Ypiranga incident

The Ypiranga incident occurred on April 21, 1914, at the port of Veracruz in Mexico. The SS Ypiranga was a German steamer that was commissioned to transport arms and munitions to the Mexican federal government under Victoriano Huerta. The United States had placed Mexico under an arms embargo to stifle the flow of weaponry to the war-torn state, then in throes of the 1910 Revolution, forcing them to look to Europe for aid. The Ypiranga tried to enter the harbor at Veracruz to unload on the first day of the United States occupation of Veracruz but was detained by American troops who were ordered by President Wilson to enforce the arms embargo he had placed on Mexico. There was neither a declaration of war on Mexico by the U.S. nor a formal blockade on its ports, thus the detention of the Ypiranga was not legal and it was released. It proceeded to Puerto México (modern-day Coatzacoalcos, Veracruz), a port outside of American influence and was able to offload its cargo to Huerta’s officials.

Background

In February 1913, Victoriano Huerta staged a military coup with the support of Félix Díaz (nephew of deposed president Porfirio Díaz) and Henry Lane Wilson (U.S. ambassador to Mexico) to overthrow the government of Francisco I. Madero. Mexico had been engaged in civil war for almost two years up to this point and Huerta was unable to enact his plans for pacification. Instead, he had to continue fighting the rebels for a time and his resources were spread thinly. U.S. president William Howard Taft concluded, based on the magnitude of the domestic violence, that no arms shipments were authorized to travel from the U.S. to Mexico by order of Congress. Huerta became dependent on European and Asian weapons for a short time until he created connections in the U.S. through his agents who coordinated arms sales to locations in Cuba that were then smuggled across the Gulf. Huerta began working closely with Leon Raast, the Russian vice-consul in Mexico City. Raast traveled to New York to meet with Abraham Ratner (a Huertista agent) and Marquard and Company, Importers to purchase 20 machine guns to add to the stockpile already warehoused in the city. Raast then met with the president of Gans Steamship Line who would transport the contraband for him but could not legally consign the weapons to a port in Mexico, however, he would consign to a port in Odessa, Russia.

The Shipment

The manifest obtained by the U.S. Justice Department following the departure of the SS Brinkburn lists the large amount of ordnance that was on board the ship. The cargo included: 10,000 cases of 30 caliber cartridges; 4000 cases of seven millimeter cartridges; 250 cases of 44 caliber cartridges; 500 cases of carbine rifles (50 per case); 1000 cases of 14/30 carbines; 20 rapid fire machine guns. The total value of the 15,770 cases is recorded at US$607,000.