User:Wx27/Manuel Chao

Manuel Chao Rovira (September 26, 1883 – June 26, 1924) was a Mexican general who participated in the Mexican revolution.

Early Life
He was born en Tuxpan, Veracruz on September 26, 1883 to father Ángel Chao and mother Ramona Rovira.

He worked as a farm laborer until 1900. He graduated from Escuela Normal de Jalapa, funded by Enrique C. Rébsamen. In the early 1900s he moved to Durango to begin his work as the director of a school called “Nombre de Dios”. In 1910, he joined the Maderista movement in the town of Baqueteras. He eventually became a Lieutenant Colonel, and after the death of Francisco Madero, he joined the Constitutionalist Movement. He was a member of the División del Norte, under the command of Pancho Villa. As artillery chief, he participated in the military actions of Santa Bárbara, Ciudad Camargo and Hidalgo del Parral. From the beginning of 1914 to March 13 of the same year, he was the governor of Chihuahua, from which Pancho Villa attempted to depose him. Despite this, Chao remained loyal to Pancho Villa. In June of 1914, he was going to take command of the personal escort of Venustiano Carranza, but before he did, he decided to join the División del Norte, where he participated the Villista military action of Zacatecas; his performance at the battle of the hill of “La Sierpe” stood out particularly. When Pancho Villa ordered the execution of Álvaro Obregón, Chao intervened on Obregón's behalf in September of 1914. He was a member of the Convention of Aguascalientes of October of 1914 and was a member of its government commission. At the end of the year, he war replaced by Fidel Ávila as governor of Chihuahua. He was governor of the Federal District during the presidency of Eulalio Gutiérrez Ortiz, and was replaced in January of 1915 by Vito Alessio Robles. Pancho Villa eventually appointed him, along with Felipe Ángeles, as delegates to the International Conference for the organization of government that would attempt to unify the various revolutionary factions. He fought against General Manuel C. Lárraga in Tamaulipas.

Death
Allied with Villista forces in Tomás Urbina, he fought unsuccessfully at the Battle of El Ébano, in San Luis Potosí. After this defeat, he marched to Costa Rica where he participated Sapoa Revolution that sought to overthrow the dictator Federico Alberto Tinoco Granados and also participated in the Coto War against Panama in 1921. He returned to his country in 1923, to join the Delahertista Rebellion, along with ex-villistas Nicolás Fernández, Jesús Moreno y Jesús Villanueva. He was the second chief of this rebellion in the state of Chihuahua. He was shot and died in Jiménez, Chihuahua, on June 26, 1924.