The War of the Federal Army

The Federal army was known among the people by the more familiar name of ‘the Federation’, an abbreviation of the full title ‘Armed Forces of the Federation’. The term employed well expressed the real situation: the army was one and the same as the government of which it formed a part, and in the religious conflict it was openly partisan. As an active agent of anticlericalism and the antireligious struggle, it carried on its own war of religion. General Eulogio Ortiz sentenced to death a soldier who wore a scapular, and some officers fell in their troops to the cry of ‘Long live Satan!’. Colonel ‘Blackhand’, responsible for the massacre of Cocula, died shouting ‘Long live the Great Devil!’. What was this army entrusted in January 1927 with the task of subduing a rebel people?

The Budget

The army and the military factories cost 79 million pesos in 1926 (out of a national budget of 320 millions), and 96 million pesos in 1929 (out of a national budget of 270). In fact, the budget covered only current operations, and in 1929, for example, Escobar's rebellion cost an extra 100 million, of which 30 million went in additional payments to the army.