Because they had no luck finding the Mexican revolutionary Francisco Pancho Villa. Woodrow Wilson wanted to foster democratic governments in Latin America; he got the United States involved in Mexican politics after Mexico experienced several military coups. The popular Francisco Pancho Villa tried to gain power in Mexico by promoting an anti-American program, murdering mining engineers and developing a rampage in Columbus, New Mexico. Where he burned the town and killed seventeen Americans, men, and women. Woodrow Wilson sent General John J. Pershing across the Mexican border with a force of eleven thousand U.S. soldiers. For nearly a year, Pershing’s troops chased Villa through northern Mexico. They had no luck and were ordered home in 1917.