Roberto V. Pesqueira

Roberto V. Pesqueira came from Sonora and joined the anti-reelection movement before becoming a federal deputy in 1912. After the overthrow of Francisco Madero, he left Congress for the Constitutionalist cause. As a Sonoran delegate in April 1913, he recognized Venustiano Carranza's leadership; he subsequently served as a confidential representative in Washington and returned to Congress in 1917. ¹

Pesqueira's American work combined negotiation with publicity. He organized a news service to circulate the Constitutionalist government's account through telegraph and cable networks, and in 1915 helped establish El Eco de México in Los Angeles. Historian César Alexis Marcial Campos notes that critics considered the news service expensive and ineffective. In 1920, Adolfo de la Huerta again employed Pesqueira's American press contacts during the campaign against Baja California governor Esteban Cantú. ²

Returning to Washington in 1920, Pesqueira sought recognition for the new Mexican government. He discussed the oil dispute with company representatives in New York and with Undersecretary Norman Davis, who cautioned that a settlement with oil interests alone would not secure recognition. In his October appeal to Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby, Pesqueira proposed arbitration of foreign claims and conveyed assurances that Article 27 would not operate retroactively against valid property rights. The letter presented these as commitments of de la Huerta and president-elect Álvaro Obregón. ^{3, 4}