John Barrett's Plan to Mediate the Mexican Revolution

Abstract

In 1911 Francisco I. Madero overthrew the Mexican dictatorship of Porfirio Díaz. Unable to consolidate his initial victory and establish a stable government, Madero presided for sixteen months over the political destruction of the Mexican Republic. Then on February 9, 1913, the counterrevolutionary General Victoriano Huerta came to power following a coup d'etat.Throughout the period of Madero's presidency the United States and the republics of Latin America had attempted without success to encourage stability in the Mexican Government. In order to begin the quest for a steadying influence in Mexico, John Barrett, the Director-General of the Pan American Union and an experienced American diplomat in Latin America, proposed that the international hemispheric organization mediate the situation, and thus work to insure an essentially Mexican solution to a Mexican problem. To this end Barrett sent a series of letters on February 13, 1913, to President Taft, Presidentelect Wilson and the members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, explaining his plan. To avoid the further decay of the Mexican situation, which could eventually lead the United States to intervene with force, Director-General Barrett proposed that an international commission of mediation be called under the auspices of the Pan American Union.