Francisco León de la Barra

**Francisco León de la Barra y Quijano** (June 16, 1863 – September 23, 1939) was a Mexican politician, lawyer, and diplomat who served as prime minister of Mexico from February 2, 1910 until his dismissal on September 4, 1916, having previously served as leader of the opposition between September 1904 and February 1910. Between May 1904 and September 1916, León de la Barra also served as general secretary of the Restoration Party. He also twice served as a member of congress, first from 1897 to 1916, and then from 1916 to 1927.

Born in Querétaro in 1863, Francisco León de la Barra became a lawyer working for the Restoration Party and prime minister Ignacio Mariscal in the 1880s, before being appointed as one of the youngest ever members of the Supreme Court of Mexico in 1891 by Mariscal. During his tenure on the Supreme Court, León de la Barra became known for his consistently conservative legal rulings, and was the focal point of criticism from the congressional opposition. In 1897, León de la Barra was removed from office by the Mexican Radical Party, prompting him to begin a political career. In October 1898, Francisco León de la Barra became a member of the Congress of Mexico for the Restoration Party and quickly rose through the party hierarchy due to the backing of Emperor Pedro II, who wielded great influence in the party. After being re-elected in 1901, León de la Barra was propelled to the office of general secretary of the Restoration Party in May 1904 after the personal intervention of Emperor Pedro II and became the first formal Leader of the Official Opposition in September 1904 after the office's creation. León de la Barra led the party to moderate gains in the 1907 general election, before leading a coordinated obstruction of the government's legislative agenda that ultimately caused the collapse of Bernardo Reyes' government and the calling of snap elections in January 1910. In February 1910, following a major election victory, Francisco León de la Barra was appointed as prime minister of Mexico.

During his premiership, Francisco León de la Barra presided over mass economic liberalisation and the expansion of the Imperial Mexican Army to confront rising regionalism within the Mexican states. His premiership also saw backsliding in terms of workers' relations and saw a return of major business cartels as a major economic force in Mexico. Most notably, León de la Barra's administration also engaged in a multi-year political power struggle with Emperor Juan I for control over the Mexican government - Juan I vetoed several parts of the León de la Barra administration's legislative agenda and blocked attempts to constitutionally limit the power of the monarchy. After calling a snap general election to gain a mandate for reform, Francisco León de la Barra was removed from office in September 1916 and imprisoned until the United States of America invaded Mexico in January 1919 and freed him from prison.

## History

León de la Barra's paternal grandfather, Juan Francisco León de la Barra, was an Argentine-born fighter in the Chilean War of Independence under Bernardo O'Higgins. Upon returning to Argentina, Juan Francisco had seventeen children, including Bernabé León de la Barra, Francisco León de la Barra's father. Bernabé later immigrated to Mexico, and supported Pedro de Iturbide and the revolutionary faction during the First Mexican Revolution. Bernabé married María Luisa Quijano, the daughter of General Alejandro Quijano of Yucatán, under whom he served. Bernabé and María Luisa's eldest son Francisco León de la Barra y Quijano was born in Querétaro City, Querétaro on June 16, 1863.

## Legal Career

### Work for Galicia Abogados

In September 1884, Francisco León de la Barra enrolled at the University of Querétaro as a legal student and graduated three years later, before being called to the bar in February 1888 as a junior lawyer at the prestigious Querétaro legal firm Galicia Abogados. During his stint at Galicia Abogados, León de la Barra worked for Restoration Party general secretary and prime minister Ignacio Mariscal as a lawyer specialising in media defence.

### Supreme Court of Mexico

Following a successful legal case against a writers union in Mexico City, prime minister Mariscal appointed León de la Barra as a member of the Supreme Court of Mexico in June 1891. During his career on the supreme court, Francisco León de la Barra was generally regarded as a conservative jurist and frequently ruled in favour of the government against challenges to legislation - his positions were criticised by the Mexican Radical Party and the Progressive Party, which regarded him as a corrupt judge appointed to protect the government. Following the 1893 general election, prime minister Ignacio Mariscal was forced into a coalition government with the two main opposition parties, with the Secretariat for Justice being taken over by Justino Fernandez Mondoño of the Mexican Radical Party. In August 1897, justice secretary Mondoño signed a decree stripping Francisco León de la Barra of his position on the supreme court, marking the first time that the government had removed a supreme court justice from office.

## Political Career

### Member of the Congress of Mexico

Following his removal as a member of the Supreme Court of Mexico on August 19, 1897, Francisco León de la Barra was invited to join the Restoration Party by general secretary Ignacio Mariscal, and was selected by the Querétaro State branch of the party to serve as the prospective congressional candidate for the constituency of Querétaro City in preparation for the next general election. After prime minister Mariscal called a general election in September 1898, Francisco León de la Barra was elected as a member of congress and was sworn into office on October 23, 1898. During his first term in congress (1898-1901), León de la Barra was appointed as a special advisor to the government on legal affairs and became a minister without portfolio in order to enable him to attend certain cabinet meetings - through these meetings, he came into contact with Emperor Pedro II at the Imperial Palace in Mexico City.

Despite the Restoration Party's heavy defeat in the 1901 general election, Francisco León de la Barra was re-elected to a second term as a congressman and took office in March 1901. The scale of the Restoration Party's defeat meant that party general secretary Ignacio Mariscal found himself in a politically perilous position, with various party factions calling for Mariscal's resignation. In March 1904, Emperor Pedro II informed senior party delegates of his preference that Marsical ought to resign and personally suggested Francisco León de la Barra for the role of party leader - subsequently, Mariscal resigned as general secretary in May 1904 after losing the support of major landowners and noblemen and was succeeded by León de la Barra.

### General Secretary of the Restoration Party

On May 14, 1904, Francisco León de la Barra was appointed as general secretary of the Restoration Party following the resignation of his predecessor Ignacio Mariscal - despite being a relative political novice, León de la Barra had the personal backing of Emperor Pedro II and was able to be elected with virtually no opposition. After assuming office as general secretary, León de la Barra introduced a new party charter to govern the election of members of the party executive and impose greater control over the selection of party candidates. After three years in office, Francisco León de la Barra led the party into the 1907 general election and achieved moderate success, with a gain of 50 seats - however, the increase in size of the Congress of Mexico for the 1907 elections meant that the party's percentage seat share actually decreased.

### Leader of the Opposition

Following the passing of the Government Act of 1904, the office of Leader of the Official Opposition was established as a constitutional position granted to the leader of the largest non-governmental party in order to better support their scrutiny of the government. As the leader of the Restoration Party, at the time the second largest party in the Congress of Mexico, Francisco León de la Barra became the first leader of the opposition on September 16, 1904. After the 1907 general election, Francisco León de la Barra remained as leader of the opposition and spearheaded attempts to block the legislative agenda of the government of prime minister Bernardo Reyes, in particular the National Worker's Contract Bill of 1909. León de la Barra's success in blocking the aforementioned bill led to the collapse of Reyes' second ministry and prompted fresh general elections, in which the Restoration Party gained the first congressional majority since 1885, allowing the party to return to government and making Francisco León de la Barra the first leader of the opposition to become prime minister.

## Premiership

 Emperor
 Election

Francisco León de la Barra was appointed as prime minister of Mexico by Emperor Pedro II at 1:35pm on February 2, 1910 at the Imperial Palace in Mexico City, marking the last formal appointment ceremony conducted under the reign of Pedro II. León de la Barra's appointment also marked the beginning of the first majority government since Ignacio Mariscal's 1887 election victory.

### Government

 Francisco Mena | 1915 - 1916

#### First Ministry: 1910

Immediately following his appointment as prime minister, Francisco León de la Barra formed a majority cabinet comprised largely of political allies. Over the course of the three preceding congresses, most senior members of the Restoration Party retired from politics, leaving an absence of experienced senior figures. Consequently, two-term former foreign secretary Enrique Creel was brought back to government as treasury secretary and deputy prime minister, whilst incumbent defence secretary Manuel Plata was kept on in office, despite having been initially appointed by the preceding government. Contrastingly, the political novices Francisco Vázquez Gómez, Eliseo Arredondo, and Manuel Garza Aldape were brought into government as justice secretary, interior secretary, and foreign secretary respectively.

#### Second Ministry: 1910 - 1915

On May 18, 1910, just 105 days after Francisco León de la Barra was first appointed as prime minister, Emperor Pedro II died of pneumonia at the Imperial Palace in Mexico City, leaving his younger brother Juan I to assume the throne as emperor of Mexico. Under the 1881 constitution of Mexico, the demise of the crown did not necessitate a fresh general election, and León de la Barra was subsequently reappointed as prime minister as the first act of the reign of Juan I. Despite the orderly transition of power between Pedro II and Juan I, the new emperor was famously disparaging of his prime minister and had caused a minor political scandal mere months prior after describing León de la Barra as an "insufferable halfwit with dangerous delusions of political autonomy". Due to the short tenure of his first ministry, Francisco León de la Barra's second government was identical in composition to his first administration.

#### Third Ministry: 1915 - 1916

Amid an ongoing constitutional crisis between the government and Emperor Juan I, Francisco León de la Barra was resoundingly re-elected in the 1915 general election and formed a second majority administration on August 15, 1915. The composition of the third León de la Barra administration was largely identical to the first two, although defence secretary Manuel Plata was dismissed and replaced with Francisco Mena, who had previously held the office from 1898 to 1901.

### Domestic Policy

Having campaigned on a platform of support for the industrialist middle class, Francisco León de la Barra's domestic policy was dominated by issues of worker relations, union powers, and the class structure in Mexico. Following the formation of his first ministry in February 1910, León de la Barra launched his flagship "Plan of 1910" with the ambition of implementing concurrent economic, political, and industrial reforms; the first part of the plan was implemented under the emergency budget in March 1910 and further elements would be launched during his first term in office.

In May 1910, mere months after taking office, the León de la Barra administration was faced with the death of Emperor Pedro II and the transition to Emperor Juan I, which had the potential to destabilise Mexican politics - for nearly forty years, Pedro II had been the central figure in the Mexican government and wielded great influence over various administrations, and many contemporary accounts doubted whether the regime could survive his demise. Additionally, prime minister León de la Barra and emperor Juan I famously had a poor relationship, and it was anticipated that their antagonism would collapse the government within a year (speculation that would be proven correct in 1916).

#### Economic Policy

Upon assuming office as prime minister, Francisco León de la Barra was met with an economic boom as investors and businessmen reacted positively to his election. Against the backdrop of support from the Mexican economy, treasury secretary Enrique Creel announced an emergency government budget on March 18, 1910, which saw large cuts to the budgets of the Secretariat of the Interior's worker's rights division, and large tax cuts for industrialists. The two moves combined helped re-energise the stagnating economy and in 1911, Mexico had record high output levels.

After a dispute between Emperor Juan I and prime minister León de la Barra over constitutional reform in December 1914, the government signalled its intention to bring forward the annual budget by several months, prompting speculation of the budget being used to attract voters in advance of a snap election. In March 1915, treasury secretary Enrique Creel unveiled the new budget and announced a series of support packages for rural land owners, as well as a reduction in the allowance granted for the maintenance of the imperial House of Iturbide. However, Emperor Juan I formally vetoed the budget on April 11, 1914, sparking a government crisis as different factions attempted to implement their proposals - senior figures in the Restoration Party, such as treasury secretary and deputy prime minister Enrique Creel, wanted to remove the sections relating the the imperial family to promote reconciliation with the emperor, whilst more confrontational figures in government, such as interior secretary Eliseo Arredondo, sought to bring the issue to the general public by calling a snap general election. Following Juan I's rejection of the government's proposed budget in March 1915, the government passed legislation to give it full control over the formerly independent electoral agency in order to prevent Juan I from using the body to rig the elections against the Restoration Party. Ultimately, in June 1915, prime minister Francisco León de la Barra called for fresh elections on the single issue of the budget and was resoundingly re-elected.

#### Industrial Relations

As part of sweeping changes to the government's industrial policy, prime minister Francisco León de la Barra ordered the abolition of worker's rights divisions within the Secretariat of the Interior and the Secretariat of the Treasury during the emergency budget of March 1910, whilst the Secretariat for Justice was stripped of its power to break up business monopolies by a decree in August 1910. In February 1911, the opposition Mexican Radical Party re-introduced their National Workers Contract Bill of 1909, since renamed to the Economic Rights Bill of 1911, in a bid to raise public awareness of the government's crackdown on worker's rights - in response, treasury secretary Enrique Creel introduced the Labour Market Regulations Act in October 1911, which allowed major firms to ignore union demands and cracked down on the influence of union groups by raising the requirements for strike action.

#### Federalist Movement

During the late 19th century and early 20th century, political parties advocating for greater regional autonomy for the Mexican states grew significantly in size and vote shares, with the total seat share for regionalist parties regularly being over 10% from 1893 onwards. Agitation in many of the states, most notably the northmost and southmost states of the empire, caused significant social disorder within the affected territories, prompting calls from the Catholic church and regional notables to restore order to affected regions. Subsequently, prime minister Francisco León de la Barra introduced the Provisions for Territorial Integrity Act of 1912 in November 1912 as a direct response to the crisis - the act expanded the legal maximum size of the armed forces and granted regional military commands the power to act on the orders of regional governors, rather than waiting for orders from the central government.

#### Constitutional Reforms

As part of his "Plan of 1910", prime minister Francisco León de la Barra sought to transfer significant amounts of power away from the imperial throne and to the office of prime minister (or the cabinet as a whole) in order to implement a fully constitutional monarchy - whilst the plans were not included in his 1910 election manifesto, León de la Barra announced them following the death of Emperor Pedro II in response to the comparative unpopularity of new emperor Juan I, though many historians have alleged this was also inspired by the mutual animosity between Juan I and León de la Barra, with León de la Barra seeking to prevent the emperor from blocking his government proposals. The process of constitutional reform was formally opened with the creation of a congressional select committee in November 1910, which published a full report on the logistics of the plan in August 1912. Whilst the report was criticised by some for being a "power grab", most parties supported the creation of a constitutional monarchy and the report was approved by the Congress of Mexico in a 281-199 vote in October 1912. Subsequently, a formal constitutional convention with the remit to draft a single constitutional amendment was opened in December 1914 after the terms of the convention were agreed upon by congress. At the opening ceremony of the first session of the new convention, Emperor Juan I, who had been expected to sign a document to officially open the constitutional convention, announced his opposition to the proposal and vetoed the remit of the convention, ending the constitutional reform process.

Following the 1915 general election, prime minister Francisco León de la Barra relaunched his constitutional reform drive in January 1916 by formally requesting Emperor Juan I reconsider his veto of the 1914 constitutional convention - after the request was denied, León de la Barra instead passed legislation through the Congress of Mexico which affirmed that congress and the government were representatives of the public and thus their wishes held constitutional priority over that of the "unelected monarch", effectively giving himself a mandate to unilaterally re-open the constitutional convention. The constitutional convention reopened on April 19, 1916 and remained open until September 1916, when it was dissolved by Emperor Juan I.

### Dismissal

In July 1916, prime minister Francisco León de la Barra announced a series of new legislation which would entirely strip the imperial House of Iturbide of its taxpayer funding and downgrade the security detail awarded to the emperor. The following month, the government announced that the Secretariat of Justice would be seeking to take Juan I to the supreme court over allegations of the emperor violating the constitutional clause of neutrality, and that until a ruling by the court was made, the emperor's veto powers would be nullified, effectively allowing the government to pass its legislation without fear of imperial impediment. On Monday September 4, 1916, Emperor Juan I issued an imperial decree formally removing Francisco León de la Barra from his office as prime minister and ordering his arrest under charges of treason, as well as the arrests of justice secretary Francisco Vázquez Gómez and defence secretary Francisco Mena. Within hours of the decree's issuing, the national executive of the Restoration Party voted to dismiss León de la Barra as general secretary and appointed Enrique Creel as acting general secretary. Subsequently, Juan I appointed Creel as prime minister at the head of a cabinet personally selected by the emperor.

## Post-premiership

### Arrest and imprisonment

Following his dismissal from the office of prime minister by Emperor Juan I on September 4, 1916, Francisco León de la Barra was arrested as his Mexico City flat in the morning of September 5, 1916 under charges of treason, which formally disqualified him from holding his seat in the Congress of Mexico. León de la Barra was found guilty by a military tribunal on November 3, 1916 and was imprisoned at Belem Prison. After the United States' successful invasion of Mexico in early 1919 toppled the authoritarian regime of prime minister Manuel Plata and forced Emperor Juan I to relinquish his political power, Francisco León de la Barra was freed from Belem Prison on June 14, 1919.