The Plan of Ayutla was a plan aimed at removing Antonio López de Santa Anna as dictator of Mexico. Initially drafted on February 24, 1854, by Colonel Florencio Villarreal, it was proclaimed on March 1, 1854, in Ayutla, Guerrero. The Plan not only aimed at removing the dictator but also convening a constituent assembly in order to draft a federal constitution.

The Plan paved the way for the War of Reform (1856-1861), which would set up a liberal government under the 1857 Constitution. Supporters of the Plan included Benito Juárez, Juan Álvarez, the Lerdo de Tejada brothers, José María Jesús Carbajal and Ignacio Comonfort.

Ignacio Gregorio Comonfort de los Ríos (12 March 1812 – 13 November 1863) was a Mexican politician and military officer who served as President of Mexico.

He was born in 1812 in Puebla de los Ángeles, in the state of Puebla, to French parents. He participated in the Mexican-American War. He was president of Mexico from 11 December 1855 to 21 January 1858. During his term as president, Benito Juárez served as president of the Supreme Court of Mexico.

During Comonfort's administration, the country descended into the War of the Reform, a civil war launched by reactionaries against the Constitution of 1857 which, among other things, had abolished privileges for the Catholic Church.

Shortly after the adoption of the Constitution of 1857, a board of generals staged a coup d'état, proclaiming the Plan of Tacubaya, which decreed the nullification of the Constitution. President Comonfort, representing himself as a moderate, wavered but decided to go along with the generals. In exchange, the Catholic Church repealed the March 1857 excommunication decree for those who adhered to the new plan.

Melchor Ocampo (5 January 1814, Maravatío, Michoacán – 3 June 1861, Tepeji del Río, Hidalgo) was a Mexican lawyer, scientist, and liberal politician.

His home state was renamed Michoacán de Ocampo in his honour.

Ocampo studied at the Roman Catholic seminary in Morelia, Michoacán, and later law at the Colegio Seminario de México (Universidad Pontificia). He began working in a law office in 1833 and travelled to France in 1840, where he was influenced by liberal and anticlerical ideas of the Enlightenment. He later returned to Michoacán to work his family's lands, practice law, investigate the region's flora and fauna, and study the local indigenous languages.

He was elected to the Chamber of Deputies in 1842. He served as Governor of Michoacán during the U.S. Invasion, and as Treasury Minister in 1850. Because of one of his more controversial projects, he was forced to flee the country by President Antonio López de Santa Anna, taking refuge first in Cuba and then in the U.S. city of New Orleans. In New Orleans he met a group of liberals, including Benito Juárez, and began to publish pamphlets to promote political change in Mexico. The result of his efforts was the Plan de Ayutla of 1855, which called for the overthrow of Santa Anna and the installation of the liberal general Juan Álvarez. With Álvarez's victory, Ocampo served briefly in his cabinet as foreign minister.