quality:corruption, information:classification
Juárez in El Paso del Norte

In August, Governor Vidaurri, returned from Texas and launched an attack against Juárez, who narrowly escaped Monterrey in a bullet ridden carriage. President Juárez sent his family to New Orleans for their safety, while he then headed for the state of Chihuahua. He established a new capital in Chihuahua City in October, 1864. By December, the French has seized the states of Nuevo Leon, Tamaulipas, and most of Coahuila.

General Ortega, ambitious for the presidency himself, challenged Juárez on constitutional grounds, claiming that Juárez’ constitutional term had expired, but his efforts failed, as it was indicated to him that the expiration of the current presidential term would not actually occur for another year. Juárez proceeded to extend this own terms until elections could be held and Ortega retired to the United States. Juárez continued to suffer reverses in the North throughout the rest of the year, but in the South, Porfirio Diaz had managed expel the French from Acapulco in December.

Porfirio Diaz himself was captured after the French advanced upon Oaxaca City in February 1865 and yet guerilla warfare continued throughout the South. Diaz himself would escape French captivity after seven months, and almost immediately recaptured the state of Guerrero.

The approaching end of the American Civil War brought much hope to the Republican cause, and Juárez alluded to a future Union victory in order to inspire his partisans, for a victorious United States would be able to more stridently oppose the Second French Intervention as a violation of the Monroe Doctrine. After the Civil War ended in April, 1865, a concentration of American troops along the Rio Bravo, caused Bazaine to send more of his troops to the north, resulting in an increase of Republican guerilla activity in states such as Guanajuato and Michoacan. Some imperial prefects resigned for lack of troops, and Emperor Maximilian blamed Bazaine for the crisis.

In June, Franco-Imperial forces dispersed the main Republican army in the North under General Miguel Negrete. This inspired Maximilian to attempt to drive Juárez out of the country, hoping this would damage his cause in American public opinion before the next meeting of the United States Congress. Juárez was forced to evacuate Chihuahua City, but Bazaine did not pursue any further fearing a clash of French troops with American troops, and Juárez made his new capital in El Paso del Norte.

On October 2, 1865, acting upon the false intelligence that Juárez had left the country, Maximilian passed the so called Black Decree, enacting summary execution for anyone now found waging guerilla warfare. One of the victims of the decree would be commander in chief of the Mexican Republican forces, José María Arteaga.