Local municipal issues

Manuel Guizar Valencia, a native of Cotija, nicknamed "Mala Alma" (Bad Soul), had first been a Maderista with Sabás Valladares, then as a Huertista toured the districts of Zamora and Jiquilpan alongside Jesús Síntora, committing all kinds of outrages. Later, on 30 October 1914, after proclaiming himself a Villista, he undertook a "clerical" uprising in Sahuyo, through which he intended to take the town of Jiquilpan. However, he was quickly suppressed by the column of General Joaquin Amaro who was in command of the military forces of the northwestern zone of Michoacán.

Guizar Valencia’s exploits continued to be news in the region. On 14 November 1914, accompanied by a group of peasants, he assaulted the main military barracks, located in the Mesón de San José, taking advantage of the fact that the garrison of the Constitutionalist captain Benjamín Novoa were resting at the Hotel México, after an afternoon of jaripeo (bull riding) at the El Paso ranch. The assailants surprised the guard, killing him, and then seized the horde of weapons. When the Carrancistas learned of the events, they besieged the assailants and waged a strong confrontation: some were able to flee through the adjoining houses and others succumbed when the ammunition ran out.

However, during 1914 and 1915 Guizar Valencia continued to mock the Constitutionalist forces, he was even hired by the hacienda of Guaracha as its armed wing to counteract the nascent agrarianism in the district. Finally, in February 1916, his luck ran out: he was apprehended and shot in Sahuayo by Colonel Francisco Zepeda^{El Pueblo, 26 March 1916}, apparently without justification, since at that time he was pardoned and retired from public life, though he could not really be granted a pardon because of the number of abuses and murders that he had committed^{José Romero Vargas, Cotija durante los revoluciones: 1900-1926, edit. Progreso, 1928}.

León Rodríguez C.

Rodríguez was diputado suplente for Zitacuaro to the XXXVI state legislature (1917-1918).