Madero, Francisco Indalecio 1873-1913
Mexican revolutionary and statesman

Born in San Pedro, Coahuila, the son of a wealthy landowner, and educated in Paris and the USA, he was no social revolutionary, although he greatly improved the peons' condition on his own estates. He unsuccessfully opposed Porfirio D�az's local candidates in 1904, and in 1908, when D�az was quoted as saying that he would not seek another term, Madero took the dictator at his word and launched his own presidential campaign. A spiritualist, vegetarian, and practitioner of homeopathic medicine, he seemed an unlikely challenger, and at first was not taken seriously, but his popularity grew rapidly and D�az turned to repression, imprisoning Madero and many of his supporters. He escaped to the USA, from where he directed a military campaign. His supporters, including Pancho Villa, captured Ciudad Ju�rez, where Madero formed his capital (May 1911), and the dictatorship crumbled. Once he had been elected President (Oct 1911), Madero's moderate political reform programme pleased no one and he faced a succession of revolts by Emiliano Zapata and others demanding land reform, as well as by supporters of the old dictatorship. On the night of 23 February 1913, he and his Vice-President were murdered following a military coup led by General Victoriano Huerta, planned with the assistance of US ambassador Henry L Wilson.