The Tacubaya Plan it was a pronouncement carried out in Mexico at the end of 1857. Its objective was to repeal the Constitution promulgated that same year. The ideologues of the Plan were some conservative politicians, highlighting Félix María Zuloaga, Manuel Silíceo, José María Revilla and the president of the country himself, Ignacio Comonfort.
The 1857 Constitution had been approved by a liberal majority Congress. This caused it to contain certain articles that upset conservatives. The most contentious point was related to the relations between the State and the Church, which lost part of the historical privileges it had had in the country.
The Plan gave Comonfort all the powers of the State and provided for the convening of a new Congress to draft a new Constitution. Several federal states joined the rebellion, as did some military garrisons.
After a series of purely political movements, the Plan finally led to the outbreak of the Three Years War (or the Reform), which pitted liberals and conservatives against each other..
Both sides had already appeared since the War of Independence itself, with continuous tensions between them given the difference in conception of what Mexico should be..
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From the very beginning of the War of Independence, Mexico had seen how conservatives and liberals tried to occupy power and establish their own form of government..
The last time that Antonio López de Santa Anna held the highest office in the nation was no different. It had been the conservatives who had claimed his presence and the liberals who opposed him.
Thus, the Plan de Ayutla was born, a political pronouncement that sought the fall of Santa Anna and the convocation of a Constituent Congress that would provide Mexico with a more advanced and enlightened Constitution.
With the success of this plan, Ignacio Comonfort was appointed provisional president and, on October 16, 1856, the constituent work began..
On this occasion, there was a majority presence of the Liberals in that Congress. Some were moderate and others more radical, the latter being the ones who managed to include more of their ideas in the new Constitution..
After a few months of work, the Constitution was ratified in February 1857. Some of the newer articles, with evident liberal influence, established the elimination of slavery, the end of the death penalty or the prohibition of torture..
However, the norms that raised the most discord were those referring to the Church. It had always had great power in Mexico, already before independence itself. The people were mostly Catholic and the clergy used the power that this gave them..
The new Constitution greatly reduced the privileges that the clergy accumulated, in addition to eliminating those of other conservative groups. In this way, it established that education should be secular and eliminated the recognition of noble titles. Likewise, it curtailed the Church's ability to buy real estate.
All this generated fierce opposition from the affected groups. For them it was an attack on the traditional way of living in Mexico. The rejection reached so much that, at one point, the Church excommunicated all those who were in favor of the Constitution.
Finally, the Conservative Party, apart from the ideological coincidence, was mainly financed by the Catholic Church itself..
As mentioned before, the main opposition to the 1857 Constitution was the Catholic Church. The threat of excommunication was very important in a country with the Catholic tradition of Mexico.
This threat meant that anyone who swore to the Magna Carta was automatically out of the Church. The same punishment was also established for those who could take advantage of the alienation of ecclesiastical properties.
In this way, the Church and the State were totally at odds. On the second side the liberals were positioned, including the so-called moderates who did not like the reaction of the clergy.
Meanwhile, members of the Conservative Party and quite a few military personnel were placed in the Church. In favor of the conservatives it was found that many of its members were heroes of the, not so distant, War of Independence. This made them have a lot of prestige among the people.
In these circumstances, President Comonfort, who was moderate, began to meet with representatives of opposition groups.
In these meetings, in addition to politicians, the military also participated. Upon learning of the existence of these meetings, the congressmen began to worry about a possible rebellion.
One of the key dates in the proclamation of the Plan of Tacubaya was November 15, 1857. On that day, Comonfort gathered several very influential figures in the Archbishop's Palace in Tacubaya..
There they met, apart from the president, Manuel Payno, the governor of the Federal District Juan José Baz and General Félix María Zuloaga.
The purpose that Comonfort pursued with this meeting was to request the opinion on the continuation of the Government. For the president, the majority of the population did not agree with the most controversial articles. This meeting is considered to be the beginning of the conspiracy against the Constitution and its supporters..
Congressional concern was growing over rumors of a coup. On December 14, he ordered the appearance of several names suspected of participating.
Among them, Manuel Payno, Juan José Baz and Benito Juárez, then Minister of the Interior. The inclusion of the latter is something that historians fail to explain.
Juárez, in the session of Congress, denied any possibility that an uprising could take place and declared its commitment to continue serving the agreements emanating from the Chamber.
From that moment on, events accelerated. On December 17, 1857, the conspirators met again in Tacubaya. The Plan that would bear that name was already drawn up and they only had to make it known.
The document stated that "the majority of the people were not satisfied with the Constitution," declaring that this forced them not to obey it and change it completely. Regarding the presidency of the country, it declared that Comonfort would remain in office, granting him almost absolute powers..
According to experts, Comonfort did not express his agreement during that meeting. A few days later, he did adhere to the Plan.
The Church did the same, declaring the immediate excommunication of all those who remained faithful to the Magna Carta and the forgiveness of those who regretted having supported it..
In the following days, several state governments decided to join the Plan, something that Benito Juárez did not want to do..
The Tacubaya Plan had six articles in which it established what the government was going to be like from that moment on. The first referred to the original motive for the revolt, declaring the Constitution annulled as of the date.
As they had agreed, the second article confirmed Ignacio Comonfort as president of the country, but granting him “all-encompassing powers”. According to the following point, it was established that in three months a new Congress should be convened to promulgate a new Magna Carta..
This would be put to a vote and, once approved, according to article 4, the new president would be elected..
The last two points referred to the situation during the period prior to the convocation of the Congress. Thus, a Council was to be formed with representatives of all the States, with special functions. Finally, article 6 dismissed all positions that did not want to support the Plan.
Before the main articles, the Plan indicated the general purposes that explained its existence. The first stated that:
Considering: That the majority of the peoples have not been satisfied with the fundamental Charter that their leaders gave them, because it has not known how to combine progress with order and freedom, and because the darkness in many of its provisions has been the germ of civil war ".
For its part, the second read as follows:
Considering: That the Republic needs institutions analogous to its uses and customs, and to the development of its elements of wealth and prosperity, the true source of public peace, and of the aggrandizement and respectability of which it is so worthy in the interior and in the world. Foreign"
Finally, there was a third point that only referred to the work of the army, stating that it could not be forced to defend a Constitution not desired by the people..
As was made clear in the articles of the Plan of Tacubaya, the main objective of the signatories was to repeal the Constitution. The loss of privileges on the part of the conservative creoles and, especially, the clergy, caused these sectors to react quickly.
In the same way, a good section of the army did not like it, also affected by the elimination of economic and real estate advantages..
The Plan, on the other hand, began as a kind of self-coup in which the President participated. However, when he showed some qualms, the rest of the conspirators did not hesitate to remove him from his position..
Comonfort did not adhere to the Plan until two days after it was proclaimed. Immediately, the rebels received the support of the governments of Puebla, Tlaxcala, Veracruz, the State of Mexico, Chiapas, Tabasco and San Luis Potosí. These were joined by some military garrisons, such as those of Cuernavaca, Tampico and Mazatlán..
Precisely in the last one, Mazatlán, there was another proclamation against the Constitution. Thus, on January 1, 1858, he proclaimed the so-called Plan of Mazatlán, in addition to his already known adherence to the document of Félix de Zuloaga.
However, President Comonfort began to show doubts about the advisability of going ahead with the Plan. Given this, the conservatives proceeded to remove him from the presidency. Instead, they appointed Zuloaga to lead the country..
Comonfort's expulsion, which was accompanied by an army mobilization demanding his resignation, caused the president to take action. As soon as he could, he gave the order to release Juárez and other political prisoners.
It was Benito Juárez who led the resistance to the coup made by the conservatives. Zuloaga had established his government in the capital, composed only of conservatives. For this, Juárez was forced to leave with his supporters to Guanajuato.
In this way, Mexico had two different governments. That of Zuloaga promulgated the so-called Five Laws, of a conservative court and that replaced the old liberal reforms.
Meanwhile, Benito Juárez formed his own government, determined to fight to take back the country. At that time the so-called Reform War began, also known as the Three Years War, the time it lasted.
The Liberals, under the command of Juárez, were moving through various places due to the persecution of Zuloaga. For a time, many even went into exile.
The war ended with the victory of the liberal side and Juárez was elected president. One of his first measures was to recover the Constitution of 1857, although adding the Reform Laws, which had been drawn up during his stay in Veracruz..
Since the Conservatives still held part of the territory, including the capital, the new Government could not make the Magna Carta apply to the entire country. It was not until January 1861 that they were able to recover Mexico City and thus control the entire nation..
However, the new laws were short-lived. In 1862 the Second French Intervention began, creating the Second Mexican Empire, which lasted until 1867. At that time, the Constitution was reinstated.
The consequences, even if they were symbolic, of the conflict caused by the Plan of Tacubaya lasted until the time of Porfirio Dïaz.
In 1903, a protest against the president ended with a group of liberals placing a black crepe with the legend “The Constitution is dead”, referring to the one that was promulgated in 1857. This action was the precedent of the Revolution that began in 1910.
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