K.A. President Diego Cortez y Catalán.
The Cortez coup was a coup d'etat carried out by Kramer Associates President Diego Cortez y Catalán on the night of 15-16 October 1901 to overthrow Benito Hermión, who had recently proclaimed himself Emperor of Mexico.
Although Cortez himself had clandestinely orchestrated the Great Northern War between the United States of Mexico and the Russian Empire, he was unhappy that Hermión had declined to seek peace with Russia after the conquest of Alaska, and had gone on to invade Siberia. Sobel quotes Cortez's diary from 17 July 1899: "The man is mad. Benito will destroy the nation, Kramer Associates, and perhaps the world if he continues this way." At a meeting with Hermión in November he warned the Chief of State, "Siberia has nothing we need. Alaska was another matter entirely. Unless we can extract ourselves with honor and dignity, we will either be expelled by the European powers or sink into the icy morass of a useless land."
The outbreak of the Russian Revolution and the fall of the Romanov dynasty in 1900 convinced Cortez that he would have to remove Hermión from power. The final breaking point was the signing of the Yamagata-Macmillan Treaty between Japan and Great Britain early in 1901, which Cortez considered a threat to K.A.'s interests. Hermión's proclamation of himself as Emperor of Mexico on 2 April 1901 spurred Cortez to action.
On 1 August Cortez met clandestinely with fifteen opponents of Hermión's rule at his hacienda outside Sacramento, California. There he informed his guests of his plan to oust Hermión within weeks, in order for them to prepare to restore civil society in Mexico afterwards.
Mexican Emperor Benito Hermión.
Cortez carried out his coup on the night of 15-16 October. On the 15th, while preparations were going on in the Imperial Palace for a dinner honoring the German ambassador, Heinz von Kron, 2,000 men of the Kramer Guard under Guard Commandant Martin Cole entered Mexico City disguised as laborers and took up positions around the Palace. After the dinner, while Hermión and his guests were asleep, 49 Kramer Guards infiltrated the Palace, overcame the palace guards, opened the gates to the rest of the Guards, and cut off communications with the outside world.
When Hermión awoke on the morning of the 16th and found the Palace occupied by armed men, he panicked. Cole announced that the compound was in his hands, strongly hinting that he was with the Moralistas. "All we want is El Jefe. Servants and others may leave in peace, and must do so within fifteen minutes."
Hermión fled the Palace by putting on a butler's uniform, shaving his beard and mustache, and passing through Cole's men along with the rest of the Palace servants. While Hermión made his way out of Mexico City, Cole entered the Palace with his men and announced that he would be forming a provisional government which would rule Mexico until elections could be held. Various onlookers, believing that Cole intended to make himself dictator in Hermión's place, raised their fists and shouted, "Viva Cole!"
While Hermión made his way across the countryside to the port of Tampico, while being secretly tracked by some 300 Kramer agents. Cole, acting under orders from Cortez, gave orders for the Mexican Army, the Constabulary, and the Kramer Guard to establish civil rule where it had broken down. Hermión reached Tampico on 27 November, where he bribed the captain of an Argentinian oil tanker to take him as a passenger to Spain. The tanker captain, who was employed by K.A., did so, allowing Hermión to disembark in Spain on 20 December.
Sobel's sources for the Cortez coup are Edward Van Gelder's The Victory of Republicanism (Mexico City, 1912); editor Jack Nathanson's From the Cortez Files (Mexico City, 1938); Raymond Vun Kannon's The Phoenix: Mexico's Rebirth (London, 1958); Miguel Señada's Cortez and Hermión: Bitter Friendship (Mexico City, 1968); and Stanley Tulin's The Kramer Associates: The Cortez Years (London, 1970).