Villa, Pancho (Francisco) (1877–1923)

Mexican revolutionary. The Mexican Revolution of 1911 made him famous as a military commander. In a fierce struggle for control of the revolution, he and Emiliano Zapata were defeated in 1915 by Álvaro Obregón and Venustiano Carranza, with whom Villa had earlier allied himself against the dictatorship of General Victoriano Huerta. Both Villa and Zapata withdrew to mountain strongholds in north and central Mexico and continued to carry on guerrilla warfare. In 1916 Villa was responsible for the shooting of a number of US citizens in the town of Santa Isabel, Chihuahua, as well as an attack on the city of Columbus, New Mexico, USA, which precipitated the sending of a US punitive force by President Woodrow Wilson. He eventually made peace with the government in 1920, being pardoned in return for agreeing to retire from politics, but was murdered in Parral.

Born near San Juan del Rio, Durango, the son of a field labourer, he had various modest occupations and was a bandit in Chihuahua and Durango. He gave early support to Francisco Madero.