Ypiranga Incident

Ypiranga Incident
Part of the Mexican Revolution, Occupation of Veracruz
The deck of SS Ypiranga around 1911.
Date April 21, 1914 Location Veracruz, Mexico Result German ship captured then released
Belligerents
United States	German Empire

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 the throes of civil war, forcing Huerta's government to look to Europe for armaments.

Ypiranga tried to enter the harbor at Veracruz to unload on the first day of the US occupation but was detained by US troops who were ordered by President of the United States Woodrow Wilson to enforce the arms embargo he had placed on Mexico. There was neither a declaration of war on Mexico by the United States nor a formal blockade on its ports, thus the detention of Ypiranga was not legal and she was released. She proceeded to a port where the US military was absent, Puerto México (modern-day Coatzacoalcos, Veracruz), and was able to offload her cargo to Huerta’s officials.

In February 1913, Victoriano Huerta launched a coup, known as the Ten Tragic Days, with the support of Félix Díaz, the nephew of deposed president Porfirio Díaz and American Ambassador Henry Lane Wilson, 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.

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