| Warren Zevon – Veracruz Lyrics | 4 years ago |
| @[Counterclockwerk:39506] It's about the US invasion and occupation of Veracruz during the Tampico incident in 1914, hence reference to Woodrow Wilson's guns - as he was the US President at the time. With the help of US Ambassador to Mexico (appointed by Taft, Wilson's predecessor), General Huerta had overthrown the government of Mexico in 1913 a year earlier, after which Wilson withdrew US recognition of the Huerta government. This sparked a three way civil war between Huerta, Zapata and Pancho Villa. The purpose of the Veracruz occupation was to interdict an arms shipment destined for Huerta - as part of a US Arms Embargo imposed some months earlier. The arms were being shipped by a US businessman in an illegal defiance of the US embargo with the help of a Russian arms dealer in Mexico. That mission was accomplished at Veracruz and Tampico, even though the arms were eventually delivered in Puerta a few weeks later. On the heels of this, the US almost invaded again during WWI when the German Imperial government offered to help Mexico regain territory ceded in the Mexican-American War during the 1840's if they invaded the US, should the US enter WWI (against Germany and Austria) - the infamous Zimmerman Telegram that was intercepted by the British (Germany admitted it was authentic hoping to intimidate Wilson). Mexico rebuffed the Germans and the action was averted. What gets lost in this era was the active, overt German Imperial effort to incite a war between Mexico and the US, with a series of incidents involving espionage and sabotage of US arms depots - to distract the US from the European war. The Tampico incident played a significant role in convincing the Mexican government to rebuff Germany's offer. | |
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