1916 Mexican Constitutional Crisis

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The **1916 Mexican Constitutional Crisis**, also known as the **1916 Mexican self coup d'état** or **El Despido** (English: **The Dismissal**), was a significant political crisis during the Second Mexican Empire which occurred over the summer of 1916, and marked the culmination of a five year political power struggle between Emperor Juan I and prime minister Francisco León de la Barra.

Following the death of the popular emperor Pedro II, his younger brother Juan I assumed the throne as emperor of Mexico in mid May 1910. From the start of his reign, Juan I had a fractious personal relationship with the newly elected prime minister Francisco León de la Barra, despite their ideological similarities and linked political affiliations. The first major dispute between emperor and prime minister erupted in 1914, when León de la Barra attempted to open a constitutional convention to introduce a new constitutional article limiting the power of the monarchy - despite the proposed article having the backing of the Congress of Mexico and the ruling Restoration Party, Juan I effectively vetoed the constitutional convention in December 1914 by refusing to sign the legislation required to begin the process. In response, the government held an emergency budget in March 1914

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. 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.

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. Creel would ultimately resign as prime minister within months of taking office and was succeeded by Manuel Plata in June 1917, but Emperor Juan I retained total power over Mexican politics until being forced to relinquish the powers after the United States invaded and occupied Mexico City in 1919.