Federal Army Huerta ' s Federal Army , also known as the Federales in popular culture , was the force headed by Victoriano Huerta during his 1913 – 1914 reign as president of Mexico . Huerta took power after president Francisco Madero was assassinated , along with his vice - president . The identity of those responsible for the assassination was never established . Huerta inherited the weaknesses of both the Porfirista and Madero Federal armies . Overview . In February 1912 , the Federal army consisted of 32 , 594 regulars and 15 , 550 irregulars . This was far below the official number of 80 , 000 as stated by the army executive . By September of the same year the official strength of the army was 85 , 000 men . In addition there were 16 , 000 Rurales , 4 , 000 Urban Police and 16 , 200 Militia , rural guards and other pro - government men under arms . In April 1914 Huerta claimed his army had reached the size of 250 , 000 men , with 31 regiments of Rurales and 31 , 000 Militia . A more realistic assessment of his men by that July was 71 , 000 , while U . S . observers said it was closer to 40 , 000 . Specific numbers aside , the rapid expansion of the army had led to a deterioration in the quality of the average recruit , or more accurately , conscript . Huerta made an attempt to increase the size of the army by ordering a mass levy , or forced conscription from the streets by his press - gangs , who would fall upon men as they left church or pull them from cinemas . Very few of the men under his command were volunteers and many deserted the army . Huerta tried improving morale by increasing pay in May 1913 by 50 % . At the same time 382 military cadets were given commissions and attempts were made to increase the number in training . Federal army generals were often corrupt and guilty of undermining morale with poor leadership . Some were so corrupt their dealings extended as far as selling ammunition , food and uniforms to the enemy . Also guilty of this corruption were Huerta ' s two sons , Victoriano Jr . and Jorge , both of whom had been placed in important positions overseeing the procurement of arms , supplies , uniforms and ammunition . Despite these problems Huerta worked at creating an army capable of keeping him in power . He tried to expand the army by creating new units to distance them from the defeatism of the former Porfirista army . To bolster the resolve of the population he militarized society in the Prussia n style , including military - style uniforms for all government employees and schoolboys and military drills on Sundays . Huerta and his general also sent 31 cadets to Europe to study military aviation in order to increase Mexico ' s air power . Huerta ' s greatest success was attracting the support of many former rebels , such as Benjamin Argumedo , " Cheche " Campos and , most notably , Pascual Orozco . Orozco offered Huerta the services of his 3 , 000 – 4 , 000 seasoned men , who proved essential in the fight against the Constitutionalist armies . When not helping the defence of Federal garrisons and towns , Orozco ' s men acted as very effective guerrillas . The Federal Army was disbanded on August 13 , 1914 . At the time the full strength of the Federal army was 10 Generals of Division , 61 Generals of Brigade , 1 , 006 Jefes , 2 , 446 Officers , 24 , 800 other ranks and 7 , 058 horses . In addition there were 21 regiments of Rurales with 500 men in each , a total of 10 , 500 men . The Federal army was replaced by the Constitutional Army of Venustiano Carranza , although they too were known as Federales after Huertas ' s defeat .