As he crossed Alameda Central during a celebration of the Independence of Mexico of 16 September 1897, the president Porfirio Díaz was attacked by "a known drunk named Arnulfo Arroyo". According to the account of the Mexican chronicler Jesús Rábago in "Historia del gran crimen" (1897), Díaz was accompanied by the generals Francisco Zacarías Mena, the minister of communications, and Felipe Berriozábal, minister of war, when Arroyo attacked him from behind and was immediately detained.