 Encouraged by the news of the uprisings , Madero crossed the border back into Mexico in February 1911 . He was joined by <unk> Villa and Orozco and in April the army began approaching Ciudad Juárez . Orozco and Villa led the way with 500 men each , while Madero followed up with 1 @,@ 500 riders . The city was besieged by the end of the month , after Madero 's army encountered some resistance in the <unk> countryside . Madero asked the commander of the city 's garrison to surrender but the latter refused , hoping that the fortifications he had constructed would allow him to defend the city until reinforcements arrived . Concerned also with the possibility that a direct attack on the town would cause artillery shells to cross the border into the United States which could provoke an outside intervention , and faced with a series of peace proposals from Díaz , Madero hesitated in attacking the city . He in fact ordered his commanders to lift the siege . Orozco , however <unk> the order and , joined by Villa , attacked . After two days of fighting the city fell to the insurrectionists . Madero intervened personally to spare the life of the city 's commander , Gen. Navarro , whom both Orozco and Villa wanted executed for his previous killing of rebel <unk> . This , coupled with the fact that both leaders were ignored by Madero in his political appointments , outraged and estranged them from him . 
