As a descendant of Miguel Blanco, who was Minister of War in Benito Juárez’s cabinet, Lucio Blanco Fuentes, born in 1879 in Melchor Múzquiz, Coahuila, was interested in politics from a young age.
The outstanding career of the revolutionary Lucio Blanco
Before the outbreak of the Revolution, he already sympathized with the ideas of the Flores Magón brothers, who promoted the end of the Porfiriato from different fronts; thus, he was part of the uprising of Las Vacas, today Villa Acuña, Coahuila, to take border cities.
In 1909 he joined the Anti-Reelectionist Party promoted by Francisco I. Madero in Torreón and the following year he rose up in arms in Múzquiz against the Porfirian dictatorship together with Luis Alberto Guajardo. One year later, He participated in the Mexican Revolution together with Francisco I. Madero, who, already as president, in 1911, promoted him to the rank of lieutenant colonel.
Later, after Madero’s assassination, in 1913, Blanco joins the cause of Venustiano Carranza against the traitor Victoriano Huerta and participates in the Plan of Guadalupe. In this way, he would command the regiment Free North with sixty soldiers who would take the plaza of Matamoros, Tamaulipas after a seven-day battle.
The first agrarian distribution committee in the north of the country
In Matamoros, he administratively reorganized the city and was promoted to brigadier general. Likewise, he creates a committee in charge of the agrarian distribution in Nuevo León and Tamaulipas and immediately divides the hacienda the sheepwhich had been owned by Félix Díaz, nephew of Porfirio Díaz, carrying out the first distribution of land to peasants in northern Mexico.
Unfortunately, this fact bothers Venustiano Carranza, who places him under the orders of General Álvaro Obregón.
The triumphant entry of Venustiano Carranza and Lucio Blanco into Mexico City
While it is true that Blanco did not share the same vision of social justice as Obregón, he successfully accomplished the military campaigns entrusted to him. Thus, he reached the rank of head of the Cavalry Division of the Northwest Army Corps. and he was part of the constitutionalist commission that signed the Treaties of Teoloyucan, where the surrender of Victoriano Huerta was agreed in 1914.
Consequently, on August 20 of that same year, he accompanied Venustiano Carranza, the first commander of the constitutionalist army, in his triumphant entry into Mexico City; and was entrusted with the custody of the square.
Separation from the constitutionalist army
However, his differences with Carranza and Obregón became irreconcilable, for which he left the constitutionalist army to join the Sovereign Revolutionary Convention that it was organized in Aguascalientes, in 1914; which sought to challenge Carranza for power. In that assembly, General Eulalio Gutiérrez was elected president and Blanco was elected minister of war.
Later, Blanco had to emigrate to the United States due to his enmity with Francisco Villa, but upon his return he had rejoined the cause of President Carranza. However, when the Plan of Agua Prieta triumphed, for which the Carranza government was unknown, Blanco had to go into exile once more.
When Carranza is assassinated in 1920 and General Álvaro Obregón assumes the presidency, Blanco, from Texas, along with Francisco Murguía, hatches a plot to avenge Carranza and start an anti-Obregonista movement.
The end of a distinguished military career
Deceived by Ramón García, who worked for Álvaro Obregón, Blanco was invited to Nuevo Laredo in 1922 to meet with the colonel of the Mexican army Aurelio Martínez.
Likewise, the meeting is organized on June 7 at the crossing of the Rio Grande, where 20 men were already waiting for him to finish him off. In the waters of the river, Ramón García handcuffs Blanco to the colonel and the soldiers shoot all three of them. It is said that the colonel’s weight was what prevented Lucio Blanco from swimming, so he drowned. The three bodies would be found later, floating on the river.
Finally, regarding his outstanding revolutionary career, he was nicknamed as the musketeer and The gallant knight of the Revolution because he distinguished himself by his quarrelsome character; thirst for adventure, bravery and a talent for military strategy. He is considered one of the best soldiers who forged the Mexican Revolution.