286}}</ref> Díaz was announced the winner of the election by a "landslide".