<P> The Mexican Revolution was based on popular participation . At first, it was based on the peasantry who demanded land, water, and a more sympathetic national government . Wasserman finds that: </P> <Dl> <Dd> "Popular participation in the revolution and its aftermath took three forms . First, everyday people, though often in conjunction with elite neighbors, generated local issues such as access to land, taxes, and village autonomy . Second, the popular classes provided soldiers to fight in the revolution . Third, local issues advocated by campesinos and workers framed national discourses on land reform, the role of religion, and many other questions ." </Dd> </Dl> <Dd> "Popular participation in the revolution and its aftermath took three forms . First, everyday people, though often in conjunction with elite neighbors, generated local issues such as access to land, taxes, and village autonomy . Second, the popular classes provided soldiers to fight in the revolution . Third, local issues advocated by campesinos and workers framed national discourses on land reform, the role of religion, and many other questions ." </Dd> <P> Porfirio Díaz announced in an interview to a US journalist James Creelman that he would not run for president in 1910, at which point he would be 80 years old . This set off a spate of political activity by potential candidates, including Francisco I. Madero, a member of one of Mexico's richest families . Madero was part of the Anti-Re - electionist Party, whose main platform was the end of the Díaz regime . But Díaz reversed his decision to retire and ran again . He created the office of vice president, which could have been a mechanism to ease transition in the presidency . But Díaz chose a politically unpalatable running mate, Ramón Corral, over a popular military man, Bernardo Reyes and popular civilian Francisco I. Madero . He sent Reyes on a "study mission" to Europe and jailed Madero . Official election results declared that Díaz had won almost unanimously and Madero received only a few hundred votes . This fraud was too blatant, and riots broke out . Uprisings against Díaz occurred in the fall of 1910, particularly in Mexico's north and the southern state of Morelos . Helping unite opposition forces was a political plan drafted by Madero, the Plan of San Luis Potosí, in which he called on the Mexican people to take up arms and fight against the Díaz government . The rising was set for November 20, 1910 . Madero escaped from prison to San Antonio, Texas, where he began preparing to overthrow Díaz--an action today considered the start of the Mexican Revolution . Diaz tried to use the army to suppress the revolts, but most of the ranking generals were old men close to his own age and they did not act swiftly or with sufficient energy to stem the violence . Revolutionary force--led by, among others, Emiliano Zapata in the South, Pancho Villa and Pascual Orozco in the North, and Venustiano Carranza--defeated the Federal Army . </P>

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