The federal army Huerta took over in February 1913 numbered between 45,000-50,000 men. Huerta continued to increase the strength of the army, issuing a degree for conscripting 150,000 men in October 1913; another degree for conscripting 200,000 men in January 1914 and one for a quarter of million men in March 1914. These figures were never achieved as many men fled to fight for the Constitutionalists rather than Huerta. Together with an increase in the number of the paramilitary "rurales" mounted police force and the state militias, Huerta had approximately 300,000 men, or about 4% of the population, fighting for him by early 1914. Faced with widespread reluctance to serve, Huerta had to resort to the "leva", as vagrants, criminals, captured rebels, political prisoners and sometimes just men on the streets were rounded up to serve in the Federal Army. In Veracruz workers getting off the night shift at factories were rounded up in a "leva" (forced conscription), while in Mexico City poor men going to hospitals were rounded up in the "leva". As Indians were felt to be particularly docile and submissive to whites, the "leva" was applied especially heavily in the southern Mexico, where the majority of the people were Indians. Thousands of Juchiteco and Maya were rounded up to fight a war in the north of Mexico that they felt did not concern them. A visitor to Mérida in the Yucatán wrote of "heart-breaking" scenes as hundreds of Maya said goodbye to their wives as they were forced to board a train while in chains.