Private issues

Harvey S. Leach first came to Mexico in 1891 as an employee of Weetman Dickson Pearson (later Lord Cowdray), the British construction contractor, railroad builder, and later oil magnate. Leach worked for Pearson from 1891 to 1899, a period in which the Pearson company built the canals that drained Mexico City, constructed the harbour and docks of Veracruz, and finally laid the tracks of the Inter-Ocean Railroad across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec.

In 1900 Leach left the Pearson company and went to work as a consulting engineer for the Guanajuato Power Company from 1900 to 1904. Leach took another job in 1904, this time as consulting engineer for the Guanajuato Development Company, and then from 1906 to 1912 he worked as a general construction contractor in Mexico City. Finally in 1912 Leach went to work for the Compañía Eléctrica de Luz, Fuerza y Tracción de Tampico as a civil engineer, rising to become general manager of the company by 1914. 

On 2 September 1923 after provocation fron Leach, who reduced wages and fired unionised workers, the workers at his company went on strike. The strike was not resolved until 16 February 1924 after the government of President Obregón seized the company’s properties. Because of Leach’s hostile attitude, the Mexican Union of Electrical Workers demanded his expulsion from Mexico under Article 33 of the Constitution "for his attitude of open hostility towards the Institutions of the Republic and the complete lack of respect for the authorities of the Nation". Leach and some of his supporters asked the U.S. government to launch an international appeal (among Leach’s supporters was W. F. Buckley, father to conservative author and commentator William F. Buckley, Jr., who had himself been deported on similar grounds). At the request of Leach and people like Buckley, U.S. State Department officials appealed his deportation several times but in response to the last appeal, General Sáenz informed them “that in view of the strike situation at Tampico President Obregón could not at that time revoke his order of expulsion.”

The situation was delicate because of de la Huerta's rebellion and Obregon's desire not to upset the United States but, frankly, although he had been in Mexico for over 30 years Leach deserved to be expelled.