Romulo Villega (1867-1913) was a Mexican revolutionary general during the Mexican Revolution. He was killed at the Battle of Mesa Verde in 1913.
Biography[]
Romulo Villega was born in Mesa Verde, Mexico in 1867, and he worked as a physician before coming to be the leader of the local revolutionary cell during the Mexican Revolution. He masterminded the 1913 Mesa Verde Uprising with the help of IRB explosives expert John H. Mallory and the bandito Juan Miranda, and he intended to hold the town until Pancho Villa and Emiliano Zapata's armies could reinforce him. However, he was captured at the Battle of San Ysidro and tortured into identifying his lieutenants to Colonel Gunther Ruiz. He watched as his former comrades were executed by firing squad, and he was later released. Unbeknownst to him, Mallory had witnessed Villega's treachery, and he chose Villega to aid him in piloting a dynamite-rigged train into Ruiz's Army train just before the Battle of Mesa Verde. Villega deduced that Mallory had discovered his treason, and he criticized Mallory for his judgment, claimed that he would be of more use to the Revolution alive, and argued that the dead men could not be brought back. However, when the time came to jump from the train, Villega ignored Mallory's exhortations to save himself, instead staying with the train as it crashed into Ruiz's train and exploded, having let his guilt drive him to heroic suicide.
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