Pancho Villa

Pancho Villa executed the only successful foreign invasion of the continental United States since the War of 1812 with his 1916 raid on Columbus, New Mexico, then evaded Pershing's 10,000-strong punitive expedition for over 11 months in the Chihuahua desert. Villa's contradiction as both bandit and agrarian reformer makes him the most complex and enduringly fascinating leader of the Mexican Revolution, a duality matched by no other revolutionary figure on this list.