Morning JAVA: The Shortest Presidency Ever
Less than one hour, actually...
Pedro José Domingo de la Calzada Manuel María Lascuráin Paredes died at the ripe old age of 96, July 21, 1952 after practicing law most of his life. Unless you live in Mexico though, most people have likely never heard of him yet, some 40 years earlier, he was a key player in a very tumultuous time for Mexico which became known as 'Ten Days of Tragedy' or 'La Decena Tragica'. It would also earn President Lascuráin the dubious distinction of having had the shortest presidency in the world.
In 1910, everything seems to be going very well for Lascuráin after he was elected Mayor of Mexico City in 1910. He later joined President Francisco Madero's government as Foreign Minister, serving two terms. Those two terms: April to December 1912 and January 15, 1913 to February19, 1913.
On that final day, a coup occurred, led General Victoriano Huerta who then arrested President Madero and Vice-President José María Pino Suárez. Under Mexico's constitution, third in line to the Presidency is the Foreign Minister. Lascuráin had convinced the President to resign or face certain death. Huerta wanted to make the coup look legitimate by having Lascuráin take the Presidency and then appoint the general as Interior Minister, who happened to be next in line to the presidency after the Foreign Minister.
See where this is going? Soon after President Lascuráin gave the general the appointment, he resigned. No one knows exactly when these few minutes played out on that day but everyone is quite certain it was less than one hour (Some say as little as 15 mins.) for Lascuráin's presidency. It was a chaotic day. After all, Mexico was on its third president in just a couple of hours.
In spite of hopes to be spared, President Madero and Vice-President Suárez weren't so lucky. President Huerta had them silenced permanently a few days later. They weren't so innocent themselves though. Madero took part in an armed revolution that forced President Diaz out in 1911 while Diaz had Madero arrested during the 1910 election.
That's a lotta Presidents! And guess who helped Huerta plan his coup? President Diaz' nephew Felix, that's who!
Although Lascuráin was offered a post in Huerta's cabinet, he declined. It's good that he did. Huerta's reign would be short lived. He himself would be forced into exile in 1914 after a rebellion. He died less then two years later of cirrhosis of the liver on January 13, 1916.
After resigning, Lascuráin would go back to practicing law. He was also Director of the Esquela Libre De Derocho, a conservative law school for 16 years and published regularly on civil and commercial law.
While it might sound as somewhat of a laugh that Lascuráin holds the record for presiding over the shortest presidential term ever, he also has the very honorable title '34th President Of Mexico' and likely helped stave off a lot of unnecessary bloodshed.
There's certainly a lot more to this fascinating story like the fact that as Foreign Minister, Lascuráin had to deal with U.S. Ambassador Henry Lane Wilson, who is said to have been present throughout the hours long '3 Presidents' affair and wanted Madero ousted.
Now, that was a good cup of coffee!
See links in references section to get a better picture of this story.
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