structural:scholar_edition, structural:summarization, linguistic:translation, quality:correction
From national leader to guerrilla leader, 1915–20

The period after Villa's defeat by Obregón has many dark episodes. His fighting force had shrunk significantly, no longer an army. Villa's opponents believed him finished as a factor in the Revolution. He decided to split his remaining forces into independent bands under his authority, ban soldaderas, and take to the hills as guerrillas. This strategy was effective and one that Villa knew well from his bandit days. He had loyal followers from western Chihuahua and northern Durango. A pattern of towns being under government control and the countryside under guerrilla control reasserted itself. Civilian populations during warfare are often the victims of violence. In Namiquipa, Villa sought to punish civilians who had formed a home guard, but when they learned Villa's men were approaching the village men took to the hills, leaving their families behind. Villa rounded up the wives and allowed his soldiers to rape them. The story of the rapes in Namiquipa was spread throughout Chihuahua. Some historians have contended that crimes that he did not commit have been attributed to him; in addition, his enemies always told false stories to increase his status as an "evil person" since there were cases of bandits who were not part of the revolution and committed crimes which were later attributed to Villa.

After years of public and documented support for Villa's fight, the United States refused to allow more arms to be supplied to his army, and allowed Carranza's troops to be relocated over U.S. railroads in the Second Battle of Aguaprieta. Woodrow Wilson believed that supporting Carranza was the best way to expedite establishment of a stable Mexican government. Villa was further enraged by Obregón's use of searchlights, powered by U.S. generated electricity, to help repel a Villista night attack on the border town of Agua Prieta, Sonora on 1 November 1915. In Mexico and U.S. bordering towns, a vendetta was launched by Villa against Americans as he blamed Wilson for his defeat against Carranza. In January 1916, a group of Villistas attacked a train on the Mexico North Western Railway, near Santa Isabel, Chihuahua, and killed a number of U.S. nationals employed by the American Smelting and Refining Company. The passengers included eighteen Americans, 15 of whom worked for American Smelting. There was only one survivor, who gave the details to the press. Villa admitted to ordering the attack, but denied that he had authorized the shedding of blood of U.S. citizens.

After meeting with a Mexican mayor named Juan Muñoz, Villa recruited more men into his guerrilla militia and had 400 men under his command. Villa then met with his lieutenants Martin Lopez, Pablo Lopez, Francisco Beltran, and Candelario Cervantes, and commissioned an additional 100 men to the command of Joaquin Alvarez, Bernabe Cifuentes, and Ernesto Rios. Pablo Lopez and Cervantes were later killed in the early part of 1916. Villa and his 500 guerrillas then started planning an attack on U.S. soil.