Pancho Villa's farmers

Rop Gonggrijp, reporting about this session, cites a contribution from Mexico to this debate, in which a comparison was made to the introduction of the railways in Mexico early in 1914. Freedom fighters, farmers who were with Pancho Villa, had to pass the city of Empalme where the army was based, on their way to Mexico City. Travelling by train they decided to go around the city. They took 500 meters of train track, laid this in front of the train, moved the train, dismantled the track and laid it in front of the train again. Within two weeks Pancho Villa's farmers had passed the city without blood having been shed (Gonggrijp 1989, 32).

CN