Félix Ireta vs. Efraín Pineda: The electoral political contest for the governor of Michoacán and the riot of Huetamo in June 1940

Abstract

  This paper analyzes the electoral political contexts in Mexico and Michoacán during the turning point of 1940 presidential succession. It also analyzes the development of a tragic event of political violence – where fourteen peasants died – that occurred in the town of Huetamo, which reflected the dispute for power between national level candidates: Manuel Ávila Camacho of the Party of the Mexican Revolution and his contender Juan Andreu Almazán of the Revolutionary Party of National Unification. These two candidates ran an intense electoral campaign with displays, public demonstrations, reciprocal rejection, warnings, and confrontations between small groups, in addition to both naming themselves heirs of the Mexican Revolution. Based on the analysis of several documentary files of the agents of the Directorate of Political and Social Investigations of Mexico’s Ministry of the Interior (Secretaría de Gobernación) and other contemporary testimonies, an attempt is made to clarify the causes that gave rise to the Huetamo ‘zafarrancho’, whose participants clashed over political differences. In addition, we discuss some possible reasons for the historical obscurity of this crime, for which was no judicial investigation or punishment of the intellectual and material authors.