m in
Mexico itself, how menacing the attitude of the United States, or how
persuasive the conciliatory disposition of Hispanic American nations, he
clung stubbornly and tenaciously to his program.

Even after Huerta had been eliminated, Carranza's position was not
assured, for Francisco, or "Pancho," Villa, a chieftain whose personal
qualities resembled those of the fallen dictator, was equally determined
to eliminate him. For a brief moment, indeed, peace reigned. Under
an alleged agreement between them, a convention of Constitutionalist
officers was to choose a provisional President, who should be ineligible
as a candidate for the permanent presidency at the regular elections.
When Carranza assumed both of these positions, Villa declared his act
a violation of their understanding and insisted upon his retirement.
Inasmuch as the convention was dominated by Villa, the "first chief"
decided to ignore its election of a provisional President.

The struggle between the Conventionalists headed by Villa and the
Constitutionalists under Carranza plunged Mexico into worse discord and
misery than ever. Indeed it became a sort of three-cornered contest. The
third party was Emiliano Zapata, an Indian bandit, nominally a supporter
of Villa but actually favorable to neither of the rivals. Operating near
the capital, he plundered Conventionalists and Constitutionalists with
equal impartiality, and as a diversion occasionally occupied the city
itself. These circumstances gave force to the saying that Mexico was a
"land where peace breaks out once in a while!"

Early in 1915 Carranza proceeded to issue a number of radical decrees
that exasperated foreigners almost beyond endurance. Rather than resort
to extreme measures again, however, the United States invoked the
cooperation of the Hispanic republics and proposed a conference to
devise some solution of the Mexican problem. To give the proposed
conference a wider representation, it invited not only the "A B C"
powers, but Bolivia, Uruguay, and Guatemala to participate. Meeting
at Washington in August, the mediators encountered the same difficulty
which had confronted their predecessors at Niagara Falls. Though the
other chieftains assented, Carranza, now certain of success, declined to
heed any proposal of conciliation. Characterizing efforts of the kind as
an unwarranted interference in the internal affairs of a sister nation,
he warned the Hispanic republics against setting up so