Treaty of Ciudad Juárez The Treaty of Ciudad Juárez was a peace treaty signed between the then President of Mexico , Porfirio Díaz , and the revolutionary Francisco Madero on May 21 , 1911 . The treaty put an end to the fighting between forces supporting Madero and those of Díaz and thus concluded the initial phase of the Mexican Revolution . The treaty stipulated that Díaz , as well as his vice president Ramón Corral , were to step down by the end of May , and that he was to be replaced by Francisco León de la Barra as interim president until elections could be held . As a result Díaz left Mexico for exile in France . Significantly , the treaty did not mention or institute any social reform s that Madero had vaguely promised on previous occasions . It also left the Porfirian state essentially intact . Additionally , Madero supported the unpopular idea that all land disputes were to be settled through the courts , staffed by the old judges , a decision that led to outbreaks of sporadic violence , particularly in rural areas . On June 7 , 1911 , Madero entered Mexico City and in October 1911 he was elected president , along with José María Pino Suárez , his running mate , as vice - president . Military developments leading up to the treaty . The rebellion against the government of Porfirio Díaz broke out in late 1910 , after Díaz had his rival Francisco Madero imprisoned and had announced his own victory in a falsified election . Madero ' s earlier vague promises of agrarian reforms had attracted many supporters . He himself escaped from prison and fled to Texas , from where he issued his famous Plan of San Luis Potosí . This manifesto called for an armed uprising against the " Porfiriato " and establishment of free and democratic elections . As a response to Madero ' s proclamation , violent clashes began throughout Mexico in November 1910 . In the Guerrero district of Chihuahua , Pascual Orozco attacked Federal troops and sent the dead bodies back to Díaz with the message , " Ahí te van las hojas , mándame más tamales " ( " Here are the wrappers , send me more tamales . " ) He then began operations which threatened Ciudad Juárez . Additionally , political support for Madero ' s rebellion came from Abraham González , who accepted the Plan of San Luis Potosí . At roughly the same time , agrarian unrest in the state of Morelos turned into a full blown rebellion under the leadership of the Zapata brothers , Emiliano and Eufemio . Orozco and Villa take Ciudad Juárez . Encouraged by the news of the uprisings , Madero crossed the border back into Mexico in February 1911 . He was joined by Pancho Villa and Orozco and in April the army began approaching Ciudad Juárez . Orozco and Villa led the way with 500 men each , while Madero followed up with 1 , 500 riders . The city was besieged by the end of the month , after Madero ' s army encountered some resistance in the Chihuahuan countryside . Madero asked the commander of the city ' s garrison to surrender but the latter refused , hoping that the fortifications he had constructed would allow him to defend the city until reinforcements arrived . Concerned also with the possibility that a direct attack on the town would cause artillery shells to cross the border into the United States which could provoke an outside intervention , and faced with a series of peace proposals from Díaz , Madero hesitated in attacking the city . He in fact ordered his commanders to lift the siege . Orozco , however disregarded the order and , joined by Villa , attacked . After two days of fighting the city fell to the insurrectionists . Madero intervened personally to spare the life of the city ' s commander , Gen . Navarro , whom both Orozco and Villa wanted executed for his previous killing of rebel POW s . This , coupled with the fact that both leaders were ignored by Madero in his political appointments , outraged and estranged them from him . Zapata in south and central Mexico . At about the same time that Villa and Orozco were marching on Ciudad Juárez , the " Zapatista " revolt gathered strength and spread to the states of Puebla , Tlaxcala , Mexico , Michoacán and Guerrero . On April 14 , Madero had Emiliano Zapata officially designated as his representative in the region . However , Zapata was worried that if he did not fully control all the major towns in Morelos by the time that Madero concluded negotiations with Díaz , the demands of his agrarian movement and the issue of the autonomy of Morelos would be ignored or sidelined . Zapata ' s first military action was to take the town of Chinameca where he obtained essential supplies . Subsequently Zapata , for political and strategic reasons , decided to attack the city of Cuautla . In order to mislead his opponents however , he initially attacked and captured the towns of Izúcar de Matamoros ( which was subsequently retaken by federal forces ) and Chietla . From there he made a wide circle around Cuautla and captured Yautepec and Jonacatepec where he gathered more supplies , munitions and soldiers . By May , out of all the major urban centers in the region , only Cuautla and the capital of Morelos , Cuernavaca , remained outside of his control . Zapata began the attack on Cuautla on May 13 with 4000 troops against 400 elite soldiers of the so - called " Golden Fifth " ; the Fifth Cavalry Regiment of the Federal Army . The battle took almost a week and has been described as " six of the most terrible days of battle in the whole Revolution " . It consisted of house to house fighting , hand to hand combat , and no quarter given by either side . General Victoriano Huerta arrived in nearby Cuernavaca with 600 reinforcements , but decided not to come to the relief of Cuautla as he was afraid that the capital would revolt in his absence . On May 19 , the remains of the " Golden Fifth " pulled out of the town which was then occupied by Zapata ' s soldiers . The successful capture of Cuautla made Zapata a hero to ordinary people throughout Mexico and new " corridos " were written about him . After Zapata ' s taking of Cuautla , the federal government controlled only five states and some urban areas . Porfirio Díaz himself later stated that , while he felt that he could defend against Villa and Orozco in Chihuahua , the fall of Cuautla was the event which persuaded him to agree to peace with Madero . The compromise . As early as March 1911 , Madero ' s representatives met in New York with Díaz ' s finance minister , José Yves Limantour , and the Mexican ambassador to the US in order to discuss the possibility of peace between the two sides . Limantour proposed an end to the hostilities and offered an amnesty for all revolutionaries , the resignation of the then vice president Ramón Corral , the replacement of four Díaz cabinet ministers and ten state governors by ones chosen by Madero , and the establishment of the principle of " no - reelection " which would prevent Díaz from seeking yet another term as president ( which would have been his ninth ) . Madero responded positively although he also stated that any kind of peace deal had to include an immediate resignation by Díaz . Faced with the siege of Ciudad Juárez and the outbreak of rebellion in Morelos , Díaz and members of his cabinet became more willing to negotiate and launched a " skillful peace offensive " aimed at Madero . This was largely a result of panic among the large landowners associated with the Díaz regime ( the " hacendados " ) and the financial elite , which represented a " moderate " wing within the government . Some among the " Porfiristas " in fact , expected that Zapata would soon march on Mexico City itself , unless peace was concluded with Madero . The moderate view within the Díaz government was represented by Jorge Vera Estañol who in a memo to the minister of foreign affairs wrote that there were two revolutions taking place in Mexico : a political revolution , based mostly in the north , whose aim was mostly to establish free elections and remove Díaz himself from power , and a social revolution whose aim was " anarchy " which was spreading throughout the Mexican countryside . Estañol recommended coming to terms with the first group of revolutionaries , by agreeing to the principle of no re - election and a general amnesty , in order to prevent the second group from succeeding . In addition to his fear of " anarchy " , Estañol was also worried that the social revolution would lead to a military intervention by the United States . Estañol ' s views represented those of the portion of the upper class which was willing to come to terms with at least a portion of the middle class in order to crush the peasant uprisings , as exemplified by those of Zapata , which were erupting throughout Mexico . Limantour , who broadly agreed with Estañol , had the support of the Mexican financiers , who feared the downgrading of Mexican international credit and a general economic crisis as a result of ongoing social unrest , as well as that of the large landowners who were willing to come to terms with Madero if it would put an end to the agrarian uprisings . These social group were in turn opposed by the more reactionary elements within Díaz ' s government , mostly concentrated in the federal army , who though that the rebels should be dealt with through brute force . This faction was represented by General Victoriano Huerta , who would later carry out an attempted " coup d ' état " against Madero . Likewise , the general , and potential successor to Díaz , Bernardo Reyes stated in a letter to Limantour that " the repression ( against the insurrectionists ) should be carried out with the greates energy , punishing without any pity anyone participating in the armed struggle " . In the end however , Díaz dismissed the advice from his generals as " Custer - like bluster " and chose to seek peace with the moderate wing of the revolution . Limantour had finally managed to persuade him to resign . At the same time there was also disagreement among the rebels . The " left wing " of the revolutionary movement , represented by Zapata and Orozco ( Villa for the time being tended to support Madero ) , warned against any possible compromises with Díaz . In the end their suspicions proved correct as the treaty that was eventually signed neglected issues of social and agrarian land reform that were central to their struggle . The treaty ' s terms . The most significant point of the treaty was that Porfirio Díaz , and his vice president , Ramón Corral , resign and that de la Barra , acting as interim president organize free elections as soon as possible . Additionally , the treaty stipulated that : Implementation and results . The treaty was signed on May 21 . Díaz resigned accordingly on May 25 . Francisco de la Barra became the interim president . Madero entered Mexico City on June 7 . Zapata however refused to recognize the interim government of de la Barra , and for the time being the fighting in Morelos continued . Madero met with Zapata on several occasions during June . While initially Zapata trusted Madero , with time he became increasingly concerned that the goals of " his revolution " were not being fulfilled . He was particularly angry that Madero did not plan on carrying out any kind of agrarian reform , or the breakup of large hacendias . Additionally , the press in Mexico City , controlled by the landowners began referring to Zapata as a bandit and federal generals , such as Huerta , continued attacking his troops under the pretext that Zapata failed to demobilize in violation of the treaty . Sporadic fighting in southern Mexico continued . In November 1911 , shortly after Madero ' s inauguration , Zapata issued the famous Plan of Ayala , in which the Zapatistas denounced Madero and instead recognized Pascual Orozco as the rightful president and leader of the revolution . Madero also earned the great displeasure of other revolutionaries , including , Pascual Orozco . Madero ' s first act after the treaty was signed was a gesture of reconciliation with the Díaz regime . As a result of the treaty he was given the right to appoint members of the la Barra cabinet . He chose mostly upper class " Maderistas " , including his wife for the post in the treasury . He also maintained the existing federal system , by keeping the sitting judges of the Supreme Court , the legislators in federal and state assemblies and the bureaucrats of the various federal agencies . Venustiano Carranza , who was going to become a major revolutionary in his own right and a future president of Mexico , stated that , after the treaty , Madero had " deliver ( ed ) to the reactionaries a dead revolution which will have to be fought over again " . Díaz , after leaving for exile in France , observed that " Madero has unleashed a tiger , let us see if he can control him " . Orozco , who saw himself as being instrumental in Madero ' s victory over Díaz , was merely appointed as a commander of the " rurales " in Chihuahua , which increased his resentment . When he tried to run for governor of the state , Madero supported his opponent , Abraham González and eventually pressured Orozco to drop out of the race . When , in the aftermath of the Plan of Ayala , Madero ordered Orozco to lead federal troops to suppress Zapata , Orozco refused . In March 1912 , Orozco issued his Plan of Empacadora and formally declared himself in rebellion against Madero .