DIAZCZAR OF
MEXICO
An Arraignment by
CARLO DE FORNARO

/«• the founding cfa CeQegt ininifjColony"

• YAlLE-'VHIIVEKSira'Y-

Purchased from
Henry R. Wagner, Yale '84
1916

Porfirio Diaz

DIAZ
CZAR of MEXICO

AN ARRAIGNMENT BY
Carlo de Fornaro

WITH AN OPEN LETTER TO
Theodore Roosevelt

Published by
International Publishing Co.
1909

COPYKIGHTSD 1909
BY THE
International Publishing Co.

n

ct
ho9^

INDEX

i . Warning  7
2. Letter to Roosevelt  9
3. Porfirio I, Czar, of Mexico  13
4. A Review of the Life of Porfirio Diaz  13
Period 1
« 2
" 3
" 4
5. The Morgue of P. Diaz  41
His Assassinations, His Victims.
The Massacre of Vera Cruz.
The Assassinations of General Ramon
Corona, of General Garcia de la Cadena
and of General Angel Martinez.
The Carnage of Orizaba.
6. The System. A Political Mafia. Its Results. 59
History of a Great Conspiracy.
7. Justice Under Diazpotism  79
Belem — The Mexican Bastille.
The Penitentiary.
The Correctional School.
The Department of Police in Mexico.
Intervention of the American Ambassador.
The Ley Fuga.
Quintana Roo — The Mexican Siberia.
8. The Press in Mexico  101
9. Political Parties  ,.  117
10. Porfirio Diaz  ........... 131
11. The Central American Question «. .,  145
12. The Future and Possibilities of Mexico  151

Of this book the following editions are going to be
published:

Mexico.

Central America

In Spanish for

South America.

Cuba.

. Spain.
United States.
In English for -
England.
. Canada.
In French for -
France.Belgium.
Germany.
In German for
Switzerland.
. Austria.
In Italian
Italy.
When I open a work on practical sociology relating
to a nation, without finding in it stringent criticism, since
there never existed bodies underserving of censure in some
organ or function, I write down the name of the author
as dithyrambic and fraudulent and so as not to be caught
again I throw the volume into the fire to prevent further
harm to the soul of an honest man.
W. Todd, quoted by F. Bulnes.

Warning.
This is to testify that I, Carlo de Fornaro, author
of this pamphlet, do not harbour the design of sub
verting the Mexican Government, neither do I belong
to any revolutionary junta, nor do I plan the overthrow
of Porfirio Diaz in order to install myself in his lieu;
that I am neither a " gringo" nor a Mexican and there
fore cannot be inventing any sociopoUtical, financial
and regenerating schemes: — That I do not entertain
any grudge or ill-will toward the Mexican Government
or any individual in Mexico, since during my stay there
I was treated with the utmost courtesy, and even with
distinction : —
That I challenge and dare Porfirio Diaz to permit
the free sale of this book in Mexico: for if the
accusations herein are baseless, they can easily be
laughed away. However Porfirio Diaz will not laugh,
but will silently suppress the truth, inasmuch as a gov
ernment as perverse as his own cloaks its doings with
the utmost secrecy: — That I am perfectly aware of
the risks incurred by this venture, now and in the
future, but I gladly shoulder all the responsibilities,
hoping that in a near day a high minded philanthropist
will be induced to create a society for "the prevention
of cruelty to Mexicans." —
That this pamphlet contains the truth and nothing
but the truth, so help me God!
Amen.

To Theodore Roosevelt.
In a letter addressed to J. Creelman, March 7,
1908, thanking him for his article on President Diaz
in Pearson's Magazine, you affirm that among con
temporary statesmen, there is no one greater than
President Diaz, for he has done for his country every
thing that a man humanly can do, and that Mr. Creel-
man has given to the American people the best and
most life-like picture that is known up to date of this
great President.
Now, I challenge all three statements as erroneous
and unjust, since they are based on information super
ficial, one-sided and incomplete. Mr. Creelman 's inter
view and your letter of thanks to him, through their
wide publicity, have done incalculable harm, for an
opinion, even if honest and sincere, is harmful if founded
on misinformation. Mr. Creelman remained only a
few weeks in Mexico, that was superficial; his article
spoke through the lips of President Diaz, that was one
sided; and his knowledge of the conditions, political
as well as historical of Mexico, was incomplete and
amateurish, as his article proves. It was my good
fortune nearly three years ago to settle in Mexico City,
as one of the founders, one of the directors and Sunday
Editor of "El Diario", which is now the first paper as
far as prestige and a good second as far as circulation
in the whole Republic of Mexico. In these years I
had the opportunity to observe the development of
events from our newspaper office, as a doctor who
feels the pulse of a patient; and have watched the atti
tude of the Mexican Government as represented by
President Diaz, as a curious spectator peeps behind the
scenes at the workings of a theatrical company.
I have taken the trouble in these years to read
carefully and assiduously the history of Mexico before

President Diaz's rise to power, and also during his
regime, through files of forgotten newspapers, pamph
lets, and directly through the Mexicans, either friends
and admirers of President Diaz, or his enemies and
detractors and likewise through those who were in
different to his political work.
After patient and mature reflection, I have come
to the following conclusions : That President Diaz has
not done all that was humanly possible, but all that
was inhumanly possible for a man to do.
That Mr. Creelman's picture of President Diaz is
not the best known representation of him, but it is as
the President likes to be represented: as the creator
and saviour of modern Mexico.
That in reality he is only a tyrant and a despot in
the fullest sense of the word, the creator of a political
system, more cruel, more diabolical, more profound
than Machiavelli ever dreamed of in his "Prince", more
subtle and insidious than Loyola's order of the
Jesuits, more bloody and relentless than Abdul Hamid's
reign of terror and asassination ; more harmful and
perverse to Mexico than Caligula's sway over Rome.
President Diaz has never done anything for the
Mexican people except in so far as it could help him
to rise to power, to wealth and to international prestige.
He has stifled all the patriotic and pure ideals of
his people, keeping instead of the substance, a form,
an appearance which is only a mockery and an insult
to every intelligent person.
Therefore I say that he cannot and must not be
called a great statesman, for being essentially personal,
his work will logically die with him, that to designate
him as a great President is to reverse all our political
standards, for then Washington cannot be accounted
a great President, and Lincoln then, is not the great
est, the purest, the highest ideal in statesmanship, if
this man is considered great.
For President Diaz has sacrificed all the liberties
of the Mexican people to his personal ambition, ex-
10

cepting those of his henchmen, courtesans, favorites
and conspirators. He has throttled and choked the three great bul
warks of any civilized nation: personal liberty, the free
dom of the press and common justice. For almost a
generation President Diaz has kept up the comedy of a
democratic, liberal, paternal and patriotic govern
ment, for the benefit of the unsuspecting civilized
nations; his press agents were the foreigners who in
exchange for concessions and privileges have given
back flatteries, lies, or silence pregnant with meaning;
his henchmen, at home and abroad, divided their spoils
among themselves like Pashas, and to the rest of the
Mexicans were given the bread crumbs from the
banquet table full of meat and drink, and if they growled
they were kicked into submission. Verily he has
fooled all the people some of the time, but he cannot
fool all the people all the time.
If your patience is as great as your good-will, read
these notes, for they are the result of honest and con
scientious research. The writer of these lines has
broken away from his financial interests so as to be
completely free to tell the truth.
The only claim he makes for this work, is that it
shall be the first leaf in the volume for the future his
tory of modern Mexico, which will have to be rewritten
by free men.
Carlo de Fornaro,
National Arts Club, New York.

ll

Porfirio I. Czar of Mexico.
A great man should make great sacrifices and
kill his hundred oxen, without knowing whether
• they would be consumed by Gods and heroes, or
whether the flies would eat them. Emerson.
Hero of a thousand and one battles, the Prince of
Peace, the Superman of Oaxaca, the Saviour and
Maker of Modern Mexico, the Cincinnatus of la Noria,
the great Lama of Chapultepec, General Porfirio Diaz
unconstitutional President of Mexico, now Emperor by
Divine Right, your day of reckoning has almost arrived !
Then history will judge his work for good or bad,
not by the assistance of his official press agents, his
intrigants, his parasites and lackeys; not only by the
miles of railroads and telegraphs, by the seaports, the
public buildings and asphalt roads built on his domain,
nor by the battles he won or lost, or the multiple de
corations swarming on his proud chest, neither by the
army or navy he created, or the myriads of concessions
sold to the foreigner, the fictitious prosperity of Mexico
and the Peace of the Land which is only the Peace of
the Tombs, the Peace of Varsovia.
He shall be judged by all the liberties he has
torn one by one, deliberately, from the Mexicans,
by the political ideals he has crushed for the sake of a
peace which is beneficial only to the political mafia he
has created. He shall be judged by the Justice he has sand
bagged in its stead to place puppets and helots of
his own; by the thousands of lives imprisoned, rotting
in the most infamous of jails; by the thousands of indi
viduals murdered in cold blood, without a trial or even
a formal accusation, like cattle driven to slaughter to
serve as a repast to his ravenous ambition ; he shall be
judged by his eagerness to terrorize, while despairing
13

of love and esteem; his perpetual dread of revolt
which would prove that his sway is only ephemeral.
He shall come to judgment for the butchery of
Vera-Cruz, for the assassinations of General Corona,
General Martinez, and General de la Cadena, for the
murders of all his rivals, big and small, for the
red day in Orizaba, for the scores of newspaper men
sacrificed to his Great Fear, his terror of Liberty, of
Justice and a Square Deal.
It was a great sacrifice, and the Holocaust flamed
up to the skies and the smoke and the cinders rose up
red and grey in the semblance of Porfirio Diaz,
Hero of a thousand and one battles.
But history shall judge and blow the great Shadow
to the four winds.

14

A Review of the Life of Porfirio Diaz.
The whole life of Porfirio Diaz can be divided into
four distinct periods. The first period reaches from
his birth to the age of twenty-four, the second begins
when he ran away to join the opposition against Santa
Anna, up to 1867, ending with the death of Emperor
Maximilian; from 1867 till 1876 was the third, the
period of storm and stress which ended by the capture
of the presidency. The fourth from 1876 till 1908 is
the period of his continuous power with the exception
of the interregnum of General Gonzalez, (1880-1884).
The First Period.
It is the period of incubation, the budding of the
wild flower, the evolution of the disciple of divinity into
the student of the law.
This man of destiny, born to the humblest walk
of life in Oaxaca, 1830, from a Spanish father and an
Indian mother, rose to the highest power ever attained
in his country through the high road of warfare, revo
lution and anarchy.
But his first footsteps were peaceful, almost com
monplace; he was a good son, an industrious scholar
and an honest boy.
In the year 1846, the city of Oaxaca had a little
war scare. They expected the American soldiers who
were advancing to the capital of Mexico to attack
Oaxaca. Therefore, all the schoolboys enlisted. It
was the battalion, "Peor es Nada," "Worse is Nothing,"
mentioned seriously by such a comical name in the,
local chronicles. (1) Young Porfirio enlisted too, but un
fortunately the comic battalion never went to war.
There is nothing in the first twenty-four years to
give an inkling of the crowded events of his future life,

(1) P. Diaz, xxx, pag. 89. 15

the almost unattainable ambitions of his dreams,
and of all the romantic adventures worthy of a
dime novel.
No fortune teller, no prophet foretold him any
thing and even he himself has admitted that his high
est ambition as a boy was to be the colonel of a regi
ment. Psychological students of his life have attempted
to explain his success by the inherited qualities of the
two races, the Spanish and the Mixtec.
Atavism does not explain it, for there are many
thousand boys with Mixtec mothers and Spanish fathers
who never become anything, not even useful porters.
The explanation lies within himself, it is the per
fect equilibrium between the brain and the will. It is
the logical explanation of the successes of the con
querors, statesmen and leaders of men. With a little
more intelligence he would have become a successful
lawyer, a little more imagination and he might have
grown into a militant journalist or a promoter; with
too much will power he would have ripened from a
revolutionary leader into a bandit chief.
The Don Quixote in every man must be evenly
balanced by a Sancho Panza to insure a practical
success. "A commonpalce being, attentive and prudent
every day of his life, experiences very often the pleasure
of triumphing over men with imagination," says Stend
hal.
The Second Period.
This is the quixotic epoch of his life. He was
battling for several ideals. He rebelled against the
despotism of Santa Anna, against the power of the
Church, the arbitrariness of the all-powerful governors,
the autocratic "jefes politicos", he fought for the ideals
of Hidalgo and Morelos, and "Mexico for the Mexicans",
for personal liberty and justice, until his desperate
16

struggles and his daring were acknowledged by his
old teacher in law, Benito Juarez. One fine day (2 Die.
1854) Porfirio ran away with a bandit named Estaban
Aragon, because he had refused to vote for that arch-
comedian and despot Santa Anna and the police were
on his tracks. On that fateful day he found his true
vocation. For almost twenty-two years he fought
almost unceasingly, in the first thirteen years for a
political ideal, in the succeeding nine years for the
presidency. Therefore was he getting a practical lesson in
the art of war, in the organization of troops and cre
ation of revolutions.
When still in the midst of the fray, the war of the
Reform broke out, the liberal party which he hari^ joined,
emerged victorious against the Church and also lifted
the Indian President, B. Juarez from obscurity into
the greatest personality in Mexican history. Then
came French intervention. P. Diaz and the liberal
generals contended against the disciplined French
troops, by guerilla warfare, in open battle, almost
naked, hungry, poorly armed, without help from the
United States, until at last they drove the French into
the sea and brought Maximilian to the executioner.
With the Emperor's death, the fate of the Church was
sealed. The Third Period.
The young general who had fought for so many
political ideals was disappointed at the meagre recom
pense meted out. The thorn of envy began to sting
and the patriot sacrificed everything in his mad rush
for the supreme power. It was a tantalizing and im
patient struggle against the impassive and adamant
Juarez. Once he was caught and forced to appear before
Juarez who said to him: "You deserve to be shot like
a rebel, but the country takes into consideration the
services rendered by you during the War of Interven-
17

tion. You are very ambitious and you shall be presi
dent one of these days, but not while I live."
The first manifestation of Porfirio Diaz's ambition
for the Presidency became apparent in the year 1867,
when "General Escobedo was laying siege to the town
of Queretaro, and there presented itself to him a com
mission which came to propose the formation of a
military party whose leadership should be raffled be
tween the Generals Escobedo, Corona and Diaz, to
carry to' the presidency the one pointed out by fate, for
it was not equitable, added the commissioners, that
Benito Juarez should continue to be President and
reap all the benefits of the triumphs when it was they
who had achieved them at the expense of their blood
and the peril of their lives. General Escobedo replied,
saying that he was a soldier and not a politician, that
he had fought out of patriotism, not out of ambition
and that it sufficed that the French had testified
that they would never treat with President Juarez,
for him to think him worthy of the Presidency at the
hour of success, and that this power should be held in
the keeping of the great Patriot who had occupied that
post in the sad hours of defection and defeat." (1)
This little lesson in patriotism and loyalty made
the conspiracy fall through.
From 1867 and for more than nine years, General
Diaz plotted, conspired against, and resisted the le
gal and constitutional Government of Mexico under
President Juarez and President Lerdo.
This now Prince of Peace-at-any-Price, then broke
the peace of the land with his proclamations, which
today read like satirical pamphlets against his own
administration. He persistently antagonized legal authority, and
started rebellions in the south, in the east and the west
and invasions from the United States into Mexico.
When Gen. Escobedo went after him at the head of
the Government troops, Gen. Diaz flunked, disbanded
(1) Rectificaciones Historicas. P. I. Calderon. Vol. 1. pag. 68.
18

his rebels, and ran back across the American frontier
exactly in the same manner as the little rebellion
started a few months ago from the border by the
Magon Brothers. Then it was Diaz Brothers & Co.
He failed repeatedly, started anew, was caught,
escaped, but madly he rushed on as if bitten by the tar
antula of ambition, filling the whole country with
disorder, unrest, anarchy and disgust.
He was so utterly discredited that well-think
ing and serious people compared him to the notorious
bandit chief and cazique of Tepic, Manuel Lozada.*
This remarkable Indian, savage and cruel, was a
strong and interesting character. He had organized a
perfect dictatorship, his police and spy system were
perfect and he derived the funds for his administra
tion from the custom house of Tepic, which he con
trolled. Being ambitious he made a plan too, a Proclama
tion, The liberating Plan of Lozada.
In a very short time he had organized an army of
8000 Indians, to capture first Guadalajara and then the
Presidency. However, he was defeated at the battle of "La
Mojonera" by General Corona. The general impression
of the moment was condensed in a phrase uttered by a
lawyer who was watching the dust raised by the Indian
hordes approaching to attack Guadalajara: "Nothing
more was wanted,  than a third Empire with Loz
ada I." (1)
A popular phrase was repeated: "Man overboard,"
to ridicule the failure of General Diaz as a political
leader, when on his way from New Orleans to Vera-
Cruz (1876) to start the revolution of Tuxtepec, he
jumped overboard to save himself from capture by the
government troops. This selfsame Prince of Peace
who now poses hypocritically as the Protector of the
Constitution and Legality, then in the face of popular
defeat in three presidential elections, persisted in sub-

(1) P. Diaz. xxx. pag. 19. 19

verting public order and hampering the prosperity of
his country with his constant rebellions, only to satisfy
his personal ambition and insatiable greed.
In 1867 Benito Juarez received 7,422 votes for the
presidency. In 1867, Porfirio Diaz received 2,709 votes for the
presidency. In 1871, B. Juarez received 5,837 votes for the
presidency. In 1 87 1 P. Diaz received 3,555 votes for the
presidency. (1)
After the death of Juarez there was another elec
tion and he was defeated again. (1872).
Lerdo de Tejada received 9,520 votes for the
presidency. Porfirio Diaz received 604 votes for the presidency.
(2)
General Diaz was responsible for the "Motin" the
Mutiny, the Plan of la Noria, the Plan of Tuxtepec, the
Plan of Palo Blanco. This last one resulted in the
overthrow of President Lerdo.
Under the heading "Motin" Mutiny El Siglo XIX,
an opposition paper printed this news :
"According to our information the Plan consists
in assassinating General Alatorre when coming out of
the theatre, to proclaim as President, General Porfirio
Diaz and impose on the population an enforced loan of
$300,000 under the penalty of pillage." (3)
This mutiny failed, because an hour before the
realization of the complot it was denounced by an
officer of the same troop.
When the revolutionists ostensibly invited General
Diaz to lead another rebellion he answered :
"I resign myself to the sacrifice of my honor and
of my life, and if success crowns our efforts, I shall be
able to give new and evident proofs that I do not aspire

(1) Aurora y Ocaso. C. Ceballos. pag. 177.
(2) P. Diaz, xxx pag. 14.
(3) Aurora y Ocaso. C. Ceballos. pag. 38.
20

to the ostentation of Power and that I prefer to it the ob
scurity of the Home." (i)
This was one of his usual, innumerable political
lies, for his personal ambition to power was so keen and
terrible that General Luis Mier Y. Teran synthetized
admirably the moral state of the Master of the Sword
in this phrase: "Porfirio Diaz or Death." (2)
The Plan of la Noria, so called because it was
written at the plantation of la Noria owned by General
Diaz, who signed this Plan November 1871. It was
considered so absurd and preposterous that even an
opposition paper of Mexico "EL SIGLO XIX," said
about it, November 16, 1871 :
"The Plan of la Noria. This name had been given
to a circular recently read by the Minister of the In
terior, as emanating from General Diaz. We have
heard several persons say that it is an apocryphal docu
ment and certainly the most effective means of giving
weight to public opinion against General Diaz
and the revolution he is heading, was to attribute
to him a plan so full of political absurdities as the one
called the plan of la Noria. (3)
One of the first decrees of Lerdo, after his election
was that of a general amnesty for all the political
offenders under arms at that time. (July 27, 1872).
General Diaz considered this amnesty as degrading
to himself and his fellow revolutionists, as he admitted
in a circular dated September 1 3/1 87 2, from Chihuahua :
"I thought it opportune that the revolution should
accredit to the Government two persons of confidence
to enter into frank negotiations which would result in
peace and in the substitution of the degrading law
which purports to call itself an amnesty, for another
one which should not lower our military dignity and

(1) Aurora y Ocaso. C. Ceballos. pag. 208.
(2) Idem. pag. 287.
(3) Rectificaciones Historicas. F. I. Calderon. Vol. 1. pag. 35.
21

would not confuse us with the dissidents in the time of
the Intervention , as they have apparently tried to do . " ( i )
On this occasion the rebel chief was outwitted by
the President diplomat, who succeeded in showing him
up as a traitor to his country. It was therefore, natural
that the peace loving people should have shown their
contempt at the unpatriotic behavior of General Diaz
by defeating him at the polls at the presidential elec
tion of 1872. But a leopard cannot change its spots
and Porfirio Diaz in spite of his numerous flatterers
and pseudo-admirers, is the same traitor to his coun
try now, as he was in the nine years of almost inter
mittent insurrection and sedition.
Sooner or later he has always perjured himself
against the Constitution, the Republic, the laws of the
Reform, and against Non-reelection, he has broken
with the tenets of his party, all the liberal principles
he has professed, and all the aspirations of his country.
He yearned to be a Washington and he became a
Latin- American Sylla; he wanted to enforce a liberal
paternalism and only succeeded in creating a rampant
Diazpotism. He hoped to emulate a Napoleon I, and
instead, followed the footsteps of Caesar Borgia. He
expected to rule and he only terrorized. He even
imagined that he could deceive history and he only
fooled himself.
In his private conversations with strangers and
friends, he wants to convince himself and others that
he always meant to be honest and self-sacrificing, but
that circumstances forced his hand the wrong way.
A year ago at an audience given by him to E. T.
Simondetti, President of El Diario, he said:
"In 1879, when I declared that I was opposed to
the reelection for the Presidency, / was sincere, but later
my friends begged me to remain in power for the good
of the country."
From this we must infer, logically, that he is not
sincere now, for the same friends are begging him at
(1) P. Diaz. xxx. pag. 21. 22

every fake re-election, to remain in power for the good
of the country.
In the year 1 871, in the Plan of la Noria, the proc
lamation against the government of Juarez the first
lines read:
To the Mexican People
"The indefinite, forcible and violent re-election of
the federal executive, has imperilled the national in
stitutions." This comical appeal to the Mexican people from
this incipient satrap, reminds one of the other Mexican
mandarin and traitor, Santa Anna, who used to sign
all his bombastic proclamations and letters: "Father
land and Liberty!" In the famous plan of Tuxtepec
reformed at Palo Blanco, March 21, 1876, he proclaimed
under his signature:
"Article 2. The same law making the President
and the Governors of the States ineligible to the same
position will be maintained, this being a measure of
constitutional reform which we agree to sustain by all
the legal means afforded to us by the Constitution."
Again on September 16, 1879, President P. Diaz
made this declaration in Congress:
"It is not seasonable for the executive to express
his opinion on this matter, but I must solemnly pro
test before Congress that / shall never sanction a candi
dacy for re-election, because even if this was not forbid
den by our code, I shall always respect the principles from
which emanated the revolution initiated in Tuxtepec."
(0 Every four years or so the old fox Porfirio passes
the word among his sycophants to disseminate the
rumor that the President is going to relinquish his
Power, that he is tired and old and that he wants ta
retire to private life.
Then crowds of his friends, the friends of Friend
ship, officially and unofficially start pilgrimages to

(1) Dario Oficial. 16 Sep. 1879. Mexico. 23

Chapultepec or to the Palace and beg him, petition him,
entreat him to stay for another term, just for the good
of the country. And old Sly Boots, with tears of grati
tude in his eyes, sacrifices Himself, because the Nation
wills it.
"When a ruler says: 'I want to relinquish Power,
but if the nation demands more sacrifices, I shall con
tinue to sacrifice myself ; this must be interpreted as
meaning; 'I have not the slightest intention of giving
up power, and those interested in my not relinquish
ing it, must take, even if in a ridiculous manner, the
name of the Nation, so that this one should appear
to entreat me not to forsake her. '
"This couplet has been sung in every century, by
all the ambitious ones and has been used as a joke for
farces, comic operas and funny papers.',' (i)
At the approach of the presidential election of
1876, the ever-ready Porfirio initiated another revo
lution. One of the accusations of the revolutionists against
the Government was: "That public suffrage had been
converted into a farce, because the President and his
friends by every illegal means, put into public places
those whom they call "official candidates" rejecting all
the independent citizens." (2)
The revolutionists did not wait until the term of
Lerdo was over, which would have been in November
30, 1876. General Diaz gathered 5000 men and was met by
General Alatorre with 3000 men near the Hacienda of
Tecoac. The battle was a draw, for both generals were
afraid of each other.
Luckily for General Diaz the day was saved by the
timely arrival of General Gonzalez, who rushed like
a whirlwind against the enemy;— and thus the battle of
Tecoac was won.

(1) El Verdadero Juarez. F. Bulnes. pag. 668.
(2) Plan de Tuxtepec reforrnado en Palo Blanco.

24

The total number of deaths on both sides was
ninety-five. After this rout, President Lerdo instead of fighting,
packed his trunks and ran away to the United States.
The only remnant of authority left in Mexico at
the flight of the legal executive was Jose Maria Iglesias
one the triumvirs of the liberal government during
French Intervention.
Mr. Iglesias was a pure, honest patriot of the Caton-
ian type. He was the President of the Supreme Court when
Lerdo left, and as such he was constitutionally the
president ad interim.
On this subject the Plan of Tuxtepec said:
"Article 60. The Executive Power, without any
attribution excepting the administrative, shall be de
posited, while elections are taking place, in the person
of the President of the Supreme Court of Justice, or
the person of the magistrate discharging this function."
Mr. Iglesias > went to Queretaro with his govern
ment and while there entered into negotiations with
General Diaz. The parley took place by wire between
Iglesias and Justo Benitez, the representative of Diaz.
Benitez wired among other things :
"The unavoidable basis of all settlement must be
the Plan of Tuxtepec reformed in Palo Blanco, as the
genuine expression of the national will. Do you
accept it?"
And Iglesias answered: "There being no vacilla
tion on my part on such a capital point, I do not, nor
must I accept the basis which you qualify as unavoidable.
Everything which tends to divorce from the Constitu
tion of 1857, shall be declined by me, who am the only
representative of legality. " ( 1 )
One of the conditions imposed by General Diaz to
Mr. Iglesias was :
"That General Diaz should be Minister of War in
the government of the temporary President;" an unac-

(11 La Cuestion Presidential. J- M. Iglesias. pag. 391.
25

ceptable condition as Mr. J. M. Iglesias had declared
in his circular that neither he nor his ministers would
figure as candidates in the elections to come, a circum
stance which General Diaz would not admit. So that
the revolutionary chief not only recognized the tem
porary President, but likewise wanted to form part of
his cabinet. The recognition was made according to
Article 82, of the Constitution, and in keeping with this
article the pretentions of General Diaz were quite un
precedented. (1)
This controversy on a fine point of legality and
constitutionality was well played by General Diaz and
his revolutionary band.
Nevertheless it resembled too much the argument
between the wolf and the lamb. As was to be foreseen,
negotiations fell through and the only remaining ves
tige of legality had to flee for dear life into the United
States. With this incident ended the nine years struggle
of Porfirio Diaz for the capture of the Supreme Power.
The Fourth Period.
A Nation should never be given over te one
man, no matter who the man is, and whatever
the circumstances may be. Thiers.
A " pronunciamento" or a proclamation according
to the talented Mexican historian, C. Pereyra is: "the
form which the military organization took in Spain and
in the colonies; it is the intervention of the army in
public affairs, imposing itself by force. As the social
r6le of the army is the conservation and the defense of
the country, the pronunciamento constitutes a crime."
(2) It was through the pronunciamento of Tuxtepec
that Porfirio Diaz rode into power, and consequently
through a crime.
As Napoleon Bonaparte could keep his crown only
(1) Las Supuestas Traiciones de Juarez. F. I. Calderon. pag. xxxvi.
(2) Historia del Pueblo Mexicano. G. Pereyra. vol. 2. pag. 60.
26

by the force of arms, so Porfirio Diaz held his own
autocratic power only by a series of political felonies.
A detailed account of all the atrocities committed by
his order and by means of his hired assassins would fill
three scores of large sized volumes. We shall, there
fore, speak only of the most dastardly and character
istic malpractices, so as to exemplify his mystifying
"pacific rule."
The metamorphosis of Porfirio Diaz from his first
term up to the present date is as unexpected as the
evolution from an indifferent and despicable worm into
a variegated and gorgeous butterfly.
He came into the presidency, poor as a church
mouse, but cunning as Ulysses; utterly discredited and
at the same time with a wealth of hopes and Machiavel
lian possibilities; without any authority, albeit know
ing he would have a lifetime in practical politics; lack
ing national and international prestige, though prepar
ing to create it with the help of financial juggleries and
artful self-advertisement; deficient in statesmanship,
nevertheless trusting that the country's wisdom would
gravitate round his chair of state.
He came into the first term almost as a suspicious
character; and to illustrate this fact he loves to relate
to his friends how in the beginning he could not find a
self-respecting merchant to honor his notes or to lend
him money for the expenses of his administration.
It happened frequently when he walked down San
Francisco street in Mexico City, that his friends and
acquaintances would hasten into a side street or a shop
to avoid saluting him.
Intuitively he guessed that to be able to rule suc
cessfully as a despot it is essential to follow Machia-
velli's aphorism: "It is not necessary for a prince to
have all the virtues which I have enumerated, — but
it is indispensable to appear to possess them." (i)
And so the wolf put on a sheep-skin, and it de
ceived the simpletons as well as the wiseacres.

(1) II Principe. N. Machiavelli. 27

The following will show the evolution of the so-
called presidental terms served by President Diaz :
From 1876 — 1880 — first period — Revolutionary Presi
dent.
" 1880— 1884 Interregnum of Gen. Gonzalez.
" 1884 — 1888 second period — Protector.
" 1888 — 1892 — third period — Consul.
" 1892 — 1896 fourth period — Consul for life.
" 1896 — 1900 fifth " Anointed Ruler.
" 1900— 1904 sixth " Imperator.
" 1904 — -1910 seventh " Great Mogul.
The graduation from the Revolutionary President
to a Great Mogul is quite startling to the ignoramus but
it is worth pondering over.
To reach the top of the ascending scale necessi
tated thirty years of unremitting work of corrosive
destruction to all the liberties of the Mexican people,
liberties for which they had fought for over sixty-five
years. It took Porfirio Diaz just half that time to
destroy these. It was eminently a secret operation,
the silent labor of the termit gnawing within a log of
wood while you are unaware of the destruction from
the outside. His first term was the cement foundation
for the building of imperial power. Even so he used
the term of Gen. Gonzalez to experiment on the result
of the initiatives of the payment of the famous English
debt, the government bank and the issue of the new 5
cent nickel coin into the currency.
Very deftly and with unerring knowledge of Gon
zalez's greed, he suggested these initiatives while Min
ister of Fomento (Department of Agriculture, Com
merce and Manufactures.) in his cabinet.
The government of P. Diaz was not leaving a red
penny in the treasury for his successor M. Gonzalez,
notwithstanding that the income of the nation in the
latter part of 1880 showed a considerable increase,
ascending to $22,276,845.00. (1)

(1) El Gen. Gonzalez y su gobierno en Mexico. F. Quevedo y Zubieta. pag. 123.
28

At the end of his first period in 1879, ne declared
against re-election, not that he was sincere, but simply
because his fellow revolutionists, plotters and rebel
generals who had helped him would not let him mono
polize all the power and all the graft.
So they decided to put up in 1880 for the presidency
a loyal man who would obey mandates of the party
unconditionally. The choice fell on Gen. Mier y
Teran. Unfortunately for them, Mier y Teran while
governor of Vera-Cruz obeyed only too well the order
of assassination of President Diaz on the famous 25th
of June, 1879. (1) This dastardly act raised a
tremendous storm of indignation against Diaz's admin
istration. That settled the candidacy of Gen. Mier y
Teran. Thereupon they chose Justo Benitez, ex-
secretary of President Diaz and his adviser and Meph-
istopheles during his revolutionary period. But Diaz
grew suspicious of the loyalty of Benitez and so they
picked out Gen. Gonzalez who besides being his "com-
padre," compeer, was a soldier and would, therefore,
obey his orders implicitly.
Gen. Gonzalez was one among the innumerable
rebel chiefs who, since Mexico became independent of
Spain, have made a living through the medium of
revolutions. Without scruples, devoid of patriotism,
lacking the most elementary military training, the only
talent of these men, with few exceptions, was bravery
on the battlefield. Their technical knowledge was
equal to that of Gen. Cartaux, who wrote to the General
Assembly in Paris his plan for capturing Toulon from
the English: "The general of artillery will bombard
Toulon for the space of three days, at the end of which
I shall attack it on three columns and then I shall take
it by storm." (2)
To these adventurers the presidency was symbol
ized in the National Palace (the residence of the Presi-

(1) See corresponding page
(2) Memoirs of Napoleon I. De las Casas. 29

dent while in office) as with the Mohammedans, Mecca or
Medina symbolized Mohammedanism.
Their proclamations generally read: "This plan
shall be enforced as soon as the general in chief of the
regenerating army shall occupy the National Palace."
(i) Evidently they considered the nation and espec
ially the treasury their own private property.
Porfirio Diaz was the associate and crony of these
filibusters, he absorbed their ways, their ambitions and
he succeeded where they had failed.
The administration of Gonzalez, made a terrible
raid on the treasury of the nation, through the sales of
railroad concessions, colonizing schemes, the raising of
loans, the national bank, etc.
President Gonzalez and his ring milked the
treasury dry, up to the last day, when the President as
a farewell, took away $9,000.00 from the government
strong box. (2)
Among the ministers of President Gonzalez were
Ignacio Mariscal, Minister of Foreign Relations and F.
Landero y Cos, Minister of Finances. Both these men
were honesty personified.
Gen. Gonzalez with the help of his evil genius,
Ramon Fernandez, (governor of the Federal District)
plotted to get Landero and Mariscal out. When the
nickel law came up for discussion in Congress, Gen.
Gonzalez sent orders to suppress the limitation for the
payment. The law was framed by Landero.
The Minister of Finances arrived in Congress
too late to interfere and as he understood the
meaning of the amendment, he tendered his resigna
tion. But before leaving his portfolio he declared in
Congress: "We have in the treasury more than one
million dollars." (3)To those hungry wolves this state
ment was like a call to plunder and pillage.
In the deal of the national bank, the Parisian
(1) El Gen. Gonzalez y su gobierno en Mexico. F. Q. y Zubieta. pag 91 vol 1
(2) Idem.
(3) Idem. pag. 225. vol. I. 36

bankers spent $1,000,000. in shares and $1,500,000. in
cash to buy off the administration. (1)
The loan for the payment of the English debt was
a scheme to make twenty million dollars, but (give the
devil his due) to allay public indignation the profits
were lowered to two million dollars. This, added to
the nickel law which flooded the whole country with
5 cent nickels, almost brought about a revolution. For
tunately the presidential term was nearly over and
Porfirio Diaz stepped in as the saviour, and the out
going Gonzalez left in ignominy and shame, branded
as the Attila-President.
As soon as Gen. Diaz came into power in his second
term" he soon did not think of anything else but him
self; his idea being not to let any competitors deprive
him again of the presidency. After eliminating all
competitors he erected himself a sort of a Providence to
the nation, legitimated by necessity. The first thought
made him mistrustful and terrible. The second thought,
exclusive and jealous." (2) '
To be able to rid himself of his rivals one by one,
it was necessary to own, body and soul, the courts, the
justice, the police and the army of the nation.
He began therefore to substitute for the whole
Department of Justice, from the Minister of Justice
down to the merest clerk, his own obedient tools.
Instead of the independent Governors who were for
merly elected by the will of the people, he placed his
own men, ex-generals, ex-revolutionary chiefs, men
ambitious for the presidency, as a means of enriching
themselves. As Governors they had quite as good a
chance of acquiring wealth as if they were in the
presidential chair and with less danger of attracting
attention. As soon as he had his creatures in all the
important government places, as Governors, Cabinet
Ministers, Senators, Congressmen, "jefespoliticos," he
began tearing down the Constitution, suppressed the

(1) Idem. pag. 30. vol. II.
(2) Rectificaciones Historicas. F. Iglesias Calderon. vol. I. pag. 39. 40.

31

power of the press, killed personal liberty by arbitrary
imprisonments and slowly made away with his enemies
by the aid of "accidents" with the help of the notor
ious " ley fuga" (runaway law) (i)
That Diaz's government is illegal is proved by the
fact that the Washington cabinet refused to recognize
it at first because of its revolutionary origin. (2) Only
in the year 1879 di(i the cabinet in Washington for
mally recognize the Diaz government and despatch a
representative to Mexico. (3)
Porfirio Diaz thought, and not without reason,
that possession is nine-tenths of the law. To be able
to remain in power continuously it was imperative
to amend the Constitution. P. Diaz did this at the
end of his second term : at his bidding his parasites in
"Congress amended the Constitution so as to allow the
President two consecutive terms." (4) This not being
sufficient ," in his third term , Congress " instructed by him,
"solved the question for all time by abolishing every
limitation whatsoever." (5) After this affirmation of
power he was practically Consul for life and was at
liberty to do as he pleased.
Separate chapters will be dedicated to his assassina
tions, to the muzzling of the press and to the perver
sion of justice under his regime.
The much-talked necessity of having Porfirio Diaz
in power for the sake of peace is another fairy tale
invented by the president and his retinue of courtesans
to make a virtue out of a gigantic political graft.
Two of the best known writers and historians in Mexico
have discussed this argument in strong terms. Says
F. Bulnes: "Peace is not the cause of the progress in
Mexico; on the contrary, peace is the consequence of
the progress in Mexico." (6)
(1) See corresponding page
(2) The Maker of Modern Mexico. P. Diaz. Mrs. A. Tweedie. pag. 280.
(3) Idem. pag. 283.
(4) P. Diaz. Mrs. A. Tweedie. pag. 337.
(5) Idem page 339.
(6) El porvenir de las naciones Hispano Americanas. F. Bulnes. pag. 270.
32

Mr. F. Iglesias Calderon quotes: "Two political
personages whose admiration for and adhesion to Gen.
Diaz are manifest and proverbial have declared sin
cerely that the benefits which are attributed to the
present government are in reality due to the anterior
liberal governments: This is equivalent to commuting
merit into luck, as the simple lapse of time has de
veloped the welfare born of the liberal government of
Benito Juarez." (i)
The partisans and admirers of P. Diaz claim as
proof of their assertion the present prosperity of Mexico.
That can be easily refuted.
The investment and development of foreign
capital mean to Mexico advancement and prosperity,
since the country is devoid of home capital. The
advancement of agriculture, irrigation and immigration
means the welfare of Mexico. The present administra
tion is not responsible for the initial investment of
capital in Mexico; it has never done anything for the
development of agriculture or for immigration and only
after thirty years of so-called prosperity, has it begun
to give a thought to irrigation.
It goes without saying that neither invertion of
capital nor prosperity were possible in Mexico so long
as the political power and practically four-fifths of the
land were in the hands of the Church. Benito Juarez
achieved this herculean task with a courage and a per
sistence which are admirable. He succeeded in doing,
in the latter 50's, what Italy only dared to do in the
70's and France but lately.
It took some time for Mexico to recover from the
effects of this terrible war and also the war of Interven
tion. Precisely this same man, Porfirio Diaz, who
now is held up as indispensable to the prosperity of
modern Mexico, then, for almost nine consecutive
years broke the peace of the land and interfered with
the advancement of his country by his farcical regen
erating plans and criminal revolutions.

(1) Rectificaciones Historicas. F. Iglesias Calderon. vol. I. page 24.
33

The first railroad line, from Mexico City to Vera-
Cruz was finished during Lerdo's period. During the
term of Gonzalez the overflow, of American capital,
headed toward Mexico. Here I merely quote from an
author who wrote, in 1884, "an unusual awakening
in the life of the country resulted as a first consequence
of the construction of the railroads — this irruption of
American money was followed by the invasion of iron."
(1) and further "they are building twenty thousand
houses in Mexico City and the truth is that never since
the year of independence in Mexico, up to the time
when the millions which came to Santa-Anna in pay
ment for the dismemberment of the territory, and when
Maximilian came to Mexico with the money of Napoleon
III, had we seen in Mexico so much prosperity or such
attractive perspective of wealth and welfare." (2)
If Porfirio Diaz is so indispensable now because of
his probity and impartiality, why did he not prove his
honesty in 1880 when, instead of leaving money in the
treasury he left it drained to the dregs, when, as a fact
"The national income for 1879-80 exceeded the sum
of $21,000,000." (3)
A year and a half of honest financial administra
tion under Landero was sufficient to give the nation
over a million dollars of surplus in the national treasury.
Gen. Gonzalez was not making any pretence at honor
able and philanthropic government, for as soon as the
honest minister of finances went out, the razzia, the
raid, on the treasury began in an unchecked and
shameless manner.
On the other hand, P. Diaz has always kept up the
appearance of a patriotic and upright government.
And withal in Irs first term, he classed himself in the
same category as Gen. Gonzalez and his freebooters.
Only after the third term, and when he was certain
that the presidency was in his keeping for a lifetime,
(1) El gobierno del Gen. Gonzalez en Mexico. F. Quevedo y Zubieta. page 141-
vol. I.
(2) Idem page 143 vol. I.
(3) P. Diaz. Mrs. A. Tweedie. page 282.
34

did he get a semblance of order in the department of
finances, for then, he evidently expected to fill his
pockets and those of his crew, at leisure.
The income as well as the expenditures of the
nation increased with years: "During the same year
(1891) they (the Diaz administration) spent all the
income of the federal rents which ascended to $37,000,
000. by more than $5,000,000." declared Matias
Romero in congress. (1892) (1)
Matias Romero who had been Mexican minister to
Washington during the French Intervention cannot be
accused of connivance with the administration; only
he was not a financier and he could not juggle with
figures as could Jose. Y. Limantour. Those who suf
fered most in the end were the Mexican people and par
ticularly so the government employees. These
wretched individuals were not paid in cash for their
work until J. Y. Limantour became minister of finances.
Instead of cash, the officeholders received " alcan-
ces", a sort of I. O. U.'s, or notes payable on sight at
the treasury. With some excuse or other these notes were not
honored until they were bought up by a firm of Ger
man Jews, the Scherers, who purchased them at 40
and 50% off and as soon as they presented them they
were immediately paid by the Minister of Finances.
But from the beginning, Gen. Diaz was very care
ful, very scrupulous in paying his soldiers regularly, as
he admitted in a toast at the military college in Chap
ultepec : "The soldiers who fought with me loved me,
they were ready to sacrifice their lives for my life;
what had I done, to obtain this generous and self-
denying sacrifice, that voluptious sacrifice, to shed their
blood for my blood? This only: they had all had the
conviction that I had not cheated them out of then-
income." (2)
In this toast Gen. Diaz practically confesses that

(1) Le Nacion. 8 Die. 1892.
(2) Rectificaciones Historicas. F. J. Calderon. pag. 71.

35

he owes the loyalty of his soldiers, not to the righteous
ness of his cause, but to the fact that he had paid them
regularly. In his sixth term, Porfirio Diaz impatient and
weary of having to repeat the comedy of re-election
every four years, had another law enacted by the ever-
obedient Congress to amend the Constitution to extend
the presidential term from four to six years. This
Mexican Augustus as F. Bulnes calls Gen. Diaz,
initiated another law "on April 24th, 1896, which
empowered the president to turn over his power to
whom he pleased and by the vote of Congress." (1)
After the Great Old Man had finished patching up
the Constitution of 1857 it resembled the dress of a
buffoon harlequin.
He choked the independence of the press, took
possession of Congress, controlled the army and navy (?) :
the governors and jefes politicos being his slaves and
justice his servant, for all purposes he owns and directs
the most perfect political machine in the world.
Tammany Hall, in comparison to his machine, is a
pink tea; Russian autocracy seems tame with the Douma
at its heels; Abdul Hahmid has played his last trump
against the Young Turks; the fatalistic Persians have
turned Fate against the allmighty Shah; even Young
China has achieved the seemingly inconceivable, of
injecting reforms into the Celestial Dragon!1' All the
down-trodden nations of this planet of ours have given
the lie to history, to eminent principles, to inherited
privileges, and are slowly, joyously, breathing the pure
air of liberty. Mexico alone, stands enslaved by the
tyranny of one genial hypocrite, tied hand and foot to
the ambitious lust of this ex-bandit, and hypno
tized to a standstill by the shrewdest of political con
fidence men.
After having erected his power on an estuary of
blood, acquired untold wealth with his political influ-
(1) Le Nacion. 1 Die. 1902. 36

ence, commanded the flattery of his countrymen,
captured by stealth the admiration of foreign nations,
as a climax, Porfirio Diaz would decree the homage of
history to his memory.
Should he happen to relax his hold on power or die
like an ordinary mortal, history will rush in with a
vengeance and vomit forth the truth as from a " cloaca
maxima" to bury in the historical Potter's Field his
ridiculous fame as patriot, statesman and general.

37

When it is in the hands of a power annually to
choose from every million only ten innocent men, for the
purpose of killing them, everyone lives in a state of terror.
F. Bulnes.

The Morgue of Porfirio Diaz.
His Assassinations and His Victims.
Nearly thirty years ago Porfirio Diaz perpetrated
the infamous carnage of Vera-Cruz, on the 25th of June
1879. The Veracruzans and also the Mexicans have
never forgotten this date; and with all his pretence at
paternalism, his lies and hypocrisies Porfirio Diaz, like
a new Macbeth, cannot cleanse his hands of the blood
and the responsibility of this dastardly crime, which will
brand him in history as a second Caracalla.
The much vaunted "pacific rule" of this paternal
hangman has brought upon his head the hatred and con
tempt of the Veracruzans, who despise him with all
their might.
Two years ago the newspapers printed the news of
the execution of some political prisoners by President
Estrada Cabrera of Guatemala; they seemed to take a
special delight in printing long articles and editorials
on the subject. I heard several Mexicans remark:
"The newspapers are accusing Cabrera of exactly the
same crimes which Porfirio Diaz has committed on a
larger scale, not once but continuously and up to our
present day. This indignation against E. Cabrera is an
indirect denunciation of the policy of Porfirio Diaz;
for as we have no free press we express our opinion in
a roundabout fashion."
I shall quote part of a letter written by a charming
Mexican lady, in which this person reflects the feelings
of most of her intelligent countrymen in reference to the
execution of Guatemala :
" The public being at present exasperated against
President Estrada Cabrera of Guatemala and sympa
thizing so deeply with the four brave ones who were
assassinated in so cowardly a manner, there comes to
my memory, the 25^ of June of Vera-Cruz, and I ask
41

myself if in Mexico, the perpetrator of that infamy, did
not inspire the same repulsion as Estrada Cabrera, and
likewise I ask myself, for the latter, could there be the
excuse of the influence of a powerful example. Trying
to imitate our cynic autocrat, Cabrera dazzled by the
wondrous success of his crimes, thought that maybe
at the end of a few years, as it has come to pass here,
he would have all the honours, all the incense of a terres
trial divinity, and that imposing himself through terror,
he would attain as his neighbour to deification in life.
I insist that in the evils which oppress Guatemala
the worse part is due to the example of our despot."
In the first term of P. Diaz (1876-80) there was a
great deal of unrest and dissatisfaction in Mexico ; Gen.
Diaz had not kept his much advertised promises of the
plan of Tuxtepec ; as a matter of fact things were getting
worse than before; it was a case of falling from the fry
ing pan into the fire.
The result was a plot to overthrow the Diaz admin
istration and to put instead a "Restoration" of the
lerdist power.
The principal leaders were Gen. Escobedo and sev
eral colonels: L Fernando, Bonifacio Topete, Carlos
Fuero,J. B. Cueto. (1)
These leaders plotted with little skill and less suc
cess. At first the government showed a certain len
iency toward the conspirators but there came a time
when they felt it would be advisable to chastize and
terrorize these enemies of the government.
The police searched the house of Don Felipe Rob-
leda on the denunciation of one of the conspirators.
They found under the rug of his room, papers referring
to the conspiracy and the list of the names of the
plotters. These names were handed to Gen. Diaz who sent
the list of the names to Gen. Mier y Teran ordering him
to arrest the men implicated in the plot.
Gen. Teran had these men apprehended, he wired

(1) P. Diaz- R. Zayas Enriquez, pag. 142 and 143.
42

the news to the president who answered laconically:
"Shoot them red-handed."
There was no reference in this telegram of a trial or
an investigation of the guilt of these men, but only a
peremptory order to kill on sight. Nine men were shot.
They were; Jaime Rodriguez, Dr. Ramon Albert Hern
andez, Antonio P. Ituarte, Francisco Cueto, Luis
Alva, Loenzo Portilla, Vicente Capmany, J. A. Rubal-
caba and Juan Caro.
The head lines of a paper of that period: "Juan
Panadero" Guadalajara, 13th July 1879, read like those
of a modern yellow paper :
"—A BACCHANALIA OF BLOOD.— MURDERS COMMITTED
BV TERAN.— NINE ASSASSINATIONS— EIGHT WIDOWS —
THIRTY-SEVEN ORPHANS.— HORRIBLE DETAILS."
Vera-Cruz. June 29th, 1879.
A notice of the editors says :
— "In this (correspondence from Vera-Cruz) you
will see to what a point has reached the savagery of the
actual usurper of the power and the profound contempt
in which they hold the life of man and of individual
guarantees when it is a question of the constitutional
ists. From this day on Tuxtepecan and assassin will mean
the same thing if Porfirio Diaz protects the execu
tioners of Vera-Cruz and leaves this unwarranted pro
ceeding unpunished."
I merely quote from the same paper a few examples
of the manner in which the order of the president was
executed :
"As soon as Teran arrived at the barracks — he
identified the person of Capmany — and said to him:
— "Are you D. Vicente Capmany?" —
— "Yes," answered the mariner frankly. —
— " Well, I am going to shoot you by order of the
president." — " You are going to commit a murder," answered
Capmany "for there is no reason for this, and my con
science does not accuse me of any crime." —
43

— "Shut up! See here. Shoot this man!"
exclaimed Teran. —
— "Sir, can I write some letters before I die? — I
only ask ten minutes."
— " Shoot him on the spot," shouted Teran, lust
ing for blood.
Teran left barracks No. 23 and went over to No.
25. He called in Rubalcaba and Caro, officers there on
platoon, and Loredo and Rosello officers of the same
barracks and took them to barracks No. 23.
There he gave orders to shoot all four, without
more ado or any pretense at trial. The last one (Caro)
having been loosely bound with ropes-started to run and
the soldiers fired on him, killing one soldier on guard
and wounding two more.
The hyena called in A. Ituarte, a young man 28 to
30 years old.
— "Are you Don A. Ituarte?" —
— "You know me very well," impassively an
swered the victim.
— " I told you twice to leave the city and that the
third time I would shoot you." —
—"That's right."—
— "Well, then I am going to shoot you on the
spot."— —"AH right."—
— Before leaving, Ituarte turned to Teran and said
to him: "Assassin"
Then came the turn of Cueto.
—"Are you D. F. Cueto?"—
— "You know it as well as I do." —
— "Shoot him" exclaimed Teran.
— "I believe," said Cueto "that if I am guilty of
any crime, I should be judged first. Of what are they
accusing me?"—
— "You are conspiring." —
— " In this case turn me over to a judge, who must
be the district judge. ' ' — 44

— "There is no other judge than myself here, and
no law other than my command. Shoot him." —
Later Don Luis Alba arrived :
— "Are you going to shoot me too, christian?" he
asked Teran, with whom he was on very friendly terms.
— " I'll do it this minute."—
— "Are you crazy? Don't you think that suf
ficient blood has been shed? What am I guilty of?
What is my crime?"
— "Silence!" yelled Teran — " "You are conspiring
and it is necessary that you should die." —
— "I suppose that you have a proof of your
assertion." —
— " I do not need proofs other than my conscience."
— "Then, you have no proofs, christian, for you
have no conscience." —
Hearing this, Teran gave him a push and shouted :
"Shoot this man."—
The victim then begged to be allowed to write to
his wife. Said Teran :" Nothing will be permitted, you
are a lerdist, and to those nothing is conceded." —
— "Remember, sir, that the lerdists pardoned
your life, when you were caught with arms in hand." —
— "Muzzle this man and shoot him." —
At this juncture there arrived at the barracks the
judge of the district Mr. R. Zayas Enriquez, whom
some neighbours had awakened and had begged to see
if he could prevent further slaughters.
Mr. Zayas Enriquez ran to the barracks half
dressed, and there had an angry discussion with Gen.
Teran who said to him;
— "You are responsible for all this." —
—"I?" exclaimed Zayas in astonishment. —
— " Yes, you, because the other day when I turned
over to you Capmany and Portilla, you did not con
demn them to hard labor." —
— "Because I am an honest man, Mr. Teran, and
I do not condemn without legal proofs; I am neither an
45

assassin nor a bailiff, only a district judge; I am here to
enforce and see that the law is enforced, not to defeat
justice." —
— " Well, what has been done, has been done." — ¦
— "I hope that this bacchanalia of blood will end
here."— , We know that Mr. Zayas prevented a continuation
of the slaughter, for it seems that Suarez and Galimie
were to follow the aforementioned victims.
At daybreak of the 25th — various ladies escorted
by a great many little children were wandering through
the streets stopping the passersby asking them about
their husbands.
— "What do you know of Lorenzo?" questioned
the half crazed wife of Portilla (one of the victims) to all
who passed her, — but no one dared tell her the sad
news. The wife of Cueto lost her reason, and they are
afraid for her life; his mother is in Orizaba in agony. —
The whole population was in mourning, and Teran
dares not leave the barracks.
Mr. Zayas in the name of Freemasonry, asked for
the bodies of Cueto and Capmany, both brother masons.
The bodies were refused them, and they were
buried in the potters field, in an unknown place,
carried there in a cart escorted by the police." (1)
There lives now in New York a Mexican gentleman
by the name of Rafael de Zayas Enriquez, who left
Mexico because of the political conditions there and on
account of the persecutions of J. Y. Limantour, whom
he had attacked in public speeches and in newspaper
articles. This gentleman who is a lawyer, an histor
ian and a writer of great talent came to New York so
as to be able to write with freedom about actual condi
tions in Mexico.
After over a year of work he finished a book
" Porfirio Diaz". It is a phsycological and philosophical
review of the life of the president. It is a clever and

' (1) Juan Panadero. Guadalajara. 13 Julio, 1879.
46

subtle criticism, but not sincere, for it does not tell the
truth; only every now and then does he make a feint at
it as with a foil ; but he is only playing, inasmuch as he
seems to be afraid.
Maybe he is apprehensive of the danger of the long
arm of Porfirio Diaz reaching him treacherously even
in this land of freedom.
It is quite probable that he knows what happened
two years ago. An article criticizing Porfirio Diaz and
J. Y. Limantour appeared in the World signed "A Mex
ican". Shortly afterward two Mexican gentlemen
asked for the name of the author of that anonymous
article, offering money for the information. This was
refused by the management of the World as being
against newspaper etiquette. These gentlemen then
left in disgust but not without covert threats against
the unknown writer.
This same Mr Zayas Enriquez was district judge
during the famous night of the 24th of June in Vera-
Cruz. He knows all the details of that affair, better
than anyone else in Mexico. Why did he not publish
the truth instead of trying to palliate the responsibility
of Gen. Diaz, as he knows that the only responsible
head was Porfirio Diaz and not Teran who was only a
despicable tool ?
The Diaz government was then very much alarmed
at the horror and indignation caused by that savage act,
and it had the impudence to make an official statement,
claiming that the murdered men had attacked the sol
diers of the barracks and that in the accomplishment of
a military duty these had fired on the aggressors killing
them. In that period Porfirio Diaz looked with a certain
. respect on public opinion and therefore he hid under the
cloak of calumny to save Teran from punishment and
to ward off his head the stigma of Murderer.
To prove the absurdity of the calumny the bodies
of the murdered men were exhumed by Mr. de Zayas;
it was found that each one of these had, besides several
47

bullet holes in various parts of the body, one hole in
the temple, the finishing stroke, "le coup de grace"
which is only given to the people condemned to capital
punishment. One man only did not have this charac
teristic bullet hole, as he had died instantaneously of a
wound through the heart. All the details of the exhum
ation and investigation were set forth in a book pub
lished by the attorneys of Teran in 1879. The govern
ment bought all the copies but one, which copy came
luckily under my notice.
The Murders of Gen. Ramon Corona, Gen. Gar
cia de la Cadena and Gen. Angel Martinez.
Porfirio Diaz knew that as long as there existed in
Mexico one or more generals with ambitions to the
presidency, his own dreams of a continuous power with
himself as the Archangel, could not be practicable but
might be an highly hazardous business.
As his own popularity had suffered a setback on
account of the Vera-Cruz murders, and not being then
quite powerful enough to dictate all the elections in all
the states with the bayonets of his soldiers, he resorted
to the method of cowards, that of assassinating his
rivals by means of "accidents", or by using a crazy or
fanatic individual with a grudge against the selected
victim, or simply a salaried thug.
Gen. Corona was one of the most popular, magnetic
personalities among the generals of the war of Inter
vention. He was brave, intelligent, frank and loyal.
During the first term of President Diaz he was sent]to
Spain as a minister of Mexico. There, as it happened
everywhere he went, he became the favorite of the
Spaniards. Nevertheless as he was ambitious for the
presidency, he found a ready excuse in the attitude of
the Spanish Queen towards him to warrant his return to
Mexico. Gen. Corona was one of the generals who had
helped capturing Queretaro, and was therefore indir
ectly responsible for the seizure and execution of Em
peror Maxmilian. The Spanish Queen being an Aus-
48

trian and a Hapsburg, snubbed him at one of the
official receptions.
On his return he was made governor of the State of
Jalisco, the first state in Mexico as far as wealth and
population. He proved to be a very good governor, and was
the first one to lower in his state the "alcabalas" or
custom house duties which then existed in Mexico from
state to state and likewise from city to city, compli
cating the fiscal administration and encouraging contra
band. His prestige as a governor and as a presidential
candidate increased at such an alarming rate that
Porfirio Diaz became frightened for his own supremacy,
and to ward off an imminent danger and to placate Cor
ona's ambition promised him the presidency in the
following term, calculating on an " accident" to elimi
nate him.
One night as Gen. Corona was going to the theatre
with his wife and children, he was attacked and stabbed
to death by an indian of the lower class. The murderer
ran away quickly round the block and there by quite a
strange "coincidence" was stabbed through the heart
by a mounted policeman and also wounded by some
foot policemen. The peculiarity of this "coincidence"
is intensified by the fact that the policeman who
stabbed the murderer was accompanied by a whole
squad of policemen who could not have seen the murder
of Gen. Corona but acted exactly as if they had seen it;
they did not intend to capture him alive, but killed
him speedily, for dead men tell no tales. The rumor
was disseminated purposely that the murderer had com
mitted suicide.
As Ignacio Mariscal very appropriately said in ref
erence to the murder of Gen. Barillas, ex-president of
Guatemala, who was assassinated in Mexico city by two
Guatemalian boys, on the 17th of April 1907, by order
of Gen. Lima, minister of war in Guatemala; "in this
class of crimes, for the difficulty which exists in proving
49

the real author of the deed, the sentence of public opin
ion which declares President Cabrera the murderer of
Gen. Barillas, is sufficient."
Public opinion in Mexico points out Gen. Porfirio
Diaz as the assassin of Gen. Corona, Gen. de la Cadena
and Gen. Martinez.
Gen. de la Cadena was another ambitious general.
He was rash enough to tell the truth to President Diaz.
He realized his mistake when it was too late. He was
watched day and night, but played the sick man in his
house and did not receive anybody, his wife cooking
and bringing him his food personally. However they
did not discover that the woman servant in the house
was a spy of Porfirio Diaz. Gen. de la Cadenafooled
the chief of police so that when this worthy gentleman
went to the president to tell him that Gen. de la Cadena
had escaped, the president informed him when the
general had escaped and even where he was to be found.
Gen. de la Cadena tried to escape from Mexico
but he was caught near Zatecas and while trying to
change from one train to the other he was murdered
by a band of hired thugs. This elimination was put
on to the account of bandits.
The destruction of Gen. Martinez was accomplished
in exactly the same manner as in the case of Gen. Bar
illas, or better said the murder of Gen. Barillas was an
imitation of the Martinez affair.
Gen. Barillas was a political refugee from Guate
mala because of his presidential ambitions. In this case
Gen. Lima was the tool used by President Cabrera, and
as Morales the assassin of Barillas declared on the stand
in Mexico: "the order to kill comes from 'higher up',
from the government and I was afraid of what might
happen to me if I should disobey." (i)
Gen. Martinez was a doctor besides being a soldier
and a revolutionist, he had also been a partisan of Por
firio Diaz in the revolution of Tuxtepec. He quarreled
with the President and thereupon sailed to Europe. On
(1) El Diario Ilustrado. 9 June 07. Mexico.
50

his return he settled in New Laredo, Texas, where he
was peacefully exercising his profession as a doctor.
One evening he was called ostensibly to attend to a
patient and on his way thither was waylaid and mur
dered by a negro who immediately afterward crossed
the Mexican frontier.
In this instance Gen. Bernardo Reyes was the Gen.
Lima of President Diaz. AmayornamedL. J. Gonzalez
engineered the ambush, and according to Demetrio
Salazar, (son-in-law of Gen. Pacheco, minister and
intimate friend of P. Diaz,) on the same day as the assas
sination of Gen. Martinez sent a telegram to General
Reyes, Governor of Nuevo Leon, which ran thus:
" Your order obeyed."
The cases are parallel, with but this difference;
that in the Martinez affair no notice was taken, as the
murder was not known to be of a political nature; in
the Barillas murder, the press of Mexico and the Assoc
iated Press gave it a world wide publicity. The
secrecy of the proceedings used by Porfirio Diaz, shows
only a few facets of his political conduct and then only
the best side, which is why he stands in the minds of the
uninitiated as a great statesman and a benefactor to his
country. Cabrera, on the contrary, through the pub
licity of his deeds is exacrated as a modern Nero. But
Cabrera excuses himself by claiming that he is only
imitating Gen. Diaz for whom he has nothing but the
most sincere admiration.
The Carnage of Orizaba.
Just about two years ago the news was telegraphed
to Mexico that some strikers in Orizaba, (state of Vera-
Cruz) had pillaged and burned a store, but that after
the troops, sent by the government had shot a few
aggressive workingmen, everything became peaceful
again. Nevertheless rumors went round the city of
horrors committed by the soldiers by order of the pres
ident. It was only after a very careful investigation
that I was able to get the details of the whole affair.
51

The strike in Orizaba was a capitalistic, not a work-
ingman's strike. There were then about 92 textile
mills in Mexico which paid altogether over two millions
and a half annually in taxes to the government. This
contribution the mill owners considered excessive;
accordingly they resolved to bring about a strike, so
as to be in a position either to shut down the mills and
dictate their own terms to the mill hands or to endea
vor to goad the workingmen into such desperate
straits that they might provoke a revolution, which
would bring about a new state of affairs.
After the shooting in Orizaba the "El Diario" had
a visit from a man purporting to be a labor leader, who
wanted to know if we would stand by a conspiracy of
theirs, as the Diario had sided with them during
the strike while all the other newspapers had defended
the mill owners.
This man revealed a terrible plot, which consisted
in destroying by fire or dynamite all the mills operating
in Mexico, if the owners did not come to reasonable
terms. The Diario answered that it could and would
not even entertain such a thought, that it was in bus
iness to publish news, not to incite revolutions or
encourage the destruction of property.
.This incident shows to what a degree of bitterness
and distress the men had reached when they could even
suggest such a fiendish act.
The strike had started this way: In Puebla the
union had given orders to a mill to stop work; this union
was assisted with money by the Orizaba mill hands who
were then working. The Puebla mill owners com
plained of this to the proprietors of the Orizaba factor
ies, on which these gentlemen shut down their mills,
thus cutting off the source of help of the Puebla work
ingmen. By these tactics the Puebla union was
brought to terms and after this was effected the Orizaba
owners opened their mills again.
But there arose a new difficulty, as the Orizaba
union claimed better terms before going back to work.
52

This was refused and the strike began anew. Mean
while the strikers had sent a commission to the president
to get his help and influence in settling their conditions
and demands. Porfirio Diaz promised to help them, and to this
effect he sent a commission down to Orizaba. This
commission called a meeting in a theatre and promised
that if the workmen would go to work they would get
their demands.
The strikers accepted this compromise and went
back to work.
In the morning some of the women went to the
store of a Frenchman named Garcin, who gave the
factory hands credit on victuals in exchange for checks
distributed instead of money by the mill owners. As
the hungry women went into the shop, this man Garcin
began insulting them and their families with vile and
indecent language. These women returned home and
indignantly related the happening to their husbands
urging them to avenge them. Infuriated by the hum
iliations, the hunger, the sacrifices undergone for the
sake of the strike, these men had their cup of bitterness
filled to the brim, and their anger vented itself on the
man who had added the drop which made it overflow.
They became unmanageable, and cursed by the women
as cowards and curs they attacked the shop of Garcin,
sacking and burning it. The police had no trouble in
quieting and dispersing the mob, and through the
efforts of the jefe politico Don Carlos Herrera, who was
very much liked in Orizaba, the workingmen were
induced to go back to work peaceably. Everything
was quiet again, the offenders responsible for the
assault and the burning of the shop were arrested. The
"El Diario" was the only paper which had dared tell
the truth and in an editorial had put the responsibility
of the riot on Mr: Garcin. This man hastened to the
office of "El Diario" and had the impudence to off er
$5,000 for another editorial which would rehabilitate
him. His request was politely refused.
53

Public opinion favored the strikers, and all be
lieved that the whole affair had ended with the appre
hension of the rioters. But notwithstanding the fact
that everything was calm and that the mill hands had
all gone back to work peaceably, President Diaz sud
denly and unexpectedly gave orders to General Rosa-
lino Martinez, sub-secretary of War, to go down to
Orizaba with Colonel Ruiz (ex-bandit and official
hangman of Porfirio Diaz) with a few hundred soldiers.
Mind you, everybody and everything was perfectly
tranquil and quiet, no attempt had been made by the
workmen to create any further disturbance.
Notwithstanding this, the two official execu
tioners, General Rosalino Martinez and Colonel Ruiz,
hastened to Orizaba, and there posted their soldiers
in the mills behind pillars and walls. When the men
and women entered the different factories to go to
work, the soldiers started a murderous fusillade,
mowing down the helpless mass of humanity, like a
pack of rabid dogs. The noise was terrific, the uproar
undescribable, the clamor of despair and horror from
the wounded and slaughtered people beyond human
description. It was a perfect pandemonium; not of
battle, but of cruel, relentless, coldblooded man-hunt,
the massacre of innocent, helpless, unarmed men and
women and children. The cracking of rifles, the smoke,
the dust arising from stray bullets, the blood spurting
in torrents from gaping wounds; here and there pros
trate bodies with their heads almost shot off, the brains
spattering walls and floors, made a picture, sickening,
revolting and unparalleled in the history of civilization.
Not content with this, Colonel Ruiz and Rosalino Mar
tinez ordered the soldiers to follow up their victory and
the murderous sharpshooting continued into the streets,
the raking fire was directed through the windows into
the houses of the workingmen who had sought refuge
there, pursuing the carnage of innocent women and
children. Further orders were given to the rurales* to
* Country Police. 54

hunt the fleeing men into the country, into the fields,
even chasing after them into the mountains. But the
rurales who are used to all kinds of rough work refused
to obey the command to shoot helpless men and wo
men. So Rosalino Martinez and Colonel Ruiz gave or
ders to shoot the rurales too. The number of victims
amounted from 650 to 700. On the same night of the
carnage from 450 to 500 mangled corpses of the mur
dered workingmen and women, were taken stealthily
to the railroad station, there laid on flat cars and cov
ered with straw. The conductor who was to drive
this funeral train to Vera-Cruz refused to do so.
They found another less scrupulous conductor who
drove the train to Vera-Cruz on to the wharf. The
corpses were taken from there in boats out into the bay
and there thrown into the sea as food for the sharks.
This was the finishing stroke of the most brutish,
the most craven and the wildest orgie of blood perpe
trated in the annals of humanity, it was an insensate
Saturnalia of Gore, the luxurious rage of an impotent,
cowardly, sadic old despot.

55

Tyranny is evil, because it is impossible that under
it [the genius of a people should develop and have free
play. Mazzini.

The System.
A Political Mafia. Its Results.
When an individual or a group of individuals
creates a system, be it political, social or commercial,
they make themselves responsible for the good as well
as the evil consequences resulting from this system.
Porfirio Diaz is always itching for the flattery and
praise for the redundand prosperity in Mexico; but
upon his white head rests also the responsibility of the
nefarious effects of his political mafia, his legalized
black hand; the true, legitimate sons of his powerful
and abstruse, statesman-like cogitations.
When a ruler orders his vassals to murder at his
bidding, be they governors, jefes politicos or just his
friends, he is by professional etiquette supposed to
close his eyes or wink at their own private vengeances
and delinquencies. The jefe politico has been the most
useful tool of the government. " The most cruel instru
ment of despotism — of the low and tenebrous despotism
of the "ley fuga", without any doubt, the jefe politico
has been the most acute public calamity to Mexican
society (i) And the governors: "the majority, of our
governors are cordially detested by the people of the
respective states.
Each one of these people would make any sacrifice
to get rid of the governor of his State." (2)
But they cannot, as each governor is chosen by the
president as a reward for loyalty or as a sop to their
ambitions. Sometimes but very rarely, they rule
justly and lawfully, but more frequently they graft,
murder and break all the ten commandments and all
the penal codes, knowing well that P6rfirio Diaz will
ignore intentionally all the outrages, spoliations, injur-

(1) Hacia donde vamos. Q. Moheno. pag. 39.
(2) Idem. pag. IS.

59

ies and foul play perpetrated by them so long as they do
not play politics against Porfirio Diaz.
Gen. Mucio Martinez is a fair type of the unscrupu
lous, perverse, incompetent, stupid, all powerful gov
ernor. Mucio Martinez has been governor of the State
of Puebla for over a score of years. I shall relate a
characteristic example of his governmental methods.
About the year 1891 the theme of all the conversa
tions in Puebla, was the rape of two young girls,
daughters of a german watchmaker named Weber.
Public opinion pointed out as author of this outrage
Gen. Martinez, who through his social and political
position kept himself beyond the reach of the law.
Olmos y Contreras a newspaper man of Puebla took
upon himself to expose the details of the affair, calling
attention to the fact that the persons responsible for
this act of satyriasis were a high functionary of the
State and a very rich Mexican gentleman. This writer
drew upon his head the ire and hatred of the allmighty
governor, who awaited his opportunity to revenge him
self. Two thugs (one of whom was murdered later on)
in the pay of the governor, received orders to waylay
Olmos y Contreras and " give him water", " darle agua",
term used in Mexico to designate official murder.
One night while Olmos y Contreras and several
friends were sitting round a table in the cantina
(saloon) "La Mascota" on the corner of Jarciencia
street and Portal Morelos, there passed one of the
governor's secret police who seeing the journalist,
beckoned him aside to invite him to a dance in the
street of Siempreviva. Olmos accepted the invitation,
but as he had been drinking heavily his friends begged
him to remain with them. But Olmos gave no heed
to this warning and followed the would-be host who was
accompanied by another secret service man.
On their way they passed through a side street,
in which, by a quaint coincidence, there lived a sweet
heart of the governor. There, almost under the window
60

of this woman the two cut-throats caught Olmos, one
pinning his arms behind, while the other was stabbing
him to death. So swiftly and expeditiously was the
deed committed, that the victim had no time to open
his mouth to raise an alarm or in pain ; nothing which
could give a clue to the assassin.
In the morning the governor's sweetheart leaning
over her balcony witnessed the horrible spectacle
offered by the body of Olmos lying on his back steeped
in a puddle of blood, eyes wide open, hands contracted,
imbedded in the mud, in sign of the silent struggle waged
against his murderers.
Several papers in Mexico City, among which the
"Monitor Republicano" and "Gil Bias", treated the
matter extensively, but before it took a scandalous
turn Don Mucio Martinez sent there a congressman Don
Pascual Lima Lara, who settled the business with
money, much money, and thus the Press was silenced.
To exculpate himself before public opinion, Don
Mucio Martinez put forward as responsible for the
double abduction a friend of his, Joaquin Pita, who
offered to marry either one of the girls. But neither
of these two victims of the lustful governor accepted
the proposition. Gen. Mucio Martinez rewarded the sacrifice of Pita
by appointing him inspector of the district of Puebla
and later as Jefe politico in Puebla. The other
seductor was Don Carlos Garcia Teruel.
The silence and complicity of Porfirio Diaz cost
Don Mucio Martinez every two years anywhere between
$30,000 to $50,000.
In 1904 a newspaper man from Puebla met a
friend of his, employed as concessionary of gambling,
who told him that he was going to remit to the governor
$45,000, the value of the exclusive annuity for the
gambling privilege, with $5,000 off for cash, as the
Governor was forced to send $50,000, to assure his
reelection. That this sum was transmitted to Dona
Agostina Castello , (widow of Don M. Romero Rubio,
61

and mother-in-law of the President) as the price agreed
upon for the reelection and that in former years the sum
had been smaller, but this time it had increased because
the competitor was Captain Porfirio Diaz Jr. son of
Pres. Diaz.
They advertised the candidacy of Porfirito (nick
name of the President's son) in the city of Puebla and
in the various districts by means of large posters, also
various clubs were organized to favor his election.
All this was done to raise the price of the contribu
tion of Don Mucio Martinez.
Don Mucio Martinez is not only a fool but likewise
a rogue; both qualities fitted to make him an ideal hero
of a musical comedy. Some of the stories told about
the ignorance of these governors is appalling.
Once upon a time there lived a governor, in Guana
juato, who had heard of the great fortunes made by the
culture of silk worms. After laborious but inefficacious
reading of treatises on the subject, he became impressed
by one paramount and orthodox fact, that mulberry
trees were essential to the growth and culture of silk
worms. So he hastily proceeded to uproot the trees
in the alameda (public square) and mulberry trees
were planted in their stead. The mulberry trees grew
and expanded their emerald green foliage, while the
impatient governor made it his official duty, to inspect
the bonanza trees with care and amore. One fine day
after having scrutinized the leaves, he turned to his
aide-de-camp and exclaimed angrily; "They have
deceived me; here I have wasted money and time on
these mulberry trees and not one silk worm has made
its appearance as yet!" To think that this man was a
rival of P. Diaz.
The governor's power is almost supreme in his
state; Porfirio Diaz is the Czar of Mexico and his gover
nors are his grand-dukes.
"Each one of our governors, dreams in his sphere
of local government, to be a General Diaz in miniature.
From this follows their grotesque attempt to imitate
62

the model. There are governors who take their daily
cold plunge at 5 in the morning, because they know or
think General Diaz does the same and imagine that the
moral value of the president has its root in the ablu
tions." (1)
Another wonderful specimen of the unconscious, I
should say amoral type of the Diaz governor was Gen
eral Cravioto. He ruled long, too long for the long-
suffering state of Hidalgo ; one term more and he would
have owned every square inch of that state. He con
fiscated property on the slightest pretext, robbed,
murdered and destroyed everything and everybody
interfering with his greedy lust for possession and
indisputable power. The list of his official murders
is formidable. His pet enemies were newspaper men.
These martyrs of a hopeless cause were destroyed like
flies on a summer's day. One case among the many, is
so abject and fearful as to challenge incredulity.
A newspaper man called Emilio Ordonez after
repeated beatings insisted in showing up the unlawful
official acts of the governor. Finally he was beaten
insensible and then taken bodily into a brick-kiln and
there was cremated alive !
Maybe Gen. Cravioto had read of the burning of
live widows in India (suttee) and he craved for a jour
nalistic "suttee" of his own. Paraphrasing Mr. Her-
ford we might more truly say that "a little suttee is a
dangerous thing." But the law of compensation has
asserted itself; the son of Gen. Cravioto, an intellectual,
studious, honest and moral young man, has given away
all the tainted money inherited by his father and he is
living on the income of his own efforts and labor.
Gen. Cravioto is dead; may his soul burn in peace
for ever and ever.
From this example one realizes the sinfulness of
putting so much power into the hands of ignorant,
greedy and unscrupulous men.
Nota bene, a great many of the horrors I am speak-

(1) Hacia donde vamos, Q. Moheno. pag. 14.
63

ing of, have happened quite awhile ago, but the situation
instead of improving, seems to deteriorate and corrupt
all the few good elements left.
The present government created by Porfirio Diaz
can be likened to a basket of apples; the fruit on top has
been rubbed and cleaned until it is glowing with colors
and freshness, which is for the benefit of the foreigners
and strangers; but should you lift the small layer of
fruit, you would be disgusted by the rotten, putrid and
fetid material lying underneath, which is for the benefit
of the Mexicans.
Two years ago on the hacienda (farm) of Hueyapa
jand Totuapa, belonging to the minister of justice Don
Justino Fernandez and adjoining the farm of Josd
Landero in the state of Hidalgo, this young man dis
covered the body of a man of the middle class, in a
state of impending putrefaction. The wounds were not
those of an accident and his valuables had been left un
touched. Josd Landero reported the case to the judge
of the district. The judge was not opening an investi
gation or seeming to take any interest in trying to clear
up the mystery. Nobody appeared to know the man
nor the cause of his death. Josd Landero finally in
sisted on the necessity of the judge's attending to his
official duties, whereupon the judge in self-defense
showed him a telegram from the federal government,
advising him not to investigate into the "accident".
The minister of justice, was very indignant, that
his hacienda was being used for such purposes, for
assuredly it was a diabolic invention, to use the farm
of the administrator of justice for the cosummation of
a crime. But murder will out, and it was discovered
that the person responsible for the deed was none other
than the jefe politico Don Francisco Hernandez who
rid himself or rid the governor of Hidalgo, Don P. L.
Rodriguez of an enemy. This governor is a relative of
Porfirio Diaz.
Another important sinecure is the governorship
64

of the federal district; next to it comes the chief of
police of Mexico City.
About ten years ago they had a chief of police
whose evil ways brought about his own destruction.
But meanwhile he ruled outrageously and without fear
of intervention from the benign Porfirio Diaz.
This Chief of Police was a Don Eduardo Velasquez.
He had fallen in love with a young girl named Miss
Ricoy, whom he expected to marry in the near future.
Now the confessor of this girl was a father Tortolero
who, aware of the character of Velasquez, opposed his
spiritual influence to the marriage.
One night the poor padre was taken to the police
station by order of Eduardo Velasquez; there he under
went a sort of a third degree, they tied him to a bench
and with a funnel forced him to swallow enormous
quantities of alcohol until they had provoked a conges
tion. Thereupon he was taken to the street and made
to lean gently against a telephone pole, where the
police picked him up later, as being ostensibly in a state
of unconscious ebriety. The unfortunate padre died of
congestion and he was buried in the common grave
yard, as nobody had recognized Padre Tortolero in the
dead priest.
When the family noted the disappearance of their
kinsman, they realized that the unknown dead man,
was the said Padre Tortolero. The clerical press men
tioned the incident in extenso, but no notice of it was
taken by the authorities, and Eduardo Velasquez
continued his artistic career.
One of the machiavellian tactics of Porfirio Diaz
consists in having an heterogenous cabinet, that is to
say, a cabinet in which the ministers are of opposite
political ideas and are even inimical to one another, so
as to prevent any accord between themselves. That
is the reason that although there are no poUtical parties
in Mexico, there exist political groups, headed by two or
three ministers who covertly war against each other.
Romero Rubio, Dublan, Pacheco, Baranda, Liman-
65

tour and Reyes have been the most prominent chiefs
of these groups, with the acquiesence of the President.
The most powerful of these chiefs has been and
still is Limantour, the financial partner of Porfirio Diaz;
and when things have almost reached the breaking
point, the ministers who are enemies of Limantour have
been ousted in a fashion more or less scandalous. So it
happened with Baranda and also with Gen. Reyes.
General Bernardo Reyes is a man famous for his
cleverness and daring. Porfirio Diaz kept him for a
long time at the head of the state of Nuevo Leon, where
he made a reputation as a skillful governor. But the
party of Limantour became too powerful and was so far
enboldened as to indicate Limantour as the successor of
President Diaz. The latter then called in General Reyes
as Minister of War, gave him ostensibly his protection,
so that in a short time he became the head of the
" Reyists" with Minister Baranda as a partner.
But according to the phrase of Porfirio Diaz,
General Reyes "learned too fast" as he had organized a
" phalanx" the "second reserve" which became popular
all over the country. Newspapers were started foster
ing the candidacy of Reyes, making war to the knife on
Limantour and creating very bitter feeling.
To give satisfaction to his partner Limantour who
is very useful to him, Porfirio Diaz dismissed Baranda
and Reyes from their respective ministries ; but as Reyes
was necessary to him as a check to the " cientificos"
as Limantour's party calls itself, he replaced Bernardo
Reyes as Governor of Nuevo Leon.
Reyes was, like all the governors are, disliked in
this State, for the many murders committed, for his
arbitrary and despotic character and other sufficing
reasons. The inhabitants of Nuevo Leon wanted to shake
their yoke and conceived the brilliant idea of nominat
ing a candidate of their own; and for this purpose they
created electoral clubs and fostered the candidacy of
66

Don Francisco Reyes, an honorable man and popular in
the State. The 2nd of April, 1903, on the eve of the elections,
the partisians of the new candidate organized a parade
according to law. Accompanied by a brass band, the
procession started from the alameda, heading toward
the centre of the city, with the hurrahs and shouts in
favor of Francisco Reyes. As they reached the princi
pal square, in front of the governor's palace, a broadside
was poured into them by the police posted by General
Bernardo Reyes on the roofs of the governors' palace
and the adjoining houses, assassinating many of the
paraders, among whom were many prominent citizens.
In this manner was the procession stopped and the
candidacy of his rival squelched. To escape assassina
tion the unfortunate opponent was obliged to flee the
same night to Mexico City, disguised as a fireman of the
locomotive which took him out of Monterey. On his
arrival in Mexico City, Mr. Francisco Reyes complained
to President Diaz who promised him a fair trial and
justice. The Press made a great deal of noise on the
subject and the Limantourists or " cientificos" availed
themselves of this occurence to deal a death blow to
General Reyes by accusing him formally in Congress.
But the expected happened: Porfirio Diaz gave
orders to absolve General Reyes, and all the blame was
put on the unlucky paraders "who killed each other in
order to slander the distinguished General Reyes", who
triumphed in the elections and who, thanks to Porfirio
Diaz, continues to rule the State of Nuevo Leon in peace
as a lesson and punishment to the people
History of a Great Conspiracy.
The correct heading for this chapter should be:
' ' the history of two great crimes ," for two men were assas
sinated so as to efface the tracks of the conspirator who
had attempted to destroy the life of Porfirio Diaz. The
personage at the bottom of this mysterious plot is
known, and his name is whispered as a secret behind
67

closed doors, for the would-be-king is still a high
government functionary. He failed by the breadth of
a hair, by the turn of the hand, and two lives, the tools
of his ambition, were crunched to keep his own life
intact. Read carefully the proceedings of the trial,
follow attentively the scarlet thread running through
this wonderful maze of apparent contradictions and the
logical and evident solution of the riddle will jump at
you like a jack in the box when you touch the right
spring. It is the tale of a crime for a crime, illustrative of
the dangerous and perverse system created by Porfirio
Diaz, which like a boomerang flew back and almost
knocked him off his throne.
On the 1 6th of September 1897, the anniversary of
the independence of Mexico, as customary, the Presi
dent was walking from the National Palace to the
Alameda, escorted by the high functionaries of the
realm, and surrounded by his soldiers, when suddenly a
man broke the protecting line of bayonets, and rushing
at Diaz, ere anybody could stop him, struck him a blow
on the neck which staggered but did not fell him to the
ground. The astonishment and confusion were intense ;
a score of officers sword and pistol in hand were ready
to take the man's life as a swift punishment for his
daring. But the President commanded them to desist
from violence and to turn him over to the proper
authorities. The individual responsible for this idiotic and
useless attack was a wretched, unbalanced, alcoholic
being by the name of Arnulfo Arroyo. He was taken
to police headquarters and there by order of the Chief
of Police was put in a straight jacket and a muzzle
clapped over his mouth. "More than once did Gover
nor Rebollar order the removal of the muzzle and as
often did Velasquez put it on again." (1)
The evening of the aggression, Eduardo Velasquez,
chief of police, Antonio Villaviciencio, police inspector
(1) Historia del gran crimen. J. M. Rabago. pag. 31.
68

and Miguel Cabrera, Chief of the Secret Police had a
confab with the Minister of the Interior, Gen. Gonzalez
Cosio; with the following result: On his return to
police headquarters Eduardo Velasquez gave orders to
his servant to buy a dozen knives and commissioned
Villaviciencio to organize as perfect and lifelike an
imitation of a "lynching" as he could produce, with
Arroyo as villain and victim. Villaviciencio was to be
the stage manager, hero and the avenger of this real
tragedy, which consisted in picking out seven "tigers"
from the police force, disguising them as "pelados"*
arm them with the knives bought; for the purpose and
then leading them on to an attack on police head
quarters where they were to lynch Arroyo and then,
when making their escape, to shout "Viva Mexico"
and "Down with Anarchy."
While on one side the police were preparing the
stage setting, the government and the minister of war
were trying to devise a means of destroying Arroyo in a
legal and constitutional manner. They unconsciously
attempted to make a case of lese-majesty out of it, but
the constitution naturally did not provide for that;
they tried to insist that the crime, which was not a
crime but only an obortive attempt, was of a military
nature. Unfortunately for this theory Arroyo was not
a military man; so they discovered that when he had
attacked the President, this one had been arrayed in
full dress military uniform; but when on looking up
the military code, it was found that the punishment
for such a crime was only two years of prison, the
officious wiseacres gave it up in disgust.
About twelve thirty the curtain of the show was
raised, the seven policemen or "tigers" masquerading
as "pelados" dashed smartly in an attack against po
lice headquarters and entered the room of the prisoner.
The police on guard there having been disarmed before
hand, made but a feeble resistance and desisted en
tirely on recognizing some of their colleagues. Arroyo
* Indians of the poorest class. 69

was sitting on a chair in a straight jacket, helpless,
unable to defend himself, and the intrepid, indomitable
"tigers" went at their job like professional cut-throats,
"the stilettoes" penetrated the stomach, now the
thorax, again the lungs, mangling violently, passion
ately, with incredible frenzy, the body of the victim
as it shook in lamentable impotence, the blood spurting
from the torn muscles, the veins, and running on the
floor — Nine wounds were inflicted on that mass of
flesh — the criminals labored impatiently, seeking only
the perfection of the stroke, the gross art of assassinat
ing, aiming at the entrails, according to their rude
physiological knowledge. The victim gave a piercing
cry of horror, anguish and despair, a howl condensing
the force of an existence losing itself in endless night.
The assassins had their decorative coquetry, they
unfurled and fluttered the national flag — shouted
"Viva Mexico." In this detail I was not able to
ascertain if it was an artistic improvisation of the
"matadores" or a thought of Velasquez who was invit
ing the complicity of the country, (i) Then they fled
shouting "Down with anarchy". In police head
quarters Sanchez fired, by order, a revolver, broke
several window panes so as to attract the curiosity of
the idlers and the attention of the Chief of Police who
was awaiting this signal. The belated persons who
were attracted by the noise were allowed to enter the
police station, some of the more timid were even
courteously invited to enter, and then they were all
arrested as dangerous and suspicious characters, as
authors and perpetrators of the crime.
Very soon afterward the Minister of War, Gen.
Berriozabal, an asthmatic old man was apparently
taking fresh air on his balcony in the Independencia
street, when an officer of the police stopped under his
window and said : " I come to inform you from the Chief
of Police, that they have already lynched Arroyo."
whereupon the General lifted his hand deprecatingly
(1) Historia del gran crimen. J. M. Rabago. pag. 45.
70

and without hesitation or astonishment said: "I regret
it for the honor of the country."
In the morning of the 17th the Imparcial, the
official paper gave the news of the lynching, informing
the public that a violent mob of men had killed Arroyo
sweeping everything before it, that only a few were
under arrest, strictly "incomunicados", and giving
their names, also a description of the weapons left in
the room by the fleeing lynchers.
The first impression produced by this extraordi
nary news, was one of terror. The story of the lynch
ing^ was a fable impossible of general acceptation and
produced only sardonic smiles, that could be interpreted
as a lack of all belief that the "people"by a strange
novelty had dedicated itself to the exercise of justice.
(1) Nobody credited this macaberesque invention.
The President exclaimed "it is a pity, they have cut
the thread, and what is worse, it is shameful for the
country." Also when a commission of prominent per
sons headed by Sanchez Ramos congratulated him on
his miraculous escape from murder he spoke "What I
regret, is that we cannot now claim that in Mexico
they do not lynch." But nobody, not even the Presi
dent believed that Arroyo had been lynched. The
unofficial newspapers derided the fable; popular feeling
became so intense and threatening, that impelled by
this tremendous pressure, General Mena and J. Y.
Limantour called a meeting of the cabinet, resulting in
a demand for an official investigation by Congress.
Congress met, and the justice of Mexico was notified
to bring to account the authors of this atrocious
and illegal occurrence. Eduardo Velasquez, Antonio
Villaviciencio and Miguel Cabrera with his "tigers"
were shocked and surprised at being constrained to
enter the prison (Belem) as a result of a service to
"high politics." The young lawyers defending the
guilty pohcemen, argued that all the prisoners with
the exception of Velasquez had only followed orders

(1) Idem. pag. 56. 71

from their chief, as soldiers obey their commander.
They did excellent work, especially in the cross-exam
ination. One of them, Diodoro Battalia had trapped
Villaviciencio into admitting that on the night of the
murder he, and Velasquez and Cabrera had taken a
cab and gone to Mesones street. It was a most damag
ing admission, for everybody knew that Gonzalez
Cosio, Minister of the Interior lived there. Villavic
iencio retracted and insisted that they had only meant
to go but had not gone there ; but it was too late. Next
day Battalia was arrested on a trumped up accusation
and sent to jail for a month.
Velasquez was on the rack, he was questioned,
cross-questioned, desperately trying to keep up the
..silly farce of the popular lynching. Hopelessly he
fought truth and the evidence accumulating against
him and his flimsy fairy tale. At last suspecting that
the invisible hand which had directed him and the
influence on which he had counted was now powerless
to protect him; he divined that by an irresistible logic
of events he would be sacrificed as the scapegoat of/
this tragic farce and realizing that the ground was
giving way under him, he lost his head, and trapped]
cornered like a wild boar by a pack of tenacious hounds
turned round to fight for his last chance, the chance oi
his life. Pale and trembling with excitement he rose
declaring that now he would tell the truth, the whol
truth, but the judge stopped him instantly, with the
excuse of the lateness of the hour, adding howeve},
that he could make his declaration the day following.
The next morning the news of his "suicide" wds
published in the Imparcial. Three days before, thje
El Mundo (i) had published the same news, evidently
as a tip that sooner or later such an occurence must
take place. Villaviciencio, Cabrera and the seven
"tigers" were sentenced to death, but later on a tech
nicality the judgment was commuted by Judge Flores
to six years imprisonment. Villaviciencio having the
(1) Evening edition of El Imparcial. 72

continuous and unconditional protection of Gen.
Gonzalez Cosio who made him jefe politico at Atzapot-
zalco, but the whole population of this respectable
village near Mexico City rose up in indignation and they
all sent a written and signed protest to President Diaz
against this nomination. Then he was made chief of
the secret police and later inspector of the 4th District
which in Mexico City is as important as the Tenderloin
in New York.
The inside history of this plot is as follows. Gen.
Gonzalez Cosio and Gen. Berriozabal plotted a " coup d'
dtat", for the purpose of installing themselves in power
after the assassination of Porfirio Diaz. They had the
immediate power of the country in their hands; the
army was under the direct orders of General Berrio
zabal and the police and the judges of the Federal
District equally subject to Gonzalez Cosio. They used
Velasquez as their tool, bribed with the promise of a
governorship, and Velasquez in his turn used Arroyo
for the purpose of assassinating the President, though
we cannot imagine what inducements or arguments
Velasquez could have employed to convince Arroyo
and urge him to commit such a desperate and hopeless
deed. Furthermore Velasquez counted on an Indian
named Florencio Cortes, paid for that purpose, to watch
the President during his walk from the palace to the
alameda, with order to kill any person attacking him.
On the 15th of September Arroyo got drunk in Atza-
potzalco, he was arrested, and kept in jail overnight.
Next day, Arroyo still dazed by alcoholic fumes, un
armed, for his revolver had been confiscated, felt never
theless as if hypnotized by a tenacious will greater than
his own that impelled him to attack the President,
with the aforementioned result. Cortes however came
too late to fulfill his part of the work, as the President
suspecting a plot had interfered in time. As Arroyo
arrived at police headquarters Velasquez put him im
mediately in a straight jacket and muzzled him, being
mortally afraid that the wretched creature would
73

" squeal" and betray him as well as the "men higher up"
for Velasquez alone never would have dared to plot
against the life of the President.
Therefore the prompt elimination of Arroyo was of
the utmost necessity and although the President was
desirous that Arroyo should not die, the system was
more powerful than his wishes. The lynching was the
hasty conception of excited and alarmed heads, for a
cool and calm reflection would have dismissed it as
absurd. Evidently none of the plotters counted on the
horror and indignation that such an act would arouse,
and the result was the trial and imprisonment of all
the lynchers, as well as of Velasquez. That the life of
this man was doomed from the beginning is proved by
the publication of his "alleged" suicide in El Mundo,
an official paper, either as a mistake or as a warning
that such an event might happen. That Gonzalez
Cosio had given orders to the judge before whom
Velasquez was tried, is proved by the incarceration of
Diodoro Battalia when the latter wormed out of Vil
laviciencio that the trio of police chiefs had gone to the
calle Mesones. Who else but Cosio should care to
suppress the answer, as everybody knew that the three
police officials could have gone to that street only to see
him and nobody else but him?
Strange that the judge should suddenly stop the
impending confession of Velasquez, postponing it till
the morrow, knowing well that this one would not live
even to see the light of the day to come? After the
official paper El Mundo had given the false news of the
"suicide" of Velasquez three days before his death,
Governor Rebollar of the federal district, ordered the
"alcaide", inspector of the jail to start a minute per
quisition through the rooms and the person of the pris
oner, to see if he might not be concealing any weapons.
In spite of the careful search however, nothing was
found, yet the morning after the " suicide" near the bed
of Velasquez the revolver with which he was supposed
to have killed himself was strangely discovered. On
74

the very night, within an hour, within five minutes of
the "suicide" Villaviciencio was sitting chatting with
several men in a place in the prison not far distant
from the prisoner's cell, when on some trivial pretext
he arose and left the room, returning and continuing
the conversation after a brief interval. During his
absence a pistol shot was heard in the cell of Velasquez-
the shot that ended the life of the unarmed "suicide."
Next day the story of the "suicide" was circulated.
Gen. Gonzalez Cosio would never have visited secretly
his protege Villaviciencio in Belem just for the sake of
friendship, for men of his stamp do not risk their
honor to protect murderers, unless it is imperative and
dangerous not to do so. Who else but a powerful man
like Gonzalez could have forced a judge to revoke a
death sentence and change it to six years imprisonment?
Who else but the same occult power protected uncon
ditionally men like Villaviciencio and Cabrera, during
their stay in jail, and continues to protect them even
now? Gen^ Gonzalez Cosio is responsible for this whole
tenebrous and disgraceful affair. He failed to sit on
the throne, but he cut the two threads which might
otherwise have dangled him on the gallows.
He is still in the Cabinet as a minister of war,
revolving round the different portfolios like a merry-go-
round. But Porfirio Diaz is a cunning old fox who does
not forget and therefore he keeps the would-be-king
under his watchful eye as a hostage.

75

While there might temporarily be state secrets, it is
impossible that there should be national secrets, and the
only result of a purely official presentation of a country's
status is to lose credit as a government without helping
the country.
F. Bulnes.

Justice Under Diazpotism.
Justice is the end of government; it is the end
of civil society. It ever has been and ever
will be pursued until it be obtained, or until
liberty be lost in the pursuit.
Madison in "The Federalist."
Mexico lost her liberty in the pursuit of justice.
The justice of Mexico lies hidden within the palm of a
political trickster, whom death must summon before
his closed fist will relax its fearful hold upon a crumpled,
wilted, and disfigured justice.
The political credit of a nation is expressed by its
justice, the independence of its courts, the incorrupti
bility of its judges. The first questions a foreigner asks
about a nation will be " Are your investments safe? Is
personal liberty secure?"
There are two kinds of justice in Mexico; one for
the foreigner, another for the Mexican. Porfirio Diaz
learned by experience that most wars and foreign inter
ventions in Mexico, have been brought about by the
legal wrongs and the arbitrary discriminations against
foreigners. Therefore he made it one of his political
commandments to treat foreigners as gingerly and
equitably as conditions might permit. The foreigner
brings into the country either money or energy; he toils
and helps improve the economical conditions of the
land, he does not interfere in politics, neither has he
any ambition outside of enriching himself; when
oppressed or illtreated, he can always invite inter
national complications and discredit the country by
appealing for redress to his consul or minister; on the
other hand to the Diaz regime, the native does not
represent the same direct advantages to the country
as the foreigner; the Mexican loves to play pohtics and
in this manner interferes with the power and ambition of
the despot. For justice is essentially by nature demo-
79

cratic, its verdicts are indifferent to caste, birth, influ
ence and wealth; it is therefore logical that that justice
in its purest sense cannot dwell in a nation ruled by a
satrap, since a one-man's rule is inherently of an aris
tocratic type.
It was the crafty and canny policy of Porfirio
Diaz to offer : — justice, fair play and special privileges to
the foreigner; to his henchmen immunity, license,
favors and protection; to the independent native
arbitrariness, injustice and chicanery.
Porfirio Diaz represents the two-faced Janus:
the front the face of a Minerva ; serious, calm, just, pro
found and noble; that is for the outsider, but, seen from
the back, for the Mexican, it is the mask of a Medusa;
terrible, racked by fear and cruelty, a horrible thing to
behold in its petrified violence.
Porfirio Diaz has a business partner, a Spaniard by
the name of Iinigo Noriega, who is very rich and a very
shrewd and influential man ; it is a common occurence
to see the judges of the supreme court and of the federal
districts courts dancing attendance on this Spaniard to
discuss with him the resolutions of judicial affairs. These
judges are corrupt in a shameless and cynical manner,
those who are not corrupt and who try to do their duty,
always obey the orders of all the satellites, of the min
ister and sub-secretary of justice and of Porfirio Diaz
whose merest wish is a command. Take at random
from the list of the judges any name and you will get an
idea of the type of men dispensing justice in Mexico.
Demetrio Sodi. Native of Oaxaca. In eight
years as a judge has made a fortune of over one million
dollars. Is now president of the supreme court, has
been a magistrate, president of the debates and agent
for the government. He is a perfect type of the cour
tier, lackey of the president. As the administration
favored the suppression of the jury system, in an inter
view he gave out this argument against the jury sys
tem, claiming that no matter what the jury's inten
tions were, he could always induce it to indict accord-
80

ing to his views. It is a saying of his that there is no
other justice than the royal wish of the ruler.
Teles foro Ocampo. Still a young man. Not quite
a year ago was trying a murder case, when one evening
at a dinner with friends he made a bet with the lawyer
of the defence, claiming that he would condemn the
accused man to death. The lawyer took him up and as
a guarantee of good faith, asked for a written statement
of the bet, which consisted in the payment of a dinner
to the winner. A newspaperman got hold of the docu
ment and published it with the story of the bet. It
created a great deal of scandal and indignation.
Everybody expected to see Ocampo dismissed from
the bar. But the unexpected happened ; the lawyer for
the defence went to jail for contempt of court, Ocampo
sentenced the accused man to death and won his bet —
and he continues to dispense " justice" without molesta
tion or even a reprimand from the minister of justice or
Porfirio Diaz. One of his judicial axioms is that every
man who is accused is a criminal and should therefore
be condemned. Eugenio Ezquerro. Judge of the 3rd correctional.
He has been under indictment on eleven counts and
in his tribunal they have committed real horrors; not
withstanding which he always stays in his place as he
is the protege* of Don Lorenzo Elizaga. In 1904 his
staff of secretaries was imprisoned as they had stolen
all the fines of the prisoners. The case was dismissed.
Anybody with money can fix his case with the judge.
He laughs cynically at Mexican justice and says that
it is a "pamplina", a chickweed, a trifle which feeds
many people.
Another specimen of the representative judge is
Trinidad Meza Salinas. Ex-lawyer who was sentenced
to six years prison for bigamy. After his term in
Belem he came out as the protector and defender of
the poor. Committed a thousand swindles, tricks and
petty graft to such a degree that even the sleepy vigi
lance committee had to take some action against him.
81

He was indicted on several charges, but suddenly the
case against him was dismissed and he was appointed
secretary of a tribunal, judge, and government agent
for the war department.
Justino Fernandez: the minister of justice, a
decrepit old man with one foot in the grave and the
other one with no business out of it, has been made
Minister by Porfirio Diaz who is a relative of his and
trusts him therefore not to meddle in the department of
justice. This minister of justice is a figure of speech,
he has this in common with the allegorical representa
tion of justice in that he is nearly blind and likewise
stone-deaf. When asked to decide a political question
he scoms to do so as a matter extraneous to his depart
ment, nevertheless he emits axioms which are osten
sibly gleanings from Friedrich Nietzsche, Porfirio Diaz
and sometimes from Don Quixote de la Mancha.
Belem — The Mexican Bastille.
If the judges are corrupt one can easily imagine
what the jail or expiatory place of justice must be. No
one can imagine Belem, this Mexican Bastille, limbo
and purgatory ; it is not described in the books of travels
for travelers are not allowed to visit this place of
torment. Dante's Inferno had circles with the depths accord
ing to the iniquities committed by the sinner; but com
pared to Belem the Black Hole of Calcutta is a drawing
room, the Siberian jails philanthropic institutions and
the "piombi" or cells in the Doge's palace are com
fortable abodes.
Belem is the superlative expression of Mexican
injustice, it is an example of the equity of Porfirio Diaz,
the Just, the True, the Impartial. B'elem is not a jail,
nor a galley, nor a prison; it's Gehenna, the pit of Ach
eron; it is an unmentionable disease on the body of
Mexican justice, a large infected sewer containing ver
min, filth, carrion, disease, pollution and depravity;
filled with jail birds, packed like sardines, treated like
82

cattle. It is an abomination on the face of earth, an
human cess-pool, a foul, redolent example of the benev
olent interest the old despot takes in matters hidden
from the view of strangers.
The Diaz government has spent millions for a park
and a drive in Chapultepec, for a model post office, a
classic telegraph office and a monumental house for
congress, it is spending from 8 to io million dollars for a
marble opera house, which will be a marvel to behold;
But the plans for a model jail as sugested by W. de
Landa y Escandon has been rotting for the last 6 years
in the archives of the government !
Belem which is about the size of half a New- York
block, contains and is made to contain anywhere be
tween 5,000 to 6,000 inmates, about 300 boys and 600
women. There is a room 180 square yards where 1800
men are supposed to sleep. They have to fight so as to
be able to lie down to rest, the weaker must sit up or
stand or lie on one another. Bugs, fleas, lice of every
description swarm in myriads and one flat blow of the
hand anywhere on the wall will crush hundreds of them.
The food is unfit for consumption, it is left sometimes
two or three hours exposed to sun or rain before it is
distributed. They permit the men to have a shower
bath in cold water, but they are left to dry themselves
the best way they can, for no towels are given, nor even
soap. The result of this state of affairs is the great
number of epidemics and the frequency with which the
inmates are afflicted with tuberculosis. On the 7th of
October 1938 "El Diario" published the list of the
prisoners stricken with typhoid, in one day: 176 cases.
Next day no list could be had, the truth was suppressed
by the authorities. The prison wardens hold undisputed
sway, they are mostly inmates of the prison; they graft,
rob, commit every kind of villanous deed, brutalize and
sometimes beat to death the refractory prisoners.
Homo-sexuality is rampant and is encouraged by
the wardens; men and boys are used willingly or by
83

force for illicit intercourse, they use alcohol and even
marihuana (intoxicating weed) for that purpose.
There is a vigilance committee composed of twelve
individuals who are supposed to see that there are no
abuses and violations of the law and the rules. They
visit the prison once every three or six months, but
more often they electrify their activities, as the coun
cil of ten in Venice, only at the reception of anony
mous letters sent by the prisoners themselves.
The Penitentiary.
In spite of its clean and healthy appearance it is
a place of subtle and refined inquisition. The prisoners
are illtreated, illfed, illkept. In seven years 1275
people entered the penitentiary and 162 died. They
make the inmates work and pay the men one-sixteenth
of the pay of the lowest workingman. The wardens
as in Belem are all powerful, brutal, unjust. The dir
ectors of the penitentiary add months of imprisonment
to the sentence of the prisoners on the sole information
of the wardens. The unfortunate prisoners have to go
around almost naked if they do not possess clothes, un
less it is given to them by charitable persons. Doctors
visit the place every eight or ten days.
Correctional School.
Called so by mistake, for it is properly a school of
sports, vices and crimes, where minors serve their terms.
From there most of the boys come out full-fledged
thieves, pickpockets, homo-sexuals, bullies and even
worse. They are treated like animals and are made to
work without pay for the benefit of the friends of the
administration .
There is a term which you hear all the time in
Mexico when a man is sent to jail on a criminal charge
or otherwise: " Incomunicado" which means that the
prisoner is deprived of all intercourse with anyone —
lawyers, friends or relatives. It is a powerful weapon
in the hands of the judges, or the prison authorities,
84

and in the case of newspapermen or poor foreigners who
would otherwise communicate with their representa
tives. A certain Manuel Batiz was left in Belem 4 months
"incomunicado" Juan Garduno 7 months, Luis Torres
2 years. Two years ago the newspapers published the
story of the discovery of a man who had been in Belem
for 20 years, waiting as he himself said, for an accusa
tion of some kind. The Czar Porfirio Diaz in his infinite
kindness pardoned the poor man.
Here are some examples of the carelessness, incom
petence and utter disregard of the first principles of
justice. Francisco Ramirez. Inmate of the penitentiary,
16 years old. Innocent, was sentenced with scarcely
a hearing to ten years imprisonment for homicide.
He protested and asked for a trial or a hearing as he was
ready to prove his innocence and even indicate the real
name of the murderer. They told him to shut up or he
would fare worse.
Francisco Reyes was sentenced to death for killing
his sweetheart. After 11 years of Belem the trial
ended and as he had been sentenced to death they com
muted the sentence to 20 years. But they did not
count the 1 1 years served, so that in realty he is serving
31 years. When his lawyer spoke to the minister of
justice to rectify this injustice he answered Solomon
like: "for those who are within the law, everything; for
those who put themselves outside of the law, not even air!"
A. Guerrero. Sentenced to eight years for man
slaughter. When his brother was caught 3 years later
as an accomplice, the case was revised and he was then
condemned to death. His lawyer went to see the
minister of justice to repeal the sentence, as being illegal
the minister replied: "Generosity is an attribute of
weak men; strong men always use severity!"
Samuel Karsenty. Frenchman, 45 years old.
Drew $50,000 on a Parisian bank, his note was not hon
ored. Was arrested, discharged as the case was civil.
85

Then the judge with the stroke of the pen sentenced him
to 9 years prison. He was transferred to the peniten
tiary where he was kept rigorously "incomunicado"
being therefore unable either to defend himself or com
municate with his minister.
T. Godinez. Although innocent was sentenced to
12 years imprisonment. Later they discovered the
real culprit and then he was set at liberty with the
warning: "Don't make any scandal, or you'll be put
back in jail and this time not permitted to come out
again!" Department of Police in Mexico.
Considering the material and the corruption sur
rounding the chief of police who is a nephew of Porfirio
Diaz he is the best man in the department and one of
the best men they ever had. He is a quiet man, unos
tentatious and tries to do the best according to his
views; meanwhile he is playing his little game in poli
tics, for Felix Diaz is a very ambitious man. On the
other hand the department of secret police or better
called the department of detectives or plain clothes
men, is composed of the riff-raff, the dregs of criminal
Mexico ; among its members are professional murderers
and thieves. Detectives Reye served 20 years in Belem
for manslaughter, is a professional crook; Olmos came
from the penitentiary and went 2 1 times to Belem for
crimes against property; Camargo has been in Belem
37 times each time for robbery; Munoz 22 times for
picking pockets.
The judges know so well the unconditional protec
tion offered to them by Porfirio Diaz that they believe
and make the poor and unfortunate seekers of justice
think that they are infallible.
Here is a case to illustrate my assertion. One
night some ticket speculators quarreled with some de
tectives who promptly took them to the police station.
Next day they testified before Judge Telle* Rodriguez
who inquired where they had their last drink before

their quarrel. They named the Gambrinus Restaurant.
The judge without inquiring if the bar was closed im
posed a fine of $200 on the proprietor of the restaurant,
an Italian named Bellato. This man brought his wit
nesses and even the policeman on the beat, who testified
that the bar was closed and only the restaurant open,
which was according to law. The secretary for the gov
ernor of the district was not in the slightest degree im
pressed by this array of evidence, but as the oracle of
the federal district he declared "Although I know that
you are right, it matters not, the word of the judge is in
fallible." We all know that there is a Pope who is infallible in
matters religious, but Mexico had to reveal to us infal
lible judges.
Let us see now how far the infallibility of the judges
of the supreme court can stand the strain when it is a
question of influential and fearless foreigners.
A few years ago the Mexican Light and Power Co.
(a Canadian corporation) needed a piece of land for the
installation of electric posts. The Mexican gentlemen
who owned the land saw in this a great opportunity to
hold up this wealthy corporation. This lot was almost
a parallelogram and the company needed for its purpose
only one corner, a triangle, about one tenth of the
whole. The owners of the land offered the whole lot
at say $x a square meter, but the president of the com
pany declined to buy the whole, and offered instead to
buy the corner at the price stated. Then the afore
mentioned gentlemen very cunningly decided to sell the
triangle, but at a price which would be equivalent to
that of the whole. This the president of the corpora
tion refused to accept. The case was carried up to the
supreme court, which decided that the owners of the
land were in the right to ask such a price and con
demned the Mexican Light and Power Co. to pay it..
The lawyer for the corporation came one mooring
to see its president informing him that the case has
been decided against him, and that if he did not pay

•<87

the price agreed upon, the supreme court would con
demn the property of the Mexican Light and Power Co.
to pay for the settlement of the case. The president of
the corporation answered that he did not care what the
supreme court might do, as the case was a flagrant viola
tion of the law, and that if the condemnation should
take place the press of Europe and of America would
publish this news as a specimen of Mexican justice.
The frightened lawyer went post-haste to Mr. Limantour
who realizing the international importance of the case
informed Porfirio Diaz about it.
The president had a hurried meeting with the
judges of the supreme court and the result was a rever
sal of the case to the original equitable basis.
Moral: If you are at the head of a rich corpora
tion in Mexico, even the supreme court will reverse its
judgments, but if you areonly an insignificant restaurant
keeper, an unjust sentence will be called infallible-
Here is another incident illustrating how the poU
tical camarilla in Mexico can and does sometimes get
out of the control of the iron hand of the Czar.
The same corporation, the Mexican Light and
Power Co. of Mexico, noticed that they were losing
enormous quantities of electric power. After careful
investigation they discovered that the leak happened
near a mill operated in the outskirts of Mexico City.
They tapped and measured the power at the pole near
est to the mill and after having figured out, they found
that although the mill was lighted and run by electricity
the manager only paid for a fraction of the power,
which loss to the corporation amounted to $45,000. The
president of the corporation, a Canadian gentleman
of the name of C. Cahan made his accusation to a judge
and sent out a warrant for the arrest of the manager of
the mill. Next morning some Mexican gentlemen
prominent in the finances and politics headed by Mar
tinez del Rio came to see Mr. Cahan begging him to stop
proceedings against the mill manager as a favor to Gen.
Diaz, adding that they were willing to pay the full
88

amount of the losses incurred by the corporation. Mr.
Cahan accepted the settlement and forthwith went to
the judge who had taken up his case asking him to drop
it. The judge became arrogant and refused to do this,
accordingly Mr. Cahan began making his accusation,'
naming all the directors and owners of the mill inter
ested in the affair. When the judge heard the names
of the influential and prominent men implicated in the
process, and realized the importance of the whole busi
ness, he refused to go on with the case. Then Mr.
Cahan became angry at this ignorant and foolish judge,
he threatened to go after him if he did not do his duty,
whereupon the judge reluctantly resumed the case.
Next morning there appeared in the company's office,
togged up in the full uniform of aide-de-camp, Don
Pablo Escandon, royal valet to the president, who in
formed Mr. Cahan that the president wanted him to
know that Mr. Martinez del Rio was lying when he
asked for leniency in the president's name in the case of
the tapping of the power of the mill. That it would be
agreeable to the president if Mr. Cahan should continue
the proceedings against the mill directors or owners.
The manager and assistant manager of the mill
were sentenced to Belem, the directors who knew about
the whole affair and were directly responsible for it
went scot-free. A year after the sentence the widow of
the manager of the mill came to see Mr. Cahan, saying
that her husband had died in jail and begged for money
to pay for the funeral expenses and for her trip home
back to Spain. Good natured Mr. Cahan paid for the
funeral expenses and for the trip to Spain. Imagine
his discomfiture when he discovered later that the
manager of the mill had not died, but was in Spain
healthy as may be and that he had paid for the funeral
expenses of a dummy who had been impersonating the
mill manager through the political influence of the
mill owners and directors.

89

Interference of the American Ambassador
David Thompson in the Failure of
an American Bank.
In the year 1901 the International Banking and
Trust Co. of America incorporated for business in Mex
ico under the chart of Delaware. This bank did busi
ness until October 16, 1903. On this date it failed.
Mr. J. L. Starr-Hunt was the attorney for the bank.
After the failure the judge of the 5th civil court
appointed Don C. F. Uribe as provisional receiver. In
October 1905, five receivers or liquidating committee
took charge of it. They found this state of affairs.
That immediately before the failure of the bank two
notes dating, one on the 14th the other the 15th of
October 1903, has disappeared. The 7th day of Nov
ember 1903 Mr. Starr-Hunt requested Mr. Dunkeley
(manager of the Mexico City Banking Co.) to come to
his offices and said that as Mr. Dunkeley's bank had
suffered' from the failure, he was willing to help him and
handed him over the above mentioned notes. Instead
of turning the notes over to the liquidating committee
Mr. Dunkeley sent them back to Mr. Starr-Hunt. The
liquidating committee brought suit against Mr. Starr-
Hunt, Mr. R. Huacuya y Avila and Mr. Antonio Rincon
Alas, both employees of Starr-Hunt. This happened in
August 1906. After the testimony of the witnesses
warrants were issued for the arrest of the three above
mentioned men. Alas and Starr-Hunt disappeared
and kept in hiding. A week later Alas was located in
Toluca and brought back to Mexico.
But meanwhile Starr-Hunt from his hiding place,
which was known to the police, was pulling wires with
the help of his wife, who was a school mate of Mrs.
David Thompson. The American Ambassador went
so far as to write a letter to the judge, practically asking
him to drop the case. The letter was shown to a re
porter of El Diario who offered to publish it, but the
judge was too wise to let it go out of his hands. The
90

American Ambassador solicited and obtained the influ
ence of Porfirio Diaz in this matter.
The attorneys against Starr-Hunt, Warner, John
ston and Galston were powerless to cope against the
influence of the President. Word (consigna) was
passed by the President and the suit was stopped, the
accused men liberated. A new turn was given to the
case and it was that the accused parties, having derived
no direct benefit from the transaction, there could not
be any abuse of confidence. This sentence was ren
dered by the higher court. Ortega 5th judge of in
struction absolved the accused men, claiming that there
was no legal offence. This was a subterfuge to obey
orders from Porfirio Diaz.
The result of this interference by the American
Ambassador was that the two notes amounting to
$9,5 20 were never returned and the money was lost to
the estate, which is placed in such a position that it
can neither sue nor recover the money.*
The newspapers spoke about this scandal, but
published only the information received from the court
records. Nevertheless Mr. David Thompson asked El
Diario through the medium of G. I. Ham to stop men
tioning the matter, which was naturally refused.
After it was hushed up Mr. Starr-Hunt came out of
his hiding place, paid a visit to El Diario threatening
this paper with a libel suit, if it dared speak about the
affair. Mr. Starr-Hunt has a bad record in Texas and
in Monterey. The copy of the letter from the Ambassador to the
judge is in the hands of the attorneys Warner, Johnston
and Galston, who protested and filed a copy of the
whole case at the state department in Washington, also
a copy of the letter of the ambassador to the judge.
How is it that Ambassador Thomson is permitted
to remain in Mexico as representative of the United
States, when the United States government has given

*G. Pierce. Liquidating Committee, Mexico. D. F.
91

its papers to foreign ministers for incidents of very
much smaller importance?
Is there a tacit understanding between Porfirio
Diaz and David Thompson who pigeon holes all the
claims of his countrymen against the Mexican govern
ment?
Ley Fuga. (Runaway Law.)
The "Ley Fuga" or Runaway Law is no law at all
but a Mexican euphonism. It has been in practice for
the elimination of bandits, in the last two or three gen
erations. Bandits infected the country like a plague,
so when they were caught and conducted from one place
to another ou trial, they usually tried to escape and
then they were shot. This natural impulse to run
away was cleverly used by the governors, jefes politicos
etc. to get rid of their enemies. For instance a promi
nent rancher or influential person wanted to get rid of
an enemy or the lover of a girl on whom they had cast
their lustful eyes, then they would simply accuse the
unfortunate man of some imaginary criminal offence.
The accused was on some pretext or other taken from
one prison to another, from village to village. On the
way, the rurales or country police would let him go ahead
and then shoot him in the back. On their return to the
village they would declare that the prisoner had tried to
escape and that he had been shot in the attempt. If
they had to appear before a judge they would describe
how the prisoner had attacked them, shot at them and
while running away had been killed. To prove their
assertion they brought forward a grey hat perforated
by a bullet hole and a saddle with the same perforation,
according to testimony. The strange part of the affair
is that the same grey hat and the same saddle are used
over and over again in each case of the kind.
Originally the "Ley Fuga" was an unsuccessful
attempt to get rid of the bandits Porfirio Diaz got rid
of them by either having them shot on the spot or by
offering them better pay to enter the government ser-
92

vice as rurales. This way he gathered an excellent
corps of men, inured to all kinds of fatigue and strenu
ous work and who kept the country in order. Porfirio
Diaz believed in the old adage that it takes a thief to
catch a thief.
There are no more bandits in Mexico, but the " Ley
Fuga" is still in full vigor; it is used for private ven
geance, for political purposes and is one of the most
dangerous, cowardly and execrable weapons used by
Diaz and his political mafia.
Quintana Roo, the Mexican Siberia.
Despotic Mexico without its Siberia would not be
complete or perfect as a political machine. But the
brain of Porfirio Diaz ever fertile in expedients and loop
holes found a good excuse in the Maya rebellions in
Yucatan to cut about half of the state to make it a
federal district, so as to be able to keep there con
stantly a few thousand soldiers. The Valle naeional is
used as the Russians use Siberia to send their political
prisoners, with this difference; that many prisoners
escape from Siberia to tell the tale, but no one sent to
Yucatan for a few years has ever come back. It is the
most unhealthy, marshy, feverish, pestiferous spot in
Mexico. The chances against the prisoners are greater
than against the roulette wheel, with the two O's and
the eagle. If the execrable food does not kill you,
either a sun stroke, yellow fever or some other dreadful
tropical disease will do it. Should you, as a prisoner be
tough or lucky enough to survive, they apply another
form of the ley fuga to you. The officer or sergeant in
charge of the soldiers will make friends with you, and
suggest a very easy way of escaping; if you are inno
cent or anxious enough to do so, the soldiers who are
always watching you, have orders to shoot you, even
if you should leave the rank and file to get a drink at
a nearby fountain. If all the coaxing is unavailable, then
you are offered the means of committing suicide, but
should you refuse this kindness, then they help you to
93

kill yourself, or in plain English they assassinate you
without more ado, for a doomed man who will not take
a diplomatic hint, ought to be killed like a mere dog.
In 1904 a young man named Palomar Serrano,
aged 20 years, during the convention of the "Liberal
Jacobines"who were celebrating the anniversary of the
death of Juarez at the Arbeu Theatre, got up and said:
" I come to indict the great criminal Porfirio Diaz. ' ' He
had no time to say another word, as he was arrested by
order of the chief of police, next day, without any trial
he Was sent to Yucatan for three years.
Here is another example of justice which reminds
one of the 1 2th century justice in the Italian principali
ties. A well known general, who lives in Mexico, had,
as they say, a misfortune in the family; his daughter
had eloped with the family coachman. The daughter
was sent back home and later married a very respec
table officer. But the ambitious coachman was sent to
Yucatan — where his bones are now rotting in the torrid
sun of Quintana Roo.
When a man of talent or of a certain political influ
ence has attacked Porfirio Diaz or the administration in
articles or speeches, and he cannot be punished by the
ley fuga or exiled to Yucatan, they resort to several
underhand ways to discredit him.
Newspapermen are often arrested in the midst of
the night, without a warrant or an order from a judge,
just on the invitation of a police officer or a policeman.
The wife of a journalist was without news from her
husband for over a fortnight, until she appealed to the
director of El Diario for information.
A well known author and lawyer Querido Moheno,
was writing a book on the actual political situation in
Mexico. As soon as this was known to the authorities
they accused him of contempt of court. The case was
not decided either way, but was kept pending over the
author's head like a sword of Damocles.
As soon as the book was published and it was seen
94

that several prominent men in politics were attacked in
it, the case of contempt of court was fished out and the
man was indicted.
It is a frequent happening in Mexico to see a man
enter Belem on a trumped up charge and stay there a
year or longer. During this time the rumor is circu
lated that the man has either stolen money or has com
mitted some criminal deed. After a certain time the
person in question is brought before a judge and the
case dismissed for want of proofs, but the man is dis
credited and ruined for life without appeal or redress
of any kind. A year ago at a vaudeville show an actor
impersonating a monkey, playfully put on his head a
cap of a policeman standing nearby. He was arrested,
kept in jail all day and fined $10. When they asked
the chief of police the reason for this severity he
retorted: "that the aforesaid action was derogatory to
the dignity of the police."
We shall see that the word "derogatory" is only a
felicitous rethorical figure by the chief of police Felix
Diaz, as I shall mention two incidents which prove that
when the offenders are influential men, this most honor
able police "derogates" and pockets the insults, as in
Mikado. A year ago the son of the minister of justice Enri
que Fernandez Castello slapped and insulted the chief of
the secret police for giving out a story of an amateur
bull fight in honor of some prostitutes. He was not
arrested nor fined nor even reprimanded.
Two years ago the son of Pable Escandon, million
aire valet to Porfirio Diaz, insulted, slapped and kicked
a policeman who had dared order him out of a cafe
after the closing hour. At the police station as soon
as he was identified as the son of Pable Escandon he was
released immediately. Next day his father, who claims
to despise all newspapers, came to the office of El
Diario and begged the director as a favor not to give any
further notoriety to the case, as, he said " I have sent
95

my son for a year to Paris, as a punishment." Why
not to Belem. ?
A few months later a young man, unfortunate in
that his father was not a royal valet, committed the
same offence against another policeman. He was not
sent to Paris — but to Belem for two years. Thus they
mete out justice in Mexico, the land of contradictions.
Here is an example of the incorruptibility of
Porfirio Diaz.
Years ago the well known family Amor y Escandon
had a lawsuit against the sons of Don Antonio and Don
Vincente Escandon over the secret will of Don Manuel
Escandon, a very rich man. The lawsuit was quite
sensational and the attorney for the sons of Don An
tonio Escandon (who won the case) made a present in
the name of the interested party of a house, in the
Cadena street No. 8, to Porfirio Diaz. This house has
been ever since the private residence of the President.
Don Pable Escandon royal valet to the President is one
of the sons of Don Antonio Escandon, winner of the
suit. After thirty years of the corrupting, nefarious,
harmful and secretive work of the government on the
one hand and on the other the official and unofficial
publicity of the wonderful progress of Mexico, Por
firio Diaz though that the time had arrived when his
structure representing the Mexican nation deserved the
same standing as other foreign nations. Also that the
faith in the ability and honorability of the admin
istration of Porfirio Diaz should be given a sort of
vote of confidence by foreigners in the matter of incor
poration of large mining, agricultural and land com
panies; foreign nations having shown their respect and
their admiration toward Porfirio Diaz by showering
medals and orders on him and on his family. Unfor
tunately the foreign investor is more careful of his con
fidence and money than foreign nations, so that when
Porfirio Diaz used Don Olegario Molina, minister of
Fomento to initiate a so-called mining law,thefull,sin-
96

cere and almost frank opinion of the foreign investor
came back to the old despot as a surprise and as a keen
disappointment. This famous so-called mining law, was initiated
ostensibly for the purpose of preventing foreigners from
acquiring mining property in Mexico; but in reality to
force them to incorporate their companies, not as they
do now under the laws of the United States, England,
France, Germany, etc, but under Mexican laws and
under the jurisdiction of Mexican courts. A flood of
protests came from all over the world and also threats
that no more capital would be invested in Mexico under
this law. This stopped the propaganda of the law
which was finally killed, Mr. Molina taking all the
odium for this initiative upon his shoulders.
For the foreign investor argued thus: We are
willing to invest our millions in Mexico for our benefit
and to the benefit of that country, but we will not take
any risks or chances at the hands of Mexican justice as
it now exists. Porfirio Diaz might be favorable and
equitable toward foreigners and foreign investments,
but a government which relies on one man for its justice
is not a stable government. What if Porfirio Diaz
should die and his system should continue? Who
could guarantee the honorability, equity and friendliness
of his successor toward foreigners and foreign capital?

97

Martyrdom is never barren, because every man sees
on the martyr's brow a line of his own duty. Mazzini.

The Press in Mexico.
A free press is the detective of a nation.
The press of Mexico had to comedown to the level of
the Diaz government and with three exceptions, " La
Opinion" of Vera-Cruz, "La Revista de Merida" in
Merida, and El Diario del Hogar, Mexico, D. F., all
the newspapers are in the pay of the government or of
the governors, and if they are hostile to the government
it is because they belong to the conservative or clerical
party, which, in spite of the opinion of many Mexicans,
is still a very powerful and dangerous element.
Up to the first term of Porfirio Diaz there was a free
press. Even the constitution of 1824 in article 31,
allowed the publication of political opinions. The con
stitution of 1857 said in article 7 — "the press must re
spect public life, morality and public peace. Trans
gression of the law by the press shall be judged by two jur
ies, one to determine the guilt, and another which shall
apply the law and indicate the penalty."
In this manner those who framed the law had fully
protected the press with two juries independent of each
other. The Gonzalez administration reformed article 7,
precisely in the clause which the lawmakers had so care
fully provided for the protection of the press. This
clause which I have underlined above, was reformed
thus: "The crimes committed by the press, shall be
judged by competent tribunals of the federation, or of the
states, of the federal district and the territory of Lower
California, according to their special legislation."
Just the little change, that the tribunals, or, better
said, a judge instead of two juries shall decide. It
looks like a trifle, but it was of the utmost importance
for the administration to have to deal with their own
101

corrupt judges whom they could command at will, in
stead of two juries who might disagree or become in
dependent. "Since 1884 the free press has been abolished and
newspapermen have suffered all possible and imaginable
vexations — everything even censorship would be pre
ferable to the actual state, where one does not know
when and how one transgresses the law." (1)
The same writer goes on to say." But in Mexico
where everything is abnormal, there does not exist a
law applicable to the press. The government preferred
not to legislate about it so as to be able to oppress all
the better." (2)
While there is no law in Mexico against the of
fences of the press, every such transgression can be put
down under the title: "Crimes against reputation."
of the penal code, third book, chapter one. "Injury-
Defamation — Extra judicial calumny." Article 642.
"Defamation consists: in communicating deceitfully to
one or more persons, the imputation of a true or false
act, determined or undetermined, which might dishonor
or discredit or expose to contempt the person referred
to." In this manner, everything from a newspaper
article to a telephone message, a sign or even a "hier
oglyphic" (sic), is liable to be considered an act of de
famation. In the United States and in other civilized
countries, you are not guilty under the libel laws if you
can prove your imputation. But in Mexico if you
accuse a public or private person, for example, of thiev
ing and can prove it, you go to jail all the same. A few
years ago it happened that a newspaperman accused a
government official of embezzlement and actually
proved the charge. The official a well known general,
was dismissed from his post, but the newspaperman
went to jail for three months.
In most of the states the governors have enacted

(1) Una Campana Politica, Pag. 105.
(2) Una Campana Politica, Pag. 109.
102

special laws for the sake of muzzling, suppressing and
extirpating the press. Under the title of crimes
against reputation IX. the penal code of Yucatan says
that, " in the offences against the state; to prosecute, it
is not necessary that the slandered person should have
been mentioned by its full name, it is sufficient to indi
cate the initials, or an incorrect and disfigured allusion
of the name, or by certain suggestions of time, place,
profession, manner, characteristic signs, etc."
In the case of any infraction of the law, by a news
paper article, everybody from the proprietor, manager
or city editor, down to the office boy, often even the
newsboys, all, are sent in a body to jail, and the type,
machinery, all the paraphenalia is dumped into the
street. This has happened innumerable times, not only
in every state of Mexico but also in the federal district.
Sometimes the newspaper editor and publisher, as in
Mexico generally the manager is both publisher and
editor, is advised to skip the city or the country , oftener
he does not receive any warning and then the whole
staff goes to jail. In Belem there is a hole called the
"editors cell" which is almost always inhabited by
journalists under accusations.
I once saw in Belem one of these martyrs, walking
about in his full dress suit he had been wearing when
arrested, and he had been in prison for three whole
weeks in that most inappropriate costume. Some of
the most irrepressible newspapermen continue doing
their work even in jail, with pen as well as with pencil.
Not satisfied with enacting all sorts of vexatious laws
against them, Porfirio Diaz uses his henchmen to per
secute and hound newspapermen, after which he will
ostentatiously and magnanimously give orders to re
lease them, then offer them money or places in the gov
ernment, as congressmen or senators. Years ago he
founded an official paper misnamed "El Imparcial'1
the impartial, paying for the machinery, type, the
building and even for the paper. To kill all competi
tion the price charged for this journal was one Mexican.

103

cent, or half cent in American money and consequently
its circulation became larger than that of all the other
papers combined.
Not content with this, Porfirio Diaz created a mon
opoly of the manufacture of paper in Mexico, by put
ting up a high tariff on this product. As a result, the
price of paper in Mexico is nearly three times as much
as in the United States and is of very inferior quality.
This monopoly is in the hands of the government
"camarilla" which practically dictates to the news
papers in Mexico. It is easy for them to kill a news
paper; all they have to say, is that they are very sorry,
but cannot furnish you with paper on a certain day, and
that is usually the end of the publication.
The proprietor and editor of El Imparcial, Rafael
Reyes Espindola, has done more harm to Mexico than a
brood of rattlesnakes let loose on the country. This
paper has broken up more homes, spoiled more reputa
tions, attacked, villified more respectable people than
Espindola has hairs* on his head. Two other men have
helped him in his heinous work, Luis Urbina, secretary
to the minister of instruction, and Carlos Diaz Dufoo.
This triad of blackmailers, forgers, picaroons, pro
curers and libertines has been aptly described by a
cartoonist as the "Trimurti del Averia" or the Trimurti
or Trinity of moral leprosy.
The head of this chain-gang is Rafael Espindola; a
more cynical, abject, malicious, sneakish and "shame
less one" I have still to meet. To this arbiter of the
press, representative of the official press in Mexico,
this ambassador of the press for Porfirio Diaz, has been
given this enormous power, on condition that he should
kill all competition, that is to say, all the anti-adminis
tration papers. With unlimited money at his disposal
(the president himself confessing to have spent for the
Imparcial over one million dollars in ten years), with
the protection of the czar, and immunity as a congress
man, Reyes Espindola disposed of his rivals. He even
resorted to forgery to destroy a dangerous opponent.
104

As this rival newspaper could not be downed by fair
means, Espindola had several copies printed, a fac
simile, an exact reproduction of the rival paper, title and
all, containing a scurrilous article about Porfirio Diaz.
Naturally the editor with his staff went to jail; he knew
better than to try to prove his innocence when the
official press resorted .to such infamous practices.
About two and a half years ago, El Diario, an inde
pendent newspaper was started. The people of Mexico
hailed it with delight, as a new Messiah; they reasoned
that the founders and directors of the company being
foreigners it would give the newspaper an immunity
unknown to the Mexican press.
But this enthusiasm was short lived, for the dir
ector or managing editor a Mr. Sanchez Azcona proved
to be as small a man as he was a big grafter.
His editorial rooms were the lowest saloons, and
his political friends were outcasts and parasites. His
ambition was to be a Horace Greeley of Mexico with a
ministry thrown into the bargain, but he turned out to
be only a vulgar drunken lout and pilferer. Once the
paper started a subscription for the benefit of poor chil
dren and got as much as $500 in cash, which sum was
turned over to Mr. Azcona. To this day El Diario has
not seen the color of that money. Finally he was
kicked out unceremoniously and a different type of man
put in, a Mr. Hijar y Haro, a personal friend of Mr. E. T.
Simondetti, the president of the company.
Mr. Hijar y Haro who had been one of the secre
taries of President Diaz and later a paymaster in
the army, is one of the most remarkable men in Mexico.
Utterly void of all of the passions characteristic of the
Latins, Mr. Hijar seems more like an Anglo-Saxon, calm,
dispassionate, ever patient and ready to do justice,
unbiased, without prejudices or meanness of any kind;
his only flaw is his unconditional admiration of Porfirio
Diaz. I can explain this adoration only by his utter
ignorance of the political history of the president, as
105

Hijar has passed all his life in Italy where his father was
in the diplomatic service.
Hijar ran the paper as nearly as Jesus Christ would
have done it, with this distinction, that the Saviour once
got angry and drove the merchants out of the sanctuary.
Hijar never got angry and did not attempt to drive the
thieves from the temple of justice. Nevertheless under
this man's guidance, the paper acquired circulation and
a certain prestige, but lost its independence and became
a neutral, colorless news sheet.
The founder of El Diario, an Italian and ex-cub
reporter of the New York Press is quite as interesting
a type. Clever, assimilative, hard working, good look
ing to a fault, fascinating to men as well as women,
this individual possesses many characteristics of both
the Neapolitans and the Mexicans; he is diplomatic, with
a bold front, but at the bottom of his heart as slippery
and timid as an eel, superficial as a tenor, with a
womanly intuition akin to talent, he has but a poor
knowledge of men and human nature and is petty in
his loves and hates. He started on a pittance and then
bluffed and hypnotized an American banker to finance
El Diario. In less than two years El Diario has spent over
$650,000, it is now paying expenses. But at the begin
ning this paper had to weather all kinds of storms.
Its bitterest and most dangerous enemy was El Impar
cial. The hardest blow to El Diario came from Espindola
who tried his best to kill it at its inception. It happen
ed when Sanchez Azcona was still director of El
Diario; he had bribed an employee of the telegraph
office to furnish our paper with the despatches from
Guatemala, which the minister of foreign affairs, Ignacio
Mariscal refused to communicate to us.
When Ignacio Mariscal saw the telegrams from the
Mexican minister in Guatemala published in our paper
before he had even opened them, first he marveled,
and then began to institute proceedings against the
106

director of El Diario for purloining and divulging state
secrets. The director Sanchez Azcona, being a congress
man, had to be tried by his peers, that is to say congress.
The case, as customary was kept pending for several
months, during which our advertisers, expecting this
to be the death of El Diario, refused to renew their
contracts, but when it was known that Elihu Root
was to visit the country, on the day of his arrival in the
capital a spectacle was arranged by Porfirio Diaz, to
show this representative of the United States with what
justice, tempered with mercy, journalists were treated
in Mexico. The farce was exceedingly well played;
congress met, and the committee of congressmen who
were to pass judgment on the case, declared, that there
being no secrets in a republic there could be no state
secrets and therefore no accusation; and Mr. Azcona
was absolved by unanimous vote.
Later when El Diario started printing facts about
the sensational failure of Jacoby, there was a hurried
summons for our director Hijar y Haro to go to the
office of the minister of finances J. Y. Limantour, who
very politely but firmly begged him to desist from
"insinuations" in the Jacoby affair, promising that the
court would bring the culprits to the bar where they
would be dealt with according to law. But everybody,
even the last cub-reporter on El Diario knew that
Jacoby, who had robbed and failed for millions, was in
hiding at the hacienda of Mr. Noriega, the partner of
Porfirio Diaz; everybody knew that the publication of
the truth about the Jacoby affair would involve the
camarilla of President Diaz and Limantour in another
small Panama scandal and that Jacoby was not to be
and never would be brought to justice, and the courts
have never touched and never will touch this ticklish
matter in spite of Limantour's promises.
A short but polite note to the director of our paper
from the secretary of the president, always did the trick,
stopping our best stories. We knew quite well that
the exquisitely polite request from the secretary of the

107

president was almost an order and equivalent to the
pencil of the censor.
When Telesforo Garcia, a Spaniard, keen, un
scrupulous, a typical financial bandit, was arrested on
the charge of embezzlement, we received a visit from
the manager of the San Rafael paper monopoly, and
were asked not to publish the news of the arrest, and
the Diario complied, feeling that this request was
practically a threat.
Some estimate of the character of Telesforo Garcia
may be gathered from the following anecdote : In 1876,
when the body of the Emperor Maximilian was about
to be transferred from Queretaro, where he had been
shot, to Mexico, Garcia conceived the idea of stealing
it in order to sell it for a heavy ransom to the unfortu
nate prince's brother. Garcia however committed the
fatal blunder of confiding his project to the owner of
the express company by which he was employed, a
Spaniard, Martinez Zorrilla by name. But Mr. Zorrilla
being an honest man not only refused to have any
thing to do with so dastardly an affair, but also lodged
information against Telesforo Garcia with Benito Juarez,
the President of Mexico, who by doubling the military
escort frustrated this design.
When El Diario thought of publishing as a matter
of news, the names of the gilded youths, sons of the
most influential men in Mexico, with the story of a bull
fight they had held in honor of some low strumpets,
with the official assistance of the soldiers, police, and
firemen, these youngsters headed by the son of the
minister of justice Enrique Fernandez Castello and
Alberto Braniff, millionaire and amateur bull fighter,
brought pressure on the management of the paper
monopoly to cut off our supply of paper in the event
of our publishing the story.
Once when El Diario published an account of an
outrageous and arbitrary imprisonment of all the
people at a dance even to the musicians of the orchestra ;
108

the chief of police called our director to his office asking
him if we had any grudge against him !
Any attack on any government department or any
official is taken as a personal insult, and very often a
duel follows.
When El Diario published a criticism of a work of
the minister of education Manuel Sierra, one of his secre
taries came to the office asking how we dared criticize
his honor the minister !
As soon as the President places a governor or any
man in a government position, these men seem to think
that they are there by the grace of God and do not
brook the slightest criticism, no matter how just.
Honest men have claimed that in a government
the officials must live as in a house of crystal; the Mexican
government officials know that they are living in glass
houses and they demand therefore that none should
throw stones at them. All you can do is to throw
bouquets at them; they accept all compliments, all the
flatteries, no matter how fulsome and coarse, and gush
over them like old maids when complimented on their
wilted charms.
In 1906 through the efforts of Mr. Simondetti the
Associated Press was induced to come to Mexico. This
news Syndicate has not advanced the world's know
ledge about Mexican affairs, as its representative barely
speaks Spanish, never mixes with Mexicans and conse
quently cannot inform headquarters in New York of the
truth of the news he sends. In the Orizaba affair he
sent out what the government wanted to be known and
no more. The government of Mexico keeps a censor at
the office of the A. P. who reads all the proofs of the
telegrams sent out of the country. A little anecdote
will show how a New York Herald man got the best of
the A. P. correspondents.
Mr. Nicholas Biddle, the New York Herald war
correspondent was stopping for a few weeks in Mexico
City. One evening he went with Mr. Carson the A. P.
man, to the offices of the Mexican Herald, to look over
109

the Spanish proofs sent over by the Imparcial and the
government. Mr. Biddle who is an American gentle
man and a Spanish scholar, looked very carefully over
the proofs, Mr. Carson didn't, and while the latter was
dallying about the office Mr. Biddle pocketed the proofs
which were a long dissertation on the Mexican railroad
merger by J. Y. Limantour. Carson went home to bed
but Biddle went to his hotel and worked all night on the
translation of the story which he wired the same night
to the New York Herald. This paper had a " scoop" on
the story while the Associated Press wondered next
morning what had happened to its correspondent. Mr.
Carson was asked for explanations, while Mr. Biddle is
still chuckling in his sleeve about the railroad merger.
When the little rebellion of Las Vacas occurred a
few months ago, the Mexican government was so taken
aback and rattled that it could not and would not give
any information. They did not realize that a frank and
open declaration would have hurt them less than their
usual silly and mysterious ways. El Diario published
the news three days after everybody had heard about it,
as Mr. Simondetti was very much scared at a warrant
sent out against the paper by the chief of police. This
latter difficulty was settled in fifteen minutes, but El
Diario lost the best story of the year because its head
was not a real newspaperman.
The only true genuine newspaperman who ever
worked in Mexico was a Thomas J. O'Brien, a man who
speaks four languages and has the "news-flair".
He is now on the staff of the New York Herald and
was then a city editor of El Diario. One night we had
a tip that the minister of Guatemala had received a tele
gram of great importance concerning an attempt against
the life of President Estrada Cabrera. As the Mexican
reporters could not be relied on to get this story, O'Brien
was sent with orders to obtain the facts by hook or by
crook. He ran to the house of the minister and though
it was one-thirty in the morning, asked to see him
immediately. When the minister stepped out on his
110

balcony in his night shirt, he was informed by O'Brien,
that El Diario was in receipt of a telegram from
Guatemala, with details about the assassination of
Estrada Cabrera. "Its false" shouted the minister.
"Very well" retorted 0'Brien"if you do not tell us the
truth, we shall publish it as it stands." "Wait a
minute," said the minister, "and I'll show you the tele
gram I have received." And he read to O'Brien the
official telegram from his government, with all the de
tails of the attempt on the life of Estrada Cabrera.
Next morning the story came out in the first page of
El Diario as a " scoop", and up to this date the innocent
Guatemalian minister is wondering how El Diario got
the telegram. If El Diario had accepted all the money offered for
stopping the campaigns it had started against greedy
and unscrupulous corporations, it would not now need
any help from the Mexican government.
The most aggressive and violent campaign was
warred against the street car company, an American
company, managed by a Mr. Brown from Boston. The
number of killed and maimed in a year by the street cars
reached the appalling figure of 765, as the company re
fused to spend any money on fenders. I suggested
going after the cabinet ministers to force them to bring
pressure on the management of the corporation, but at
this suggestion the president and the director of El
Diario suffered suddenly from an attack of cold feet,
from which they have not yet recovered.
The street car company offered through their law
yer Mr. "Macedo $10,000 to El Diario to stop the cam
paign. The Waters Pierce Oil Co. offered to Mr. O'Brien
$20,000 to stop the campaign against themselves and
the Standard Oil Co.
S. Pearson and son were willing to put up $50,000
in shares of El Diario to have the help of this paper in
a campaign to drive out of Mexico the Waters Pierce
OillCo. This firm has built the Tehuantepec Railroad
and the ports of Salina Cruz and Coatzocoalcos for the
111

Mexican government and they have also spent millions
for boring and refining oil in Mexico.
Although Porfirio Diaz and his clique and all the
governors have tried with all their might to eradicate
the anti-press, it always crops up as irrepressible and
incorrigible as ever. *
They have beaten kicked into submission, bought
off, and murdered hundreds of newspapermen; these
martyrs and heroes of a hopeless cause; and still the
tribe cannot be stamped out, to the disgust and des
pair of the administration.
Before every fake reelection, which is enacted
every four years, like the military manoevres ; there is a
general expedition over the country, to capture, im
prison and destroy all the independent newspapers,
in the manner of the police of New York, which arrests
all the pickpockets and thieves to be found in the city
before a holiday. Only matters are reversed in Mexico.
In 1902 to kill all opposition for the coming election.
The following newspapers were persecuted or subjected
to trial on various trivial excuses.

In Mexico City :

In Morelia :

1. El Hijo del Ahuizote.

15. ElCorsario.

2. El Paladin.

In Hermosillo.

3. Onofrof.

16. El Sol.

4. ElAlacran.

17. La Luna.

5. La Nacion Espanola.

18. La Libertad.

6. El Diario del Hogar.

19. El Democrata.

7. El Universal.

20. El Combate.

In Guadalajara :

In Durango.

8. Juan Panadero.

21. La Evolucion.

9. La Tarantula.

In Irapuato.

10. Diogenes.

22. El Avance.

11. Jalisco Libre.

In Zacatecas.

12. La Libertad.

23. El Sentinela.

13. El Correo de Jalisco

In Pachuca.

14. La Gaceta.

24. El Desfanatizador

112

In Guanajuato. 33. La Redencion.
25. El Barretero. 34. Justicia y Constitucion.
26. El Sable. lN Linaris. N. L
In San Luis Potosi. 35. El Trueno.
27. La Opinion Publica. In Chihuahua.
28. El Demofilo. 36. La Voz de Altamirano.
In Mateguala. in Tezuitlan. Ca.
29. LaAvispa. 37. El Cuarto. Poder.
30. El Democrata. In Tampico :
31. El Progreso. 38. Balaraza.
In Monterey: 39. Oja Blanca.
32. La Democracia Latina.
This is only a partial black list of this newspaper
morgue. In this period coincides the persecution of the
liberal clubs, which in that year were suppressed by
General Bernardo Reyes, then minister of war, by order
of Porfirio Diaz.
On January 24th Congressman Heriberto Barron,
then on his way to the north, left in San Luis Potosi, Gen.
Reyes, who accompanied by some soldiers disguised as
peasants, entered the political club Ponciano Arriaga
and there created a scandal for the purpose of having
the directors of this club arrested and landed in jail.
This club was recognized by all the other liberal clubs
(existing then in all the principal cities in Mexico) as
the head and the centre of the confederation of all the
liberals. In this manner Porfirio Diaz killed the liberal
organization at the source of power. This is also the
way the old hypocrite prepares for a general and unan
imous election by the will of the people.
Napoleon Bonaparte who was a genius, declared
once that if he allowed a free press in France under his
regime, he would not last three weeks.
Porfirio Diaz who is not a genius, except for chi
canery and inquisition, would last just about three days
with a free press in Mexico.
Bolivia represents for the president an ideal state
113

of affairs ; there, General Arce published a decree in the
" Diario Official" : "The Press is at liberty to write about
everything, excepting religion and the government."
The president's dream would be a press without
commentaries, just news from all over the world, and
what the government would kindly allow to be pub
lished, with the addition of hymns and hosannas in his
honor.

114

Anyone can be a pilot in fine weather. Bacon.

Political Parties.
When we say political parties we use a conventional
word, for in Mexico, as will easily be understood, there
are not and cannot subsist political parties, since for
more than thirty years the same individual has ruled
as absolute master. To the existence of political par
ties there must concur a public spirit, or opinion — and
this Porfirio Diaz killed at the beginning of his political
career. Mexican society was divided, during many years
into two contending parties; on the one hand the reac
tionary party, headed by the clergy and supported by
the army, also the Spaniards and those who had aristo
cratic pretensions; on the other the liberal party, repub
lican with revolutionary tendencies, represented by the
most talented men in the country, also the middle class,
Which as everywhere, manifested the strongest impulses
and highest ideals.
The reactionary party defeated by Benito Juarez in
the bloody contest called the three years war (1857-60)
brought about French Intervention and the lugubrious
experiment of the Empire, ending in the killing of Max
imilian of Austria. With the death of the Emperor and
his two most prominent followers, the reactionary party
was vanquished and disorganized; nevertheless as the
clergy was still left standing and they took good care
to keep the fire glowing under the ashes, and in silence
and mystery began acquiring wealth and building anew,
without taking an active part in politics, but preparing
to become a powerful factor at the first opportunity,
that is to say when Porfirio Diaz shall die.
The liberal party became disorganized after the
triumph of General Diaz, and he has taken care to choke
it lingeringly, without killing it outright, as he needed it
117

to check the impetus of the reactionaries if these should
unmask their batteries.
The heads of the old liberal party disappeared
either by natural death or by assassination, as I have
shown; the rest are in a state of mental and physical
decrepitude. Generals Corona, Garcia de la Cadena,
Mejia, Regules, Escobedo, J. N. Mendez and all those
who figured in the campaigns against the reactionaries
and the Empire, are all dead, with the exception of
Porfirio Diaz. The apostles of liberty, Ignacio Ramir
ez, Ignacio Altamirano,Guillermo Prieto, Riva Palacio,
Zamacona etc. have all perished during the long reign
of Diaz. Two men are left, Ignacio Mariscal and Felix
Romero, both are mumified, one in the foreign office,
the other in the supreme court. Both are honorable
and honest men, whose only blunder was to be deceived
by the Great Mystifier.
The clerical party keeps and increases its influence
by the press, having good newspapers in the capital and
in the states; on the other hand the liberal party has
lost its representatives in the press, some having been
sold to Porfirio Diaz and others having had to suspend
their publications on account of the persecutions of the
government; the only one which outlived them was "El
Diario del Hogar", leading a life full of tribulations and
anxieties, its heroic director Filomeno Mata having
suffered repeated imprisonments.
The following incident will exemplify the insidious
and treacherous ways used by the clericals to suppress
opposition or liberalism in their midst.
In 1901 a priest called Joachin Perez, 50 years old,
wrote to Monsignor Averardi, apostolic delegate, letters in
which he begged for the modification of the high tariff
for the administration of the sacrements. The petition
was signed by thousands of Catholics. Monsignor
Averardi diplomatically answered that he would con
sult with the Pope. But instead of so doing, the Arch
bishop of Puebla and the Monsignor, gave a private
dinner to Mucio Martinez, governor of Puebla, and con-
118

vinced him that Perez was hatching a political conspira
cy. By order of the governor the unfortunate priest
was attacked in his parish at Alixco, at midnight,
beaten and then taken to jail. All his property and
chattels were confiscated and he was kept in confinement
for over fourteen months suffering from rheumatism.
Eventually through the efforts of his sister who went to
beg the intervention of her uncle Ignacio Mariscal, he
was freed. A great deal has been said about the "Scientific
Party", this however has never existed as a party since
it does not deserve the name. It would be more ade
quate to call this group of political speculators united
to exploit the nation, the "scientific grafters".
This group is headed by J. Y. Limantour, the min
ister of finances, co-worker partner and accomplice of
Porfirio Diaz in all the unsavory deals. It is formed by
various improvised economists, who plagarized Leroy
Beaulieu and Auguste Comte in the most impudent and
barefaced manner. The most virulent exponents of
this group are Diaz Dufoo and Manuel Florez. The
directors of this trust of all the business in Mexico are :
Sebastian Camacho, Pablo Macedo, Miguel Macedo, J. D.
Casasus, Pimentel y Fagoaga, Jose" Castellot and four or
five more; all clever, intelligent perhaps too much so,
who form a sort of Chinese wall around the minister
of finances, who is their Pactolus, so that anyone not of
the ring cannot bathe in its golden waters. They are
lawyers, bankers, and newspapermen, and no business
of any importance can be arranged with the government
nor prosper in the press, nor get justice in the tribunals,
without sanction from this moneyed oligarchy. This
group emboldened by success, pretended to elevate to
the presidency, its chief Limantour, not on a political
question, but solely on a business principle, to continue
indefinitely and on a greater scale its work of exploita
tion. Here is the inside history of how Limantour lost
the vice-presidency through an indescretion at a five o'
119

clock tea. The members of the "cientificos" or scien
tific group, had convinced the president of the political
necessity of visiting Europe and the United States in the
manner of Gen. Grant. The argument being that such
a trip would not only enhance the prestige of the
country by advertising the president's name all over the
world, but likewise the foreign nations, would then see,
that Porfirio Diaz could leave Mexico in peace with
Limantour as vice-president.
President Diaz felt safe as far as Limantour was
concerned, expecting to leave Gen. Reyes in the war
office as a counter-weight on the balance of this political
game. But Limantour told the secret to his wife, who
in her joy could not resist confiding to some of her lady
friends "that the next five o'clock tea would take place
in the Castle Chapultepec." These two women ran
post-haste to relate the conversation to Carmelita Diaz,
the wife of the president. Carmelita, as she is called
by the Mexicans, was very much offended in her
dignity and vanity as queen of Mexico ; instead of com
plaining to the president, she did the cleverest thing
possible; asking one of the best friends of Porfirio Diaz,
Governor Dehesa of Vera-Cruz, to see her; she repeated
the incident, adding that "if those people acted so super
ciliously while still subordinates, what would they do
when they should be in power and Porfirio out
of the country?" She begged Dehesa to work in her
interest and also for his friend Porfirio. Dehesa per
formed his task so well that he convinced the president
of his mistake, and the result was that Dehesa was or
dered to call on Limantour to sign a statement revoking
his word. In this "scientific group" figured for a long time
as an active lieutenant, a Rosendo Pineda, of whom
we will speak later. In opposition to this group is the
"Reyist party", which became prominent when its chief
General Bernardo Reyes was minister of war. The
antecedents of Reyes were not of the kind to make him
popular, for there are in his life bloody deeds which
120

render him even more fearful than Porfirio Diaz. But
Reyes is not a thief and if he tried to appear as a patriot
a liberal and an ultra-mexican, he was the only man for
the moment who could be used to counteract the influ
ence of the scientific party and Limantour, inasmuch as
he represented political ideals opposite to those of his
rivals. Reyes created the "Second Reserve", which
was a sort of national guard at the service and under
the will of the war office. In this second reserve were
permitted to join in an official character and with the
right to carry sword and uniform, all the citizens who
could prove by an examination that they had the rudi
mentary knowledge expected from a second lieutenant.
Workingmen who could pass the requisite examina
tions were also allowed to join this national reserve as
corporals and sergeants. The idea appealed to the
masses and awakened wonderful enthusiasm ; all under
stood the meaning of that move and the advantages
which could be derived at a moment's notice from such
an organization. But Limantour realized the impor
tance of this stroke of policy and as I have said in
another chapter, Reyes was eliminated from the minis
try and the second reserve was abolished immediately.
The "Reyists" reached the utmost of the resis
tance and bitterness against Limantour and his "cienti-
ficos", in the campaign warred against them. They
started newspapers and attacked the "ring" with a
courage and a violence up to that date unknown to the
Mexican press. Many young men of talent and influ
ence figured in the newspapers. The most prominent
of all was Rodolfo Reyes, son of General Reyes, a law
yer of talent, fearless, energetic, cultured, with a spot
less private life; he will rise to a high position in the
land when the conditions of the country shall have
changed, in spite of the fact that he is the son of Gen.
Reyes. I once asked him, his and his father's political
platform and he answered: "My father and I are
working each one for himself, although we have this
121

political ideal in common ; we object to mixing business
with politics."
The two sons of the then minister of justice, the
Baranda boys, were very audacious in their attacks.
The most talented writers were Luis del Toro, Dr.
Francisco Martinez Calleja, Jose J. Ortiz, and Diodoro
Battalia; they published "El Correo de Mexico" and
"La Nacion", and certainly Mexico has never seen
such impetuous, masterly, caustic and forceful editor
ials. Poor Limantour and his "scientific ring" were
raked mercilessly over the coals of publicity, and they
were stripped of their political hypocrisies to the very
skin and bone.
If a five o'clock tea spoiled the vice-presidential
chances of Limantour, the editorials of the two above
mentioned papers discredited him as a presidential
candidate in the eyes of the Mexican public.
In the group of the "reyists" there was also a
minister, Joachin Baranda the most intelligent of all,
who exercised a great influence in the states of Cam-
peche and Yucatan, whose governors were his creatures.
Teodoro Dehesa, governor of Vera-Cruz, a sort of Maz-
arin, the most subtle and clever of all the Mexican poli
ticians, General Abraham Bandala, nicknamed "the
Vandal", governor of the state of Tabasco; so that
"reyism" dominated all the gulf states of Mexico.
With the exit of Reyes from the war office and the de
struction of the second reserve, the shares of this group,
were lowered many points, until it went into a partial
slumber. When Porfirio Diaz created the vice-presi
dency at the suggestion of Washington, the " scientific
party" again came into life, attempting to bring pres
sure on the president so that he should designate Lim
antour. Unluckily it was too late , for it had been proved
that this individual was disqualified from exercising
that function by the constitution and although the
constitution is no obstacle to Porfirio Diaz, he does
not violate it to favor a third party but only for his own
personal benefit. 122

The "Reyists" also tried to intrigue in Reyes'
favor, but Gen. Reyes understood the awkwardness
and untimeliness of the move and hiding under the
cloak of military discipline, forbade his partisans to
imitate the tactless proceedings of the "cientificos."
Porfirio Diaz then freely and spontaneously "el
ected" Ramon Corral for the vice-presidency, to the
utter amazement of the country, for Corral was an
unknown factor in politics, a sort of dark horse. This
new move brought about a fresh political orientation,
and as it was thought that Corral would substitute his
protector, the desertions began. The "cientificos"
imposed as coadjutor to Corral, a Rosendo Pineda, the
Jago of the "cientificos", now Corral's Mephisto. This
Rosendo Pineda, is from Oaxaca, he was for several
years the private secretary to Romero Rubio (father-in
law of Porfirio Diaz) when minister of the interior, and
consequently knew all the inside workings of local
politics. Lawyer of mediocre quality, indifferent as an
orator and a low intriguer, he possesses nevertheless
great audacity, an insatiable ambition, without any
scruples, having built up a false reputation which he
exploits to the utmost of his ability. Pineda with the
cunning of an Indian and the perspicacity of a blatant
lawyer, understood at once the situation and instead of
watching Corral to direct him in conformity to the
interests of the "cientificos", made a deal with him,
pitching his party overboard, to bask and profit in the
new rising sun of the political horizon. Corral guided
by his intuition and perhaps by the counsels of Pineda,
did not give much importance to the vice-presidency,
limiting himself to be a secretary in the presidential
cabinet, blindly obedient to his chief and attending to
his private business, which has yielded him an enor
mous fortune, and waiting calmly for time to resolve
the question. He is not popular in Mexico; no man
would be allowed to become popular or to create a
party of his own, for Porfirio Diaz would start his un
derground machinery to destroy such a one.
123

Corral is in a most difficult position, second to a
man who does not permit any political star to outshine
his own sun. Nevertheless one cannot help admiring
his tact, his silence, the art of doing the right thing at
the right time, his ability to pilot the vice-presidential
skiff over the breakers which have destroyed so many
politicians. He is endowed with a sense of humor,
sagacity and character and he should be judged only
after he has been president. In the years I have
passed in Mexico I have heard many disparaging re
marks and superficial judgments about the man; only
once did I hear a true, just and imparcial appreciation
of him from a Mexican, a talented young liberal, Mr.
Flavio Guillen, all the more remarkable as this man Was
not in politics and owed nothing to Corral.
In short, there are no political parties in Mexico,
only small personal groups, which, circumstances per
mitting, will be used as a nucleus to form real parties.
As a result of the perfidious declarations of Por
firio Diaz to Creelman in Pearson's Magazine, assuring
him that under no circumstances would he accept
another presidential term, many Mexicans fell into this
trap, innocently believing the protestation of the old
fox, and began promoting the formation of parties to
take part in the next electoral fight. This electoral
struggle is an impossibility, because even if Porfirio
Diaz really should not crave reelection, he would never
consent to a man not of his own making sitting in the
presidential chair. What was self-evident to anybody
knowing the hoary old Michiavelli, happened, and that
is, that Porfirio Diaz graciously condescended to accept
reelection and in view of this, those who dreamt of
leading in the next campaign, are satisfied to accept
the job of head supers, orchestra leaders, and chiefs of
choruses, making believe they are organizing indepen
dent political clubs, not to elect (?) a president, as this
is not even under discussion, but to elect the vice-pres
ident designated by President Diaz. There is no
conduct more ignoble, more cowardly than that of these
124

sicarii who wish to appear before the people wearing the
seamless tunic of the apostles. Porfirio Diaz following
his wise system "that to divide is to rule" has made
Reyes believe that he might be the next vice-president.
Reyes answered this pretended offer in an very common
place interview, putting himself unconditionally at the
orders of his superior. Seven editorials in " La Patria"
killed the candidacy of Creel; the only one left now is
Corral, who continues his policy of silence, in his shell,
like an Indian fakir.
Porfirio Diaz has no more idea of relinquishing
power, than I have of becoming president of Patagonia ;
he has no intention of slackening the reins of his iron
rule, to help the democrats or the liberals or the Mexi
cans in general, to learn how to govern themselves. He
will die in the presidential chair like an insect stuck on
fly paper. Meanwhile the work of evolution is slowly
but surely taking place, the younger generations with
higher ideals than those of Porfirio Diaz and his cronies
or the greedy " cientificos" are taking notes of the show
unfolding under their eyes. Young Mexico will have a
say, as soon as the storm of reaction shall have blown
away after Diaz's death. Two young men with talent
and devoted friends will then play a prominent part:
Rodolfo Reyes and Emeterio de la Garza. The latter
has all the attributes of leadership; he is loyal to his
friends, talented, a clever speaker and writer, excessive
ly bold and fearless, intelligent and always ready to
face any situation, no matter how hopeless and dis
couraging. As the noisiest always attract attention,
these two young men will impose themselves in spite of
their youth Others of the younger generation full of
talent, patriotism and honesty or purpose will help to
direct the future destiny of Mexico. Some of these are
Diodoro Battalia, the most talented orator and patriot
in the country, Diaz Miron, Joachin Clausel, Gabriel
Gonzalez Mier, Ignacio de la Pena, Carlos Pereyra
The clerical party which has received its greatest
support from Carmelita Diaz during the present regime,
125

will have to look out for its laurels if it does not mend its
short-sighted ways, since a continuation of the old,
narrow-minded policy will have for effect a schism of
the liberal Catholics in Mexico from the mother church
in Rome. The situation after the death of Porfirio Diaz will
be at the start a race for the presidency between Corral
and General Reyes, if Porfirio Diaz insists in putting
Corral as a vice-president. Corral will prove his mettle
in the first three weeks after the death of the president,
for the "cientificos" consider Reyes not only their
greatest enemy, but danger and a menace to the
state. I have heard several of these "cientificos" talk
about Reyes's assassination, not only as an outcome
of the rivalry but as a political necessity. Now Reyes
knows this perfectly well and he lives on a mountain,
in a castle called "El Mirador" like a mediaeval robber
baron, ready to swoop on to Mexico like a bird of prey.
He is over 60 and is extremely ambitious to be presi
dent ; if he has to choose between being assassinated or
snatching the presidency from Corral, the guesses might
be in his favor. Should he start from Monterrey with
25 men he would reach Mexico City with an army of
25,000. Nevertheless and no matter who will be presi
dent, a continuation of the present methods is not pos
sible and will not pe permitted by the people in general.
They are all tired and sick of those perverse and injur
ious methods, and if they have stood Porfirio Diaz so
long, it is not because of cowardice, but because they
expected him to die almost ten years ago, and being dis
appointed in this, have not thought that the assassin's
dagger would help matters or improve their conditions.
Everybody is weary of this protracted, tiresome
farce of a perpetual, seemingly immortal, peripathetic
candidate for the presidency ; they are anxiously watch
ing for a sign of mental and physical decay in the coun
tenance of this apparently indestructible oppressor,
whose best ally has been death, for it refused to take a
life as helpful in exterminating lives, as conflagrations,
' 126

epidemics or earthquakes. They pray for an end to
this endless career and gaze at the lines and wrinkles
of that impassive mask for a prophecy of a speedy close.
"We have had enough of him" said a Mexican to
me once. " But" I exclaimed " he cannot possibly live
more than two years . " — " Don ' t deceive yourself ' ' , replied
my friend "one of these days when Porfirio shall feel
the icy touch of death upon his shoulder, he will hastily
pick up a pen and publish a decree to live another twenty
years".

127

As he thinketh in his heart, so is he.
Proverbs. XXIII. 7.
You can't overturn a pyramid, but you can under
mine it; that's what I have been trying to do.
A. Lincoln.

Porfirio Diaz.
What manner of person is this Porfirio Diaz?
Official admiration and servility, sycophancy, at times
well-meaning eulogy and above all foreign ignorance,
have all contributed to the formation of an astonishing
legend, the creation of a surprising myth surrounding
this individual, so that a fair, searching and dispassion
ate analysis seems almost like an iconoclastic attitude.
He has been labeled the greatest statesman of
modern times, more eminent than Bismark, superior in
generalship to Caesar, Alexander and Bonaparte, more
transcendental than Washington and Lincoln, purer in
his patriotism than Mazzini or Garibaldi, more subtly
diplomatic than Leo XIII or Talleyrand, as God-like
as Christ, Buddha and Sri Krishna, and he has been
addressed as the greatest thing in America, beside the
Amazon and the Andes, (sic) . In 1 899 two Latin -Ameri
can journalists had a discussion as to which would excite
greater public attention, the account of a great scientific
discovery or a eulogy on some great man. To test the
matter one published as news the story of a wonderful
invention affecting the cultivation of cane sugar, the
other published an interview with Tolstoy panegyrising
Porfirio Diaz. Both were fictions made out of the
whole cloth. The former passed unnoticed, but the
latter was reproduced in every paper in the land and
has been quoted in the life of Porfirio Diaz as a strong
argument for his continuance in power.
To an honest man all this indiscriminate lying,
coarse flattery is nauseating, to a humorous person it is
idiotic, to the intelligent it only proves the low mental
caliber of Porfirio Diaz and his sycophants.
Physically this man of destiny has been endowed
by nature with a perfection almost superhuman. He
has cultivated this gift by a wondrously laborious and
131

strenuous activity. Up to the age of 37 he fought
almost incessantly, thereby steeling his muscles, forti
fying his constitution by a vigorous, sober and chaste
conduct of life. His Indian ancestry gave him the
brawn, the Spanish forefathers the brain capacity.
Middle sized, for the excellent proportion of his
limbs he seems tall. The hands and feet are large, his
gestures measured, calm. The forehead is low, sloping
unintellectual, the eyes beady, piercing, at times kindly
and humorous, always observant and suspicious. The
nose deformed by the arched, dilated nares, resembling
that of a wide-nostriled, snorting horse after a gallop.
The chin broad with powerful mandibles, set and mas
sive as a tortilla grinder; ears large, ungainly, with their
elongated lobes, characteristic of long-lived men and
races. White hair and mustache, the skin fair, with a
constant flush and hectic red patches.
Compare this description with his portrait at the
age of 37 or before, the transformation is marvellous,
well-nigh incredible. The earliest photos or daguero-
types represent a common, brutal, almost criminal
countenance. The shock of black hair, small drooping
mustache and chin whiskers, the swarthy skin, make a
composite picture of a well dressed pelado and a Japan
ese valet. What with rubbing, scrubbing, showerbaths,
soap and human food he has changed from a greasy
condottiere into a full blown white czar, a cross between
a low-browed Bismark and an Aztec Cripi.
With a far-reaching purpose he sacrificed every
thing to his all-absorbing ambition, and like a new
Saturn devoured the children of his desires as fast as
they appeared. His health, his energy, his time were
devoted to the one purpose ; what to other men are at
tractions, distractions and amusements, were swept
aside when they did not fall in with his own line of
conduct. Gambling, smoking, drinking, women, the
theatres, the fine arts, sports, reading, leisure, he re
nounced to concentrate his energies upon that great
game of politics and personal ambition, in which bril-
132

liancy often fails when a constant plodding, alert
attitude will bring success.
Politically an intruder and socially an outcast,
Porfirio Diaz slowly climbed the ladder by all available
meafts. His marriage to the daughter of Romero Rubio
belonging to one of the best families in Mexico paved
the way for social recognition; he attached to his body
guard practically as a valet the proud and blue blooded
millioniare Pablo Escandon and married his own
natural daughter to one of the richest Mexicans in the
land. And this ex-maurader and political bandit,
whose father the popular legend points to as a priest,
whose mother was a Mixed Indian, whose natural
offspring he kindly introduced into society, whose son-
in-law is a notorious homo-sexual and whose brother-in-
law is an alcoholic lawyer and a fearless trollop hunter,
now poses as the arbiter of aristocracy in Mexico and
decides who-is-who among the upper ten.
He knew better however than to visit Europe and
America officially, thereby inviting the homage, the
curiosity and the judgment of foreigners, for his wife
gave him away once when she answered the insistent
query "Why Porfirio did not visit Europe?" — "He is
afraid" she remarked "of cutting a poor figure," and
then suddenly recalling herself, "because he does not
speak foreign languages."
His private life for the last thirty years has been
spotless and although surrounded by all the luxuries he
has led a life simple as a hermit's; in food and drink
abstemious as an Arab, in a country where everybody
smokes he has been an exception, where alcoholism is
rampant he only tastes water, where everybody goes to
bull fights he stays at home; does not visit theatres
except at official functions, seldom hunts, never plays.
Private life, personal hygiene, hard work, physical and
intellectual economy have been concentrated for the
prolongation of power through the medium of a perfect
body. All his time, spare moments, are taken up by his
133!

special duties; he does not shirk official drudgery and
will attend the unveiling of a monument as punctually
as he will receive a caller. He will lend a patient ear to
petitions, demands, protestations adultations; will re
ceive foreign officials and visitors, ministers and consuls,
governors, jefes politicos, and will listen to all, silent,
attentive, inscrutable, spare of words, ambiguous in
his promises, deliberate in speech and in manner. With
a keen and instinctive knowledge of men, enhanced by
his long experience in office, he is also endowed with a
wonderful memory for names and faces, and is a walking
encyclopedia of all the people in Mexico; he keeps a
watchful eye 02 every enemy and friend, forgetting
sometimes but never pardoning.
When General Reyes of Columbia asked him once
if he considered Limantour a great statesman, he answ
ered: "No, because Limantour never forgets his enemies,
and in politics one must sometimes forget."
After having disposed of his most dangerous rivals,
feeling that wholesale executions could not be the order
of the day, he commenced using all the rogues and some
of his enemies for his own ends, just as deadly poisons
sometimes are employed for medicinal purposes.
He was blest with a great common sense which
became distorted by the lens of personal ambition. If
selfish ambition warped his native common sense, fear
made him commit all the blunders of his political career.
Like all people quick to anger, he is not really fearless,
for as the jungle song says:" Anger is the egg of fear."
Fearful and therefore ever vigilant, he was saved from
destruction by this alertness, as the hare is preserved
from capture by his long ears.
He mistook cruelty for strength of character and
consequently was ever ready to terrorize for fear of
being thought weak. As a result of the outrageous
nickel law and the payment of the famous English debt
in the period of Gonzalez, there happened a mutiny.
"Knife them all" suggested Porfirio Diaz to Gonzalez.
But Gonzalez was not afraid. 134

Ambition and fear are the two passions which have
ruled Porfirio Diaz in his life-long political career. An
ambition, gigantic, ultra egotistic, venal, monopolizing
and personal; a fear, the result of this selfish ambition,
of a sneakish, pussillanimous and cowardly nature.
Last year on the 16th of September, as the Mexican
students desired to parade the streets of the capital,
they sent their representative, a Mr. Olea, to beg the
President's permission. Porfirio Diaz answered:
"Yes, but beware, for the Mexicans have revolutionary
tendencies lurking in their blood". Think of three scores
of youngsters parading unarmed, being a menace to
the republic, with 5000 soldiers, rurales and policemen
in the capital.
It is only by admitting this shameful well hidden
stigma on the apparently brave front of this man, that
we can logically explain such despicable and infamous
acts, as the massacre of Vera-Cruz and the carnage of
Orizaba. He was then, panic stricken, like a wanderer,
who shoots wildly at the fleeting phantoms in the night;
he was so terrorized that the only means of relieving
his blue funk, was to terrorize in return.
Another characteristic of this wooden half breed,
painted to look like iron, is his facility to shed tears. I
had the opportunity to see him, tears rolling down his
cheeks at the recital of a romantic poem by a pretty girl
at a public function.
By his enemies he is nicknamed " El Uoron de Ica-
mole' ' the weeper of Icamole. He lost this battle May
20th 1876 against General C. Fuero and as this engage
ment was supposed to decide his political fate, in his
keen disappointment and rage he furnished the disgrace
ful exhibition of a general weeping over a lost battle.
When visitors, friends as well as strangers, gush
over his mihtary exploits, his statesmanship, patriotism
and his generosity, then he thaws out and tears surge to
his eyes and run over as a frozen pond melts and over
flows in springtime.
When Captain Clodomero Cota was sentenced &r
135

the miUtary tribunal to be shot, his father sought the
president, and on his knees, weeping, begged him to par
don his son . Porfirio Diaz also was weeping, but lifting the
despairing man , uttered this ambiguous phrase ; ' ' Have
courage and faith in justice. ' ' The father left consoled,
believing his petition had been answered. But on the
following morning his son was shot. The tears of Por
firio Diaz are crocodile tears.
What is even stranger in the make up of this moral
and intellectual chameleon is his sense of humor, which
according to the stories in circulation is very keen and
to the point.
When General Escobedo was imprisoned, his friend
complained to the President about the want of deference
toward this political victim, who was the most talented
military man during the war of Intervention and of the
Empire and an honor and a glory to his country. ' ' Yes' '
mused the President " I agree with you and my great
est wish is to see him in the Hall of Fame." Knowing
the fate of the other ambitious generals one can apprec
iate this weird jest all the better.
The president's son-in-law came late to lunch
several times at the castle of Chapultepec. The third
time when he was still accusing his automobile of being
responsible for his lateness, the president said : " Don't
you know that the automobile requires gasoline and
not alcohol to run it properly." Mrs. A Tweedy once
asked the President how he conceived the first inspira
tion to become president. Porfirio Diaz, innocent like,
answered "I never did — I just drifted into the position
I now hold, and I often wonder howit ever came about."
This is a classic piece of humor and qualifies Porfirio
Diaz as candidate for the presidency of the Ananias
Club. It is highly entertaining to see this unscrupulous
despot who "did all that in him lay, to live and strive
without moral principle" sermonizing prominent men
so as to bring them down a peg or two when they get
too bumptious or conceited. 136

The president and attorney for the Mexican Light
and Power Co. negotiated the absorbtion of two rival
companies. A Mr. J. Casasus prominent lawyer and
politician, was interested in the deal of one of the
absorbed companies. He expected his share from this
transaction, but Mr. Cahan did not see it in that light
and being used to the old fashioned, scrupulous Cana
dian ways objected to this gentle form of graft. A few
weeks later Mr. Cahan was asked to see Mr. Limantour,
who in the usual Mexican fashion politely and cau
tiously began beating round the bush. When Mr.
Cahan asked for a frank explanation Mr. Limantour
accussed him outright of trying to bribe judges and
courts. In his wrath Mr. Cahan asked him : " Are you
speaking to me as a friend or as a minister?" — "As a
friend," answered Limantour. — "Then" retorted Mr.
Cahan, "you have no right to do so, unless you name
the person who reported this cock and bull story."
After a long discussion the name of Mr. Scherer was
given, on which Mr. Cahan went straight to this person,
who in his turn named Mr. Casasus as responsible. Not
only did this lawyer eagerly repeat to Mr. Cahan his
protestations of friendship, but as Mr. Cahan entered
the office, another man came out showing him the fam
ous $30,000 check, rake off for the deal, which
as he said Mr. Casasus had generously relinquished.
Later Mr. Limantour asked Mr. Cahan for the corres
pondence which had passed between him and the par
ties interested in the deal. Mr. Cahan at first refused
to comply, but at the threat of Limantour that he would
get it anyhow, he finally turned it over, and Porfirio
Diaz was then informed of the details of the whole
affair. At a function which took place a short time after
wards, Mr. Cahan and Mr. Casasus were present; the
President who came later, begged Mr. Casasus to be
kind enough to translate for him what he had to say to
Mr. Cahan. The president then spoke to Mr. Cahan
through the medium of Mr. Casasus of the alleged
137

bribery, and thanked him for having stood so firm not
only in the matter of the attempted graft, but likewise
for having so fearlessly and in his honest British way
gone to the bottom of the whole affair. He reiterated
his thanks also for the good example he was thus setting
to the other foreigners etc — Porfirio Diaz did not use as
his interpreter his aide de camp Pablo Escandon who
knows English very well, but Casasus himself, the proud
and ambitious lawyer, a star of the "cientificos", as a
very subtle and effectual way of lecturing him. This is
a characteristic instance of the innate diplomacy
of the man.
As a Latin-American politician Porfirio Diaz has
established a standard and created a school. The
larger and more enlightened republics, Brazil, Chile
and Argentina do not copy his methods, their
government being an oligarchy tempered by dem
ocracy; but the heads of the smaller and more backward
states, Cabrera in Guatemala, Zelaya in Nicaragua,
Castro in Venezuela and Reyes in Columbia are his
slavish imitators. The last mentioned, Reyes even
thought it worth while to spend a year visiting Diaz to
get his methods at first hand.
Let us make a hurried survey of Porfirio Diaz's
work as a statesman. In the beginning of his power he
prepared for the recognition of his unconstitutional
tenure of office by acknowledging the English, French
and American claims or debts; this was certainly a
master stroke, for it enabled him to make more loans,
in the fashion of the man who pays his $5 debt to be
able later to borrow $20. He divined or followed the
axiom of Baron Louis : "A state desiring credit, must
pay everything, even its blunders."
His next move was the cultivation of amicable re
lations with the United States. This policy not only
strengthened him abroad but also rendered impossible
the revolutions at the border. To continue untram
melled as the Lord and Master at home he played an
intricate game of political chess, even cheating when the
133

opponent was not watching, till in the end there were
left on the board — a king, a queen and a few pawns. W
His ambition and the elimination of all his rivals
concentrated all their power in his hands, As Bulnes
says somewhere, that a chaste and pure girl left alone
in a room with ten satyrs would be perfectly safe, since
these would be busy with fighting among themselves;
but the danger would come were she left alone with one
satyr. So Mexico can be compared to a beautiful girl
who remained pure and free as long as several political
satyrs fought among themselves for possession of her,
but when Diaz came along and destroyed one by one,
in succession, all his ambitions and lustful rivals, the
nation then lost her purity and freedom and became
his slave and prostitute.
In other words Porfirio Diaz has done his enslaving,
corrupting, unpatriotic work so thoroughly that Mr.
Iglesias Calderon voiced the sentiment of many a
Mexican patriot when he said: "Without liberties — we
run a more shameful danger than the dismemberment
of our country by force of arms, namely the treacherous
division of it by those who will barter the love of coun
try for the love of liberty," and as Don Nicamor Bolet
Peraza says : " The great danger for the Hispano- Amer
ican countries does not consist in the colossal military
power of the United States, but in its admirable liberil
political system which makes the conditions of an Amer
ican citizen so enviable to us." (i)
The political mistakes of Porfirio Diaz include his
indifference to the question of immigration, as by this
time an influx from Europe would have been a great
check against American Pacific conquest and Yankee
aggression. His impotence to take this great Latin-
American problem by the horns is proved by the small
number of Europeans in Mexico, and the compara
tively large number (about 65000) of Americans now
living there. For "the question of immigration for
Mexico as well as for Chile, Brazil and Argentina is a
(1) Rectificaciones historicas F. Iglesias Calderon Pag. 75 Vol. 1.
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question of life and death, to forget it is sooner or later
to invite destruction, (i)
His lack of patriotism is also shown in his utter
indifference to the educational question. The percen
tage of illiteracy in Mexico reaches the astonishing
number of 84%.
Another great blunder was the failure of Porfirio
Diaz to cut the Gordian knot of Central American poli
tics. The lucky circumstance that the progress of Mexico
went hand in hand with the increasing fame of Porfirio
Diaz induced the superficial student of Mexican politics
into the belief that the president was solely responsible
for all the benefits accruing from this wonderful pros
perity. But Diaz and the clique which reflects his
ideals, are short sighted, puny, self-sufficient, petty and
local politicians, without any patriotic ideals; they are
only big frogs in a little pond.
The Central American question which should have
been solved ten years ago, remained in the air, not be
cause General Diaz wanted peace in Mexico but because
he was afraid and was too old to fight. Ten years ago
he was 68 years old and therefore physically incapaci
tated to successfully lead a campaign against Guatemala ;
if he had sent another general to head the expedition,
in case of a victory Porfirio Diaz would have lost his
prestige and power.
Porfirio Diaz is not a military man in any sense
of the word, he is more of a political affinity, a liUiputian
imitation of Cardinal Richelieu, ruling an impassive
king, which in his case is the Mexican nation. He has
all the sinuous, treacherous, underhand methods of the
militant prelates of the 12th century.
The account of his campaigns do not prove him to
be either a great strategist or a great tactician. He was
only a "beau sabreur", with as much strategical ability
as was required by a robber chief and his band to attack
and destroy a heavily armed and protected conyoy.
(1) F. Bulnes, El futuro de las naciones Hispand Americanas.
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His fame as a general is another snowball which
was rolled down the mountain of Mexican military ex
ploits by his official flatterers; it became a formidable
avalanche which at the bottom of the valley, under the
searching rays of history will melt into a shallow, dirty
puddle. According to his official admirers he has won 41
battles, actions or engagements, he possesses moreover
14 government decorations and 13 foreign decorations,
among which is the first class order of the Liberator
from Venezuela.
The longer he stays in power, the more battles he
seems to be winning; they increase with amazing rapid
ity. I can imagine the faithful and useful millionaire
valet, Colonel Pablo Escandon, stepping into the sanc
tum of the chief, hand to forehead, heels joined together
in military fashion, reporting : " General, I beg to inform
you, that you have wonanother battle" "Which one?"
says General Diaz. And then the glad tidings are
bruited abroad and jotted down on the official roll of
honor. The battles of the 5th of May, 1862 and of the 2nd
of April 1867 which are officially celebrated as great
victories of Porfirio Diaz, were never won by him. The
battle of the 5th of May was won by General Zaragoza,
and the action of the 2nd of April was forced on the
council of war by a civilian, Justo Benitez, his secretary;
the organization of this assault was made by General
Alatorre and Porfirio Diaz came into action at the tail
end of the engagement. The battle of Tecoac which
decided the fall of the Lerdo government was won by
the timely arrival of General Gonzalez.
What is left then to this hero of a thousand and
one battles? Only two bloody actions: the massacre
of Vera-Cruz and the carnage of Orizaba, victories,
worthy of him, which will be inscribed in bloody letters
in his pantheon of immortality.
We have seen his work as a statesman, patriot and
as general and we stand amazed at the impudence of
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this misappropriated and plagarized political and mili
tary fame, unheard of in the annals of history, and
verily we can say with Bulnes that the only marvellous
things in Latin-America are the lies.
Porfirio Diaz is old now, almost 80 years old, too
old to continue with usefulness and dignity in the chair
of state. Although de facto a Czar he was fain to be
called president, for the title of Emperor in Mexico has
a sort of hoodoo attached to it. Three Emperors were
killed in Mexico, Montezuma, Iturbide and Maximilian.
The days of the Czar of Mexico are numbered, he is
slipping fast into decrepitude, physical and mental.
He is like the wolf who became the head of the pack
and kept his supremacy by the strength of his teeth;
the day the other wolves discover that their chief has be
come toothless they tear him to pieces , And so it
might happen with Porfirio Diaz.
Now he is only a stuffed lion, a giant with clay feet,
and if a child did but know it, he can be pushed over
with the little finger into the ash-heap. And when he
dies — God bless his soul — with him will die the last
political bandit in Mexico.

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We know what we are, but know not what we may
be. Hamlet. Act IX. Scene V.

The Central American Question.
American influence in the isthmus of Panama has
modified the whole status of Central American°politics.
It has cast over the entire strip from the Rio Grande to
the Chagres River the shadow of the American eagle.
Events which formerly passed unnoticed, are now
scrutinized with attention and an eye to their bearing on
the future. The whole situation of Central America is resting
on a flimsy basis, like an argument with a false premise.
The five Central American republics have no more busi
ness to be independent of one another than the 27 states
of Mexico and the 46 states in the American union
would have.
In 1 82 1 all the five ancient provinces of Spain
formed the Mexican federation which persisted up to
the fall of Iturbide (nth of May, 1823) which then
again separated with the exception of Chiapas which
remained with Mexico. Ever since, Guatemala, Salva
dor, Honduras and Nicaragua have always been war
ring against one another or getting up internal revolu
tions ; and for a space of ninety years there has not been
one year of peace in the Central American isthmus,
except in Costa Rica which is rightly called the Switzer
land of America. From 1821 till 1885 the struggle
centered around Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua
against Guatemala, which aspired to, and achieved
the material and moral sovereignty over the rest. But
in 1885 at the death of her President Rufino Barrios, at
the battle of Chalchuapa, Guatemala lost her suprem
acy, although she still exerts an isolated influence
alternatively over Salvador and Honduras. Nicaragua
on that date, not only recuperated her moral indepen
dence, but began aspiring to the pivot of a movement
favoring a federal union of the five states.
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As a matter of fact a Central American federation
is an impossibility, owing to the difficulty of creating a
purely federal army, because of the intense rivalry
among the respective governments which unfits them
for an " entente cordiale", and because it is a conflict of
personalities and a competition between unscrupulous
grafters. The whole political situation of the last ten years
has been reduced to a personal struggle between the
President of Guatemala, Cabrera, and the President of
Nicaragua, Zelaya. They have both protected all sorts
of revolutionary schemes by the rebel exiles from the
other republics.
Zelaya, a doctor in medicine, educated in Paris, is
energetic and intelligent; Cabrera a lawyer, is not infer
ior to him either in talent or will power; moreover the
latter's cunning and boldness are recognized even by
his enemies. It will easily be seen that such men are
not anxious to merge their supreme power into an ideal
federation, since that would mean the loss of exclusive
monopolies and schemes for personal enrichment.
During the twelve years that Cabrera has been in
power he has amassed a fortune of as many millions of
dollars, thanks to the business enterprise of his partner
a German American Jew named Stahl who gets a rake-
off on every bag of coffee that leaves the country and
who tried to hold up the Pan-American railroad for
$1,500,000 gold for the concession that the other
states had granted freely. Nor are all these ill gotten
gains invested in the states from which they have been
drained; Cabrera owns a fine hotel in Hamburg; Zelaya
sends his wife abroad every year, ostensibly to get new
clothes in Paris, but in reality with a bag of gold to place
in European banks. Verily to be President in Central
America is to be a cross between a bandit and the exe
cutive of a huge department store.
The struggle would have been endless without the
intervention of the United States and Mexico It al
ways begins with the romantic formula " right is might"
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and will end by armed intervention. The United
States cannot but favor the absorbtion of Central Amer
ica by Mexico, and this would have come about ten
years ago but for the policy of Porfirio Diaz which has
always been inert, cowardly and procrastinating.
In 1898 when there was danger of war between
Guatemala and Mexico, the state of Jalisco offered,
single-handed, with her own resources and men to
fight the former, and had the offer been accepted,
Jalisco would have succeeded, as it is the richest and
most populous of the Mexican states.
Since Guatemala's geographical position makes her
the key to the isthmus her annexation to Mexico will
end the chaotic state of affairs in Central America, for
then Mexico will control Honduras and Salvador and
therefore also Nicaragua.
Two Spanish journalists Segarra and Julia, who
made a trip from the Panama canal to the city of Mexi
co, reported their experiences in lectures, newspaper
articles and books. They are agreed upon the fact that
railroad communications will help toward peace more
effectually thanalhancesor peaceconferences. The great
work of pacification is being achieved by the Pan-
American railroad, a great deal of the success of which is
due to the efforts and diplomacy of its vice-president
Mr. Neelan. Annexation which is the paramount issue will be
taken up again after the death of Porfirio Diaz and the
Mexican president or general who will solve it satisfac
torily, will not only be the most popular man in his
country but will also make history in Central America.

147

Whoever could make two ears of corn to grow upon
a. spot of ground where only one grew before, would de
serve better of mankind and do more essential service to
his country than the whole race of politicians put together.
Gulliver's Travels.

The Possibilities and Future of Mexico.
It might sound like a paradox to say that Mexico's
progress is not due to Porfirio Diaz, but that Porfirio
Diaz owes his alleged greatness to just this inevitable
progress which continues in spite of his corrupting
influence. This assertion will be amply proved after
his translation and Mexico will then rise to her own con
sciousness, not alone as an agricultural and commercial
factor among nations but a political power as well.
There is no country which can compare to Mexico in
scenic beauty, diversity of chmate, agricultural, mining
and commercial possibilities.
Everything there is almost virgin; irrigation is
practically unknown, the soil has hardly been scratched,
its amazing agricultural richness having been neglected
for the mines.
But a country cannot be really and securely rich
unless it has as a foundation a well developed agriculture;
without this, even commerce and especially industries
cannot thrive and resist a periodical financial crisis.
In Mexico during the last crisis whole mining cities
had to migrate to other parts of the country to find
subsistence. The 40,000 people of Pachuca dwindled
down to 16,000.
This proves that mining is of an aristocratic and
agriculture of a democratic nature; the former enriches
a few and enslaves many, the latter enriches all. Take
as for example Egypt or even Cuba, which practically
devastated by revolutions for nearly two generations,
has recuperated within four of five years of peace. Now
Havana alone exports more than the whole of Mexico,
as 8 to 1.
Porfirio Diaz and his clique of which Limantour is
chief have done nothing but squeeze Mexico like a
lemon; all they thought about was to sell concessions,
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make deals, loans, schemes, plot and play their narrow-
minded grafting game. No wonder they did not en
courage immigration, for that would have meant an
outlay of money and a perfect organization; therefore
they encourage the advent of the rich foreigner and cap
italist who pay handsomely for concessions and do not
interfere in politics.
One of the articles of the program of the liberal
party was : " We discountenance all new foreign loans
with the exception of those used for irrigation pur
poses. ' ' Another article says : " An agrarian law should
be enacted to proscribe peonage in the haciendas."
That is another important question, the breaking up of
the peonage system and the division of the" latifundiae"
or great tracts of land in the hands of a few governors
and landowners Nothing has been done for the educa
tion of the Indians and although they are cursed as use
less, they nevertheless constitute the backbone of the
country, forming about 35% of the population and do
ing all the manual labor. If all her Indians were to dis
appear, Mexico would be as helpless as a babe.
The government in Mexico lowers the tariff of
wheat and corn every two or three years, for the primi
tive state and the neglect of agriculture do not permit
the country to raise sufficient of these staples to feed the
population. And still they have in Mexico the largest
cotton factory in the world and have to import cotton,
although it grows as well there as in Egypt or Texas,
but not in sufficient quantities. They possess the largest
cigarette factory, El Buen Tono, which even supplies
the French government. There is in Necaxa the largest
electric plant in the world, the Mexican Light and Pow
er Co. This company has spent $65,000,000 and tapped
over thirty rivers, dammed 10 lakes or reservoirs and
will be able to furnish in a few months 300,000 H. P.
Now it furnishes 50,000 H. P. and practically lights
Mexico and runs its cars and factories.
They have the best beer in the world, with the ex
ception of Germany, they have wonderfully rich oil wells,,
152

forests on the Pacific slope which have never seen an axe.
Everything from banana, rubber, mangoe trees and
other tropical fruits, to strawberries, grapes and apples
of the temperate zone grow there. They raise the best
coffee in the world. In Guanajuato strawberries and
violets flourish all the year round; with irrigation they
can raise two or three crops of wheat and corn. It is a
new land of Canaan but waiting for a practical Moses to
discover it.
A young Mexican, Mr. Canalizo with a good com
mercial intelligence and an American business training
has created an International Financial Association, —
which is a most reliable and thorough system for fur
nishing data concerning the agricultural, commercial
and industrial resources of the country and without
which, as Porfirio Diaz aptly remarked, Mexico would
be like a book without an index.
A brilliant and cultured writer in Mexico, Francisco
Bulnes, wrote a book a few years ago on the future of the
Latin-American countries. He divides humanity into
three great races : the race of wheat, the race of corn and
the race of rice. He gives the supremacy to the wheat
eating races, Europeans and North-Americans. He is
very skeptical about the future of Latin-America and
believes that the only thing that can save her is immi
gration; otherwise he is quite sure, that alcoholism, Don
Quixotism and inertia will make short work of her as a
political entity. He claims that South America will
be partitioned between the three aggressive powers:
Argentina, Chile and Brazil and that Mexico must inevi
tably control Central America.
In the opinion of many serious, intelligent Ameri
cans and Europeans in Mexico, as things now stand,
Porfirio Diaz has prepared the way for the absorbtion
of his country by the United States.
But think of the really great men Mexico has pro
duced; General Morelos who led the famous retreat from
Cuautla, a feat that Napoleon said was worthy of him
self, Quintana Roo, Gomez Farias, Melchor Ocampo, —
153

patriots, statesmen, thinkers, who helped build the
liberal political structure of the country — the full-
blooded Indian, Benito Juarez, one of the greatest
liberal reformers — and in my humble opinion, a nation
that has given birth to such as these, will be able to undo
the unpatriotic work of Porfirio Diaz and create a new,
liberal and progressive Mexico.

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