Eulalio Gutiérrez

Eulalio Gutiérrez Ortiz (February 2, 1881 – August 12, 1939) was a Mexican general and politician in the Mexican Revolution from state of Coahuila. He is most notable for his election as provisional president of Mexico during the Aguascalientes Convention and led the country for a few months between 6 November 1914 and 16 January 1915. The Convention was convened by revolutionaries who had successfully ousted the regime of Victoriano Huerta after more than a year of conflict. Gutiérrez rather than "First Chief" (Primer Jefe) Venustiano Carranza was chosen president of Mexico and a new round of violence broke out as revolutionary factions previously united turned against each other. "The high point of Gutiérrez's career occurred when he moved with the Conventionist army to shoulder the responsibilities of his new office [of president]." Gutiérrez's government was weak and he could not control the two main generals of the Army of the Convention, Pancho Villa and Emiliano Zapata. Gutiérrez moved the capital of his government from Mexico City to San Luis Potosí. He resigned as president and made peace with Carranza. His parents were Jesús Gutiérrez and Ciriaca Ortiz.

As with many revolutionaries, Gutiérrez was not a trained soldier, but combat in the Mexican Revolution showed his skill. , and assumed the position two days later. His cabinet was composed of Lucio Blanco as Interior Minister; José Vasconcelos as Minister for Public Instruction and Fine Arts; Valentín Gama as Minister for Public Works; Felícitos Villarreal as Finance Minister; José Isabel Robles as Minister of War (Guerra y Marina); Manuel Palafox as Agriculture Minister; Manuel Chao as Mayor of the Distrito Federal; Mateo Almanza as Commander of the National Guard (Guarnición de México), and Pánfilo Natera as president of the Supreme Military Tribunal.

A month after he took office, revolutionary leaders Francisco Villa and Emiliano Zapata took Mexico City. Gutiérrez's government was moved to the national capital, now in the hands of the Army of the Convention. Relations with Villa were strained to the point Villa had ordered the Minister of War (his superior), to execute President Gutiérrez in January 1915. In 1915, Gutiérrez told Vasconcelos that "The Mexican landscape smells of blood." Gutiérrez decided to leave the capital on January 16, 1915, and moved his government to San Luis Potosí, where he declared both Villa and Carranza traitors to the "revolutionary spirit" and formally resigned the presidency on July 2, 1915. Another source gives the date of his resignation as May 1915.

Later years After exiling himself to the United States, he returned to Mexico in 1920 under the amnesty of Álvaro Obregón and was elected senator and governor of Coahuila in 1928. Later on, he publicly criticized the re-election of Álvaro Obregón in 1928 (assassinated before he could take office) and the Maximato of former president Plutarco Elías Calles (the period during which Calles was Jefe Máximo, "Maximum Chief", and ruled via puppet presidents). He joined the rebellion of José Gonzalo Escobar.

After the defeat of that rebellion, he exiled himself to San Antonio, Texas, U.S., and did not return to Mexico until 1935. Four years later, he died in the city of Saltillo.