Azue

Career

Azueta was manning a machine gun placed outside the building, facing the incoming American
troops on his own and causing a number of casualties. After having been mortally wounded by
U.S. Navy marksman Joseph G. Harner, who took several shots at him from about 300 yards away,
he was rescued from the battlefield and taken to his home,.[1]

After the battle, U.S. Admiral Frank Friday Fletcher heard of Azueta's actions and sent word to him
via messenger that he (Fletcher) wished to visit the fallen defender and pay his respects. Azueta—
through his surgeon and local political activist Dr. Roberto Reyes Barreiro—sent word to Fletcher
refusing the visit, saying "If the American (Fletcher) enters my house, I will either kill him or me."
Fletcher then offered to send his personal doctor to take care of him. However, Azueta refused
medical services offered by the occupation army and only allowed local Dr. Rafael Cuervo Xicoy to
treat him. Dr. Xicoy lacked medical supplies to assist Azueta properly. At the time of his death, Lt.
Azueta was being cared for by the surgeon Reyes Barreiro.

On April 24, Lieutenant Azueta was promoted immediately to captain by the President of the
Republic for his performance in combat. On April 29, he was awarded a gold medal with the
Decoration of the Second U.S. Invasion. Again on May 1, he was issued the 3rd Class Military Merit
medal.

Azueta died of his wounds on May 10, Mexico's Mother's Day. During his funeral hundreds of
citizens marched holding his coffin on their shoulders to the city's cemetery in open defiance to
directives from the occupation army forbidding assembly.