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1919

Revolutionary leader Emiliano Zapata assassinated in Mexico

HISTORY.com Editors

Published: July 20, 2010Last Updated: May 28, 2025

Emiliano Zapata, a leader of peasants and Indigenous people during the Mexican Revolution, is ambushed and shot to death in Morelos by government forces.

Born a peasant in 1879, Zapata was forced into the Mexican army in 1908 following his attempt to recover village lands taken over by a rancher. After the revolution began in 1910, he raised an army of peasants in the southern state of Morelos under the slogan “Land and Liberty.” Demanding simple agrarian reforms, Zapata and his guerrilla farmers opposed the central Mexican government under Francisco Madero, later under Victoriano Huerta, and finally under Venustiano Carranza. Zapata and his followers never gained control of the central Mexican government, but they redistributed land and aided poor farmers within the territory under their control.

Zapata’s influence has endured long after his death, and his agrarian reform movement, known as zapatismo, remains important to many Mexicans today. In 1994, a guerrilla group calling themselves the Zapata Army of National Liberation launched a peasant uprising in the southern state of Chiapas.

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Citation Information

Article Title: Revolutionary leader Emiliano Zapata assassinated in Mexico
Author: HISTORY.com Editors
Website Name: History
URL: https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/april-10/zapata-assassinated-in-mexico

Date Accessed: October 21, 2026
Publisher: A&E Television Networks
Last Updated: May 28, 2025
Original Published Date: July 20, 2010