Upon the death of President Benito Juárez in 1872, vice-president and President of the Supreme Court Sebastián Lerdo de Tejada, the President of the Supreme Court, assumed the interim presidency, and called for new elections.
On 20 May 1876 in Icamole, Nuevo León, General Carlos Fuero, loyal to the government of Lerdo de Tejada, inflicted a heavy defeat on Díaz's rebels, who were forced to withdraw to the south of the Republic.