Nota: Este contenido tiene una versión original en español
Puebla was a city in which several important wars and battles in the history of Mexico took place, one of them was the siege of Puebla in 1867 during the Second French Intervention.
The capital of Puebla was besieged for almost a month –between March and April 1867– by General Porfirio Díaz, who was leading the insurgent troops against the Second Mexican Empire of Maximilian Habsburg.
Porfirio Díaz and his troops besieged Puebla since March 9, 1967. The city was defended by the Conservative chief Manuel María Noriega, who organized a resistance to maintain control of the French.
However, on April 2, 1867, the resistance failed. During the early hours of the morning, Díaz organized an attack on the Convento del Carmen and the Escuela de San Xavier, where the State Penitentiary was being built.
The battle of the Puebla siege waged by the troops of Porfirio Díaz was important for Benito Juárez to reestablish the Federal Government in Mexico City, after more than four years of traveling through the north of the country.
The Siege of Puebla now
Currently, the former San Javier penitentiary is State Government Service Center and houses several offices to carry out procedures such as license plate exchange, the Poblano Cultural Institute as well as a unit of the Puebla Prosecutor’s Office.
The former penitentiary is located on Reforma Avenue 1305, next to Paseo Bravo in the downtown area and from that point you could see the entire western area of the city of Puebla.
Recently, the INAH found human remains of at least 20 people who would have fought in the Second French Intervention and they were buried in the church located next to the former penitentiary.
It is projected that during 2022, the Federal Public Education Secretariat will move its offices to this building where it defended itself from the Siege of Puebla in 1867.
The Siege of Puebla and more
According to the book “Puebla: Historia de una Identidad Regional” by Carlos Contreras Cruz and Miguel Ángel Cuenya, in Puebla there have been seven other siege to the city, all of them during the 19th century.
In July 1821, Nicolás Bravo at the head of the independence army besieged the city for 31 days.
In 1833 Generals Arista and Durán besieged Puebla for a week in 1833, however the city was successfully defended by Patricio Furlong and Guadalupe Victoria.
During the first 11 days of 1834, Antonio López de Santa Anna carried out a siege on the city with 13,500 men.
Between June and July of the same year, Santa Anna returned to besiege the city of Puebla, which was defended by Governor Cosme Furlong.
In 1856 there were two sieges of Puebla. In January Haro and Tamaríz, conservative politicians took over the city militarily. However, between March and April, Ignacio Comonfort, president of Mexico, besieged the city to regain control.
Between October and December 1856, Tomás Moreno besieged the city to take control of the rebel leaders Joaquín Orihuela and Miguel Miramón.
Siege of Puebla in 1863: the French under the command of French General Forey besieged the city for more than two months and Jesús González Ortega ended up surrendering.
Translate done by: Luba Michelle García Vega
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POB/LFJ
