Today in Labor History April 10, 1919: Mexican troops ambushed and assassinated Emiliano Zapata, revolutionary indigenous and peasant leader. Zapata’s Rebel Army of the South played a major role in the overthrow of the dictator, Porfirio Diaz, defeating the federal army in the Battle of Cuautla in 1911. Also in 1911, Zapata began implementing the Plan de Ayala, redistributing land in the regions controlled by his army to peasant farmers. However, when former revolutionary Madero took over, he disavowed the Zapatistas, calling them simple bandits. He implemented a scorched earth policy, burning villages and imprisoning survivors in forced labor camps, in his quest to hunt down Zapata. Madero’s successor, Venustiano Carranza, continued his scorched earth policies and finally succeeded in killing Zapata in 1919.