Pascual Orozco (28 January 1882 – 30 August 1915) was a Mexican revolutionary leader during the Mexican Revolution of the 1910s. He played a key role in the rise and fall of Francisco Madero, and he was killed by Texas Rangers after fleeing from house arrest in the United States.
Biography[]
Pascual Orozco was born in Santa Ines, Chihuahua, Mexico in 1882, and he became a wealthy mining company owner before becoming involved in the revolutionary cause in 1909 by importing arms from the United States in preparation for the Mexican Revolution. In 1910, he enthusiastically supported Francisco Madero's revolution against Porfirio Diaz, and, in 1911, Madero promoted him to Brigadier-General, effectively confirming his control over Chihuahua. On 10 May 1911, Orozco and Pancho Villa seized Ciudad Juarez for Madero, and he was elected jefe revolucionario of the Anti-Reelectionist Party in the Guerrero district. Orozco was angered when Venustiano Carranza passed him over for the position of Minister of War, and he was also disappointed by a lack of social reforms. Orozco refused the governorship of Chihuahua and instead resigned from the government, rebelling against Madero on 3 March 1912. He sold his livestock in Texas and used the money to purchase weapons, but his uprising was defeated by Madero's general Victoriano Huerta. After being wounded at Ojinaga, Orozco fled to the United States, living with his first cousin in Los Angeles for several months before returning to Mexico in ill health. After Huerta assumed the presidency in 1913, Orozco agreed to support him and command the federal forces against Pancho Villa in exchange for greater workers' rights (such as paying them with hard money rather than company store scrip). After Huerta's fall in July 1914, Orozco refused to recognize Francisco S. Carvajal's government, and he was again forced into exile after a failed uprising. He and Huerta bought $895,000 worth of weapons from the German Empire and planned to take a train back to Mexico via El Paso, but they were arrested at Newman, Texas on 27 June 1915. Orozco was held under house arrest until he escaped in August, and he and his followers were tracked down by the Texas Rangers while being mistaken for horse thieves. Orozco and his four followers were then killed in a shootout with the Rangers in the Van Horn Mountains.