Henry Lane Wilson

Henry Lane Wilson was the United States ambassador to Mexico who helped arrange the coup that killed the country's elected president, and he is probably the most detested American official in Mexican history. He was a lawyer and newspaper owner from Indiana who entered the diplomatic service through his brother's political connections, serving as minister to Chile and then Belgium before Taft sent him to Mexico City in 1910. He disliked President Francisco Madero, the reformer whose election had ended the Porfirio Díaz dictatorship, regarding him as weak and a threat to American business interests, and he reported to Washington in terms that were closer to advocacy than observation. In February 1913, during the ten days of fighting in Mexico City known as the Decena Trágica, he brought together Madero's opponents in the American embassy. The Pact of the Embassy, agreed there on 18 February, arranged for General Victoriano Huerta to take power. Madero and his vice-president resigned on a promise of safe passage and were shot four days later. Wilson dismissed the killings and pressed for recognition of Huerta. Woodrow Wilson, no relation, took office weeks afterwards, refused to recognise the regime, and recalled him in July 1913. He never held office again. He wrote a memoir defending himself in 1927 and was unrepentant to the end. Huerta lasted seventeen months before Carranza and Villa drove him out, and the revolution ran on for another six years. Mexican textbooks still name the Pact of the Embassy, and the building where it was signed is remembered chiefly for it.

• Lived: 1857 CE – 1932 CE
• Nationality: American
• Roles: diplomat