José María Pino Suárez, Mexican politician, Vice President of Mexico, murdered in a military coup (d. 1913)
José María Pino Suárez (Spanish pronunciation: [xosemaˈɾia ˌpinoˈswaɾes]; 8 September 1869 – 22 February 1913) was a Mexican statesman, lawyer, writer and newspaper proprietor who served as the seventh and last Vice President of Mexico from 1911 until his assassination in 1913, during the events of the Ten Tragic Days, one of the most violent periods of the Mexican Revolution.
He was born in Tenosique, Tabasco "almost by accident", since his family was among the most notable of Mérida, Yucatán; he was the great-grandson of Pedro Sáinz de Baranda, the founder of the Mexican Navy and a former Governor of Yucatán. At a very young age, Pino moved to Mérida to study under the Jesuits, later obtaining a law degree from Instituto Literario de Yucatán in 1894. Two years later he married María Cámara Vales, a scion of the Cámara family, one of the most conspicuous of the Yucatecan aristocracy.
After his marriage, Pino practiced law both in Mérida and in Mexico City and also participated in several business ventures with his father in law, Raymundo Cámara Luján, a wealthy hacienda owner. By 1904, with the financial backing of the Cámara family, he ventured into journalism, becoming a newspaper proprietor after founding El Peninsular, an evening daily.
He was a political outsider when he met Francisco Madero in Puerto Progreso in Yucatán in 1909. Madero, the scion of one of the wealthiest families in Mexico, had published the "Presidential Succession in 1910", a bestselling book that argued for the need to transition from the Díaz regime toward a liberal democracy. Pino became an early adherent of Madero's ideals, and the two developed a very close personal relationship.
Madero declared his candidacy in the 1910 presidential elections but was imprisoned by the regime. Managing to escape, he sought political asylum in San Antonio, Texas. While this happened, Pino, himself under threat from the regime, joined Madero in the United States. It was from San Antonio, with the tacit acquiescence of the Taft administration, that Madero declared the 1910 presidential elections to have been fraudulent, effectively launching the Mexican Revolution. Forming a provisional government until such time as fresh presidential elections could be organised, Madero appointed Pino as a Secretary of State for Justice (1910–1911). In 1911, after the Revolution had succeeded, forcing General Díaz to resign, Pino was elected as Governor of Yucatán. At the same time, the Constitutional Progressist Party designated Madero as presidential candidate and Pino as the vice-presidential candidate in a ticket which would win the 1911 presidential elections. Resigning from the governorship, Pino moved to Mexico City to swear the oath of office as vice-president, in the first democratically elected government in Mexico's history.Concurrent with the vice-presidency, Pino also served as President of the Senate (1911–12) and then as Secretary of State for Education and Fine Arts (1912–13). His period in the vice-presidency was turbulent. He faced acerbic attacks from a press that had transitioned from absolute censorship to complete freedom. Having been a leading figure in the Revolution that toppled Díaz, his figure was unpopular with the oligarchy that had formed under the prior regime. On the other hand, he was considered to be too moderate by many revolutionaries.In 1913, army officers loyal to the old regime launched a putsch against the government. The coup was originally unsuccessful in taking over the seat of the executive, National Palace (Mexico). Contained in La Ciudadela, the coup had all but failed until Victoriano Huerta, Commander in Chief of the Army, entered into talks with the putschist officers. With the support of Henry Lane Wilson, the U.S. Ambassador in Mexico, Huerta betrayed the government, arresting the entire cabinet. Madero and Pino were forced to resign at gunpoint and subsequently assassinated, provoking a national and international outcry.
Outrage for their deaths was a main catalyst behind President Woodrow Wilson's decision to order the United States occupation of Veracruz in 1914, and in causing the fall of the unpopular Huerta Dictatorship, the last military dictatorship in Mexican history. Their sacrifice paved the way for the establishment of democracy in Mexico and for the promulgation of the 1917 Constitution. In 1969, his widow, María Cámara Vales, was awarded the Belisario Domínguez Medal of Honor by the Senate of the Republic (Mexico), recognizing their sacrifice.