Francisco León de la Barra y Quijano

Francisco León de la Barra combined legal training with a diplomatic career that preceded his short presidency. He worked on international agreements, represented Mexico in South America and Europe, and participated in the 1907 Hague Peace Conference. His interest in arbitration continued after his political career, when he served on international tribunals in Europe. ¹

In Washington he represented Porfirio Díaz during the opening of the Mexican Revolution. His correspondence shows him seeking enforcement of American neutrality law against the revolutionaries. On 2 January 1911 he forwarded a newspaper report about Abraham González's border activities and asked the State Department to investigate the gathering and arming of men in the United States. The appeal was directed against the movement that soon forced Díaz from office. ²

Recalled as foreign secretary in March 1911, León de la Barra became interim president after Díaz's resignation in May. The Ciudad Juárez settlement assigned him the transition to a new election. His administration tried to restore transport and communications, disband or absorb revolutionary troops, and reestablish ordinary government. Those measures did not reconcile the competing demands of Madero's supporters, armed agrarian movements, and the surviving institutions of the old regime. He handed over the presidency to Madero in November. ³

He returned as Huerta's foreign secretary in 1913 and defended that government's claim to constitutional legitimacy in communications abroad. He then represented it in France and on a special mission to Japan. After Huerta's fall he remained overseas. When Mexico deprived him of nationality in 1921 over alleged service to foreign governments, he denied undertaking a foreign diplomatic mission and distinguished his work on mixed arbitral tribunals. He died in France in 1939. ¹