Abraham Reyes (born 1884) was a peasant revolutionary who was a leader of the Mexican Revolution of 1911. He overthrew the corrupt dictatorship of Ignacio Sanchez but proved no better and made an alliance with Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire in an attempt to connect the Eastern and Western worlds. He also dreamed of making Mexico a global power and getting more involved in international politics.
Biography[]
Reyes was the son of a nobleman and born in a village on the outskirts of the capital city of Mexico. He was educated both in Mexico and Europe, and was expelled from a Swiss school for an incident involving a handmaiden. When he returned home to Mexico he started having ideas of social reform and in 1911 united the peasants in rebellion against General Ignacio Sanchez's dictatorship. Reyes was a womanizer, claiming that it was his duty to the land to give noble blood to the women of Mexico, but was still an inspiring figure and had over 100 corridos (songs, ballads, and poems) written about his feats.
Revolution[]
Reyes after the execution of Agustin Allende
Abraham Reyes was called the "father of the people" and nicknamed "Father Abraham", and escaped captivity twice to return to leading his Rebeldes from Agave Viejo. Reyes allied with the American bounty hunter John Marston, who sought Reyes' help in tracking down his target Javier Escuella, who was a former revolutionary who later became an ally of the government. Marston rescued him from the prison of El Presidio on one occasion and Reyes helped him to hunt down Escuella, and later Bill Williamson.
In a series of guerrilla ambushes, Reyes isolated garrisons and overran them. When he captured Escalera from Colonel Agustin Allende and killed the Colonel/Governor, he began his ride on Mexico City, hoping to seize the capital for himself. Mexico City and El Matadero were the last two strongholds of the Mexican government, and Reyes used propaganda warfare to take Mexico. He promised greater pay to the Mexican Army, gaining the allegiance of a cavalry division in the city, turning the tide of battle and causing the collapse of the city's defenses as many units defected. Sanchez fled for France and Reyes became President of Mexico.
He still faced several issues such as fulfilling his promises, as well as other revolutionaries such as Pancho Villa, Emiliano Zapata, Francisco Madero, and Victoriano Huerta, and the El Matadero and Nosalida Sanchez loyalists nominally under the command of leaders Arsenio Baldizon and Jose Rodriguez. Reyes became a dictator and was no better than Sanchez, ordering soldiers to shoot at a protesting crowd in the capital, and he also made alliances with Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire in an attempt to bring the Eastern and Western Worlds closer together. When World War I started in August 1914, he kept Mexico neutral, as it was still undergoing a civil war. His alliance with the Central Powers led to a deterioration of relations with the United Kingdom, France, Belgium, Portugal, the Russian Empire, and other members of the Allied Powers, who fought the Germans and Austrians in the trenches. The German Empire attempted to coerce Reyes into allying with them against the United States in 1917, when the United States was on the brink of war with the Germans, and Mexico was under threat from the US and vice-versa. He refused, and Mexico was not dragged into an international war. Although American Army troops were involved in the revolution in Nuevo Paraiso in battles with both rebels and the Mexican Army, Reyes chose not to fight the Americans and the Ramita de la Baya, Butter, and Frontera Bridges remained open for travelers to freely cross over the Rio Bravo to the other country.