The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 79, July 1975 - April, 1976 Page: 13
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The Destruction of the Mexican Cattle Industry
The difference between the banditry of a revolutionary faction out of
power and the pillaging of a government in power was one of degree rather
than kind. Armed with legalistic paraphernalia, the successive governments
in Mexico from i910 to 1920 seized livestock for military use or extracted
exorbitant rates in an attempt to discourage the traditional sale of Mexican
cattle in the United States. A full year before achieving power, Carranza
levied taxes against cattle owned by foreigners. In May, 1913, for example,
a British rancher was forced to pay a ransom of $4,480 to Carranza before
his cattle could be shipped out of the country. He thus paid $5 per head
in an area where there existed no formal export tax on cattle at the time.
This export tax was levied on all foreign cattle raisers in Mexico where
Carranza and the Constitutionalists held sway.43
In early January, 1914, President Victoriano Huerta became cognizant
of the aid that revolutionaries received from large cattlemen in northern
Mexico. He began to devise a scheme to confiscate their lands in retaliation
for assisting the rebels. "By this means," reported the United States consul
in Veracruz, "he hopes to undermine the control of the leaders in the
revolutionary movement.""4
Carranza, once in power, moved more directly against foreign land-
holders. While he shifted troops from one point to another throughout
1916 during the time that John J. Pershing's Punitive Expedition chased
Villa in northern Mexico, Carranza provisioned his forces with cattle taken
from United States-owned ranches in Chihuahua.45
American-owned livestock also proved a handy means of revenue for
Carranza. Late in 1916 his officials passed cattle through El Paso en route
to the Mexican consul in Dallas. These cattle, bearing the brands of Luis
Terrazas, Palomas Land and Cattle Company, and the Ojitos Ranch, were
shipped in bond for sale at the large livestock market in Fort Worth. The
resultant revenue would go to the Carranza government.46
43Ellsworth to Bryan, May 8, I913, File 812.oo/7472, ibid.
44William W. Canada to Bryan, January 8, 1914, File 812.oo/o10380, ibid.
45Blocker to Lansing, June 20, x916, File 812.oo0/8515, ibid. General John Per-
shing, recently made commander of Fort Bliss, was ordered by President Wilson to
pursue and destroy or disperse villista forces in Mexico. The order came on the heels of
Villa's daring raid on Columbus, New Mexico, early in the morning of March g, 1916.
The so-called "Punitive Expedition" involved the United States in further diplomatic
tensions with Mexico, especially with the first chief, Venustiano Carranza. For an excel-
lent study of the punitive expedition see Clarence C. Clendenen, The United States and
Pancho Villa: A Study in Unconventional Diplomacy (Ithaca, New York, I961).
48E. L. Hamilton to Lansing, December 15, 1916, File 6I1.1224/99, RG 59.
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 79, July 1975 - April, 1976, periodical, 1975/1976; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101203/m1/31/?q=%22oil-gas%22: accessed June 27, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Texas State Historical Association.