Manuel Calero y Sierra

Manuel Calero y Sierra was a Veracruz lawyer, legislator, and political writer whose career crossed the final years of Porfirio Díaz's government and the revolution that displaced it. He held office in the Development Ministry under Díaz, entered the interim administration of Francisco León de la Barra, and became foreign secretary under Francisco Madero. His political disagreements with Vice President José María Pino Suárez helped bring about his transfer to the Washington embassy in 1912. ¹

Calero publicly defended Madero's government against accounts of disorder. His private discussions were more difficult. At a meeting with President William Howard Taft on 4 September 1912, recorded by American official Huntington Wilson, Taft pressed the question of unpunished killings of Americans and warned that Congress might demand action. Calero disputed claims of official negligence, objected to Senator Albert Fall's attacks on Mexico, and raised the Senate's position on Magdalena Bay. Calero was preparing to return home for consultations. ²

By December 1912 the political quarrel at home had made his position untenable. In his resignation letter he complained of Pino Suárez's public hostility; his departure therefore preceded Huerta's coup and Madero's murder. He remained active in law and politics and published works on Mexico's electoral and constitutional problems. ¹

In October 1913 Calero and Jesús Flores Magón stood as the Independent Liberal candidates for president and vice president. Their published program defended constitutional government and proposed municipal land provision, small agricultural properties, and irrigation works. It placed them in opposition to the Catholic and Félix Díaz candidacies. Calero died in 1929. ^{3, 1}