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Northern Separatism During the Mexican Revolution: An Inquiry into the Role of Drug Trafficking, 1910-1920*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2015

James A. Sandos
James A. Sandos*
Affiliation:
University of Redlands, Redlands, California
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Extract

Regional separatism in Mexico, especially in the north, has been one of the most persistent and difficult to explain problems in the historiography of the Mexican Revolution, 1910-1920. It is well known that men of the north (norteños) made the Revolution, in large part, and finally succeeded in winning political power. But norteños, even those who followed Francisco I. Madero and after his fall, continued the struggle under the Constitutionalist banner, failed to agree among themselves either on their aims or their leaders. Leaving aside the questions of motive and ultimate objectives of the major separatists—Pascual Orozco and Francisco “Pancho” Villa in Chihuahua, Esteban Cantú Jiménez in Baja California Norte, and the triumvirate of Alvaro Obregón, Plutarco Elías Calles and Adolfo de la Huerta in Sonora—the question of how they financed their independent courses during and after the Constitutionalist victory remains. The following pages represent a preliminary inquiry into the role of illicit drug trafficking between Mexico and the United States in the era of the Mexican Revolution and its contribution to regional autonomy. Patterns and practice of medical and personal usage, as well as supply and demand in both countries are considered for opium, its derivatives, cocaine and alcoholic beverages, along with the gambling and prostitution associated with this trade. The interaction of all these activities and the governmental revenue derived from them, are treated in detail for Baja California Norte. The combined evidence clearly shows the potential governmental income from this clandestine traffic and strongly suggests the hypothesis that illicit trafficking provided a financial base for regional autonomy and separatism during the Revolution.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Americas , Volume 41 , Issue 2 , October 1984 , pp. 191 - 214
Copyright
Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 1984

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Footnotes

*

I thank Woodrow Borah and William B. Taylor, for reading and commenting on an earlier draft of this manuscript. Part of this material was presented April 13, 1981, at the Legal History Conference of the University of California held that year at the San Diego campus.

References

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3 I use American to relieve what otherwise would be a tedious writing style if limited to the term United States to describe the people who live between the Rio Grand and the Great Lakes. The usage is a convenience, not a judgment.

4 New York, Times, March 12, 1911, Section VI, 1:1–4.

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45 New York, Times, April 11, 1918, 20:1.

46 Ibid. September 2, 1919, Section II, 1:3.

47 Between 1790–1840 Americans consumed more alcoholic beverages per capita than at any other time, see, Rorabaugh, W. J., The Alcoholic Republic: An American Tradition (New York, 1979), 8–9,Google Scholar Charts 1.1, 1.2, passim.

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56 George A. Chamberlain, U.S. consul general, Mexico City to American Issue Publishing Company, April 16, 1918, RFSP, Mexico City, 811.4.

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79 Intelligence Officer, El Paso, November 12, 1917, MID, #8532–335.

80 Cumberland, Charles C., “The Sonora Chinese and the Mexican Revolution,” Hispanic American Historical Review, XL (May, 1960), 191–211,CrossRefGoogle Scholarargues that in late 1919and early 1920, Cantú was forced to abandon a scheme to bring 15,000 Chinese contract laborers into Baja California which would have paid him a 100 peso head tax, or 1.5 min pesos, because of local Mexican opposition to Chinese labor competition.

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85 Courtwright, “Opiate Addiction as a Consequence of the Civil War,” 104.

86 Meyer, Michael C., Huerto: A Political Portrait (Lincoln Nebraska, 1972), 130–131.Google Scholar Of course it would have been impossible for Huerta to have been “addicted to marijiuana” exclusively [ Mendelson, Jack H., Rossi, A. Michael and Meyer, Roger E., eds., The Use of Marijhuana: A Psychological and Physiological Inquiry (New York, 1974)CrossRefGoogle Scholar passim], but it is possible that he became exposed to opiates via medication in the course of his military career.

87 Immediately after the explosion which blew away most of the arm, Obregón felt pain so intense that he unsuccessfully attempted suicide. Dr. Enrique Osornio gave the General an unspecified anesthetic to relieve the pain and it caused him to lose consciousness. Later, during surgery to clean and bind the remaining stump, Obregón’s doctors allegedly used cloroform. See, Obregón, Álvaro, Ocho mil kilómetros en campaña (Paris and México, 1917), 565–570.Google Scholar For his subsequent poor health see Hall, Linda B., Álvaro Obregón: Power and Revolution in Mexico 1911–1920 (College Station, Texas, 1981), 185–186.Google Scholar His physical symptoms described seem similar to drug withdrawal.

88 Richmond, Douglas W., “The Venustiano Carranza Archive,” Hispanic American Historical Review, LVI (May, 1976), 290–294:CrossRefGoogle Scholar Eduardo Ruiz, Ramón, “The Centro de Estudios de Historia de México,” in Greenleaf, Richard E. and Meyer, Michael C., eds., Research in Mexican History (Lincoln, Nebraska, 1973), 95–96.Google Scholar

89 U.S. Congress, Senate, Judiciary Committee, Hearings on Brewing and Liquor Interests and German and Bolshevik Propaganda, 66th cong., 1st sess., senate document 62 (1920), III vols., passim, contains virtually no mention of American liquor interests in Mexico, suggesting that further research will have to begin with leads developed in the Mexican archives.