Posted on 05/25/2008 7:29:12 AM PDT by Homer_J_Simpson
The President said that none surrendering would be killed, adding that the proclamation was not issued because of any weakness of the government.
The manifesto asserted in part:
“With the idea that the people of San Luis Potosi may regain their tranquillity under the proper institutions, I call upon all persons in the disloyal camp to return home in order that they may employ their energies in worthy work and not in vile, degrading fighting.
“The working classes have suffered much during regimes of oppression since in moments in which the well-being of themselves and their families lay on the farms and in just remuneration for their work, they were led into an unequal fight, predestined to failure.
“The chiefs of military columns and the new State officials have orders to protect the life of those in revolt and make easy their return to their hearths and their reincorporation into the honest life that the Fatherland demands.”
President Cardenas claimed that General Saturnino Cedillo was a “counter-revolutionary.” He again attacked the oil companies, asserting that “Mexico is fighting for the suppression of all forms of internal slavery and defending its sovereignty against unjust aggression by foreign capital.”
While this was definitely a move to cut down General Cedillo’s following, it was also the first official recognition that more than a few San Luis Potosi peasants have gone with General Cedillo. It also indicates that the peasants have not surrendered as easily as was hitherto announced.
Federal planes are prepared to drop the President’s manifesto in printed form throughout the State.
Meanwhile a heavy censorship dropped down upon military activities in San Luis Potosi today.
General Cedillo, leading up to 14,000 armed Indian peasants in revolt, is reported, without confirmation, to have cut off detachments of Federal troops in the rebellious area.
In the midst of the official silence in regard to military activities, government reinforcements continue to be rushed along the Pan-American highway to Valles by truck and to San Luis Potosi, capital of the State, by train.
General Miguel Z. Martinez is leaving for San Luis Potosi to take command of the force coping with the rebellion. This is held to indicate that President Cardenas is not satisfied with the results shown by the present commanders.
General Cedillo in the fiercest days of the Mexican revolution was considered the ablest bandit in Mexico at harassing communications and wrecking trains and railroads.
Apparently, he has reverted to type after years of respectability in various Mexican governments. Furious at President Cardenas, he and his followers have taken to the hills, whose tangled trees and underbrush make San Luis Potosi a miniature Africa. The Federal troops simply cannot locate them except when there is a sudden attack by flitting shapes that later vanish away.
A freight train was blown up by two bombs this morning near Cerritos, halfway between the city of San Luis Potosi and the town of Cardenas. The caboose was blown to bits and the locomotive was thrown form the track. Two trainmen and the conductor were killed and three others were wounded.
The newspaper Universal says there are irregular concentrations in the Ciudad Maizin hills on the road from San Luis Potosi to the Pan-American Highway, and also near Cerritos and Valles. It is said that military school cadets in that region are with General Cedillo.
Government reports indicate that its troops continue to advance meeting no resistance while the natives are handing over their arms. When correspondents in San Luis Potosi State, however, asked officers that they be allowed to see the arms allegedly surrendered by armed irregulars they were put off by vague statements.
In political circles here there is a growing belief that the government must officially declare the territory dominated shortly since a long continuance of the trouble would be likely to cause its spread. If this were done President Cardenas could still leave sufficient troops in the region to foil any irregular action.
There was every indication - and certainly Mexico City thought so – that President Cardenas would have an easy time with General Cedillo, expecting him to surrender or flee the country. Instead, the “Bull of San Luis” is charging.
Observers here are now wondering if General Cedillo can hold President Cardenas at bay for weeks with guerrilla tactics while others join the rebel flag elsewhere.
The Mexico City press is carrying on a carefully developed propaganda campaign to hide the growing seriousness of the San Luis situation. Last night at 8 o’clock it was announced that the Press Department would get the governors of all the Mexican States to sign a manifesto supporting President Cardenas. At 10 o’clock that manifesto was issued. That is quick work in a country where it usually takes hours to telephone to outlying States.
As far as the carefully shepherded correspondents in the city of San Luis have been able to learn, General Cedillo’s forces have not shown any offensive strength, and if General Cedillo has more than three or four planes it is regarded as strange that they have not appeared to inflict damage on the Federals.
The only planes that General Cedillo is known definitely to have are those obtained with Federal funds given to him in payment for eight planes seized by the government when General Cedillo left the Agriculture Department, and his only known arms are those purchased for the agrarians when General Cedillo was in the Cardenas government.
However, the police in Mexico City arrested tonight Andres Gomez Unga, a reserve lieutenant in the Mexican Army, who said General Cedillo had fourteen or fifteen planes and a thousand air bombs.
Thus far the government has not seen fit to publish the texts of any documents showing that foreign governments or interests are backing General Cedillo or that the San Luis Potosi State Congress had prepared a revolt manifesto, although this may be done later.
The effectiveness of the Mexican press campaign that the revolt is rapidly being suppressed is seen in the number of politicians now swearing public fealty to the central government. One of these, Miguel Aranda Diaz, allegedly a follower of General Cedillo, gave himself up to the authorities in Mexico City today.
He asserted that General Cedillo had only 80 pesos when he left Palomas. This did not check with the report that three of General Cedillo’s aviators, Adolfo and Enrique Pina and Juan Frias, who were jailed at San Luis today, had a considerable sum of money when they attempted to cross the International Bridge at Nuevo Laredo, Mexico.
The few atttaches of the War Office who were not on vacation said that nothing startling was happening on the front of General Saturnino Cedillo’s insurrection, which the labor unions regarded as a “Fascist rebellion.”
Neither did the War Office seem perturbed over a lesser outbreak in the adjoining State of Queretaro, although the capital still did not know whether the uprising there was allied to the Cedillista revolt.
Federal troops were sent in pursuit of the Queretaro rebels, a well-organized band of about 300 who raided the Galindo, Miranda and La Noria ranches, took horses and disarmed farmers in the neighborhood.
The appeal for arms to help President Lazaro Cardenas subdue the Cedillistas came from the C. R. O. M., the Regional Confederation of Mexican Workers, and the C. G. T., the General Confederation of Labor. Previous requests by the Socialist Youth organization for permission to volunteer had been politely rejected by the Defense Ministry.
The executive council of the C. T. M., Confederation of Workers of Mexico, turned down proposals for arming its labor militia to fight the Cedillistas, deciding that the step was unnecessary.
Instead the C. T. M. will stage demonstrations throughout the country to show support of the President, and send communications to labor groups throughout the world “explaining” the revolt.
Government quarters declined to comment, but competent outside sources said that it was unlikely that President Cardenas would need to buy arms in the United States to crush the revolt.
Mexico’s national arms factories, it was said, can produce 100 rifles and 1,000,000 rounds of ammunition a day but still are operating only part time. Reliable sources said war materials on hand were adequate for at least six months’ operations.
“As you are doubtless aware from the press,” the statement said, “reports have been received of somewhat disturbed conditions in the state of San Luis Potosi, where Mexican Government troops have recently been concentrating. Due to the proximity of a section of the Laredo-Mexico City highway to this area, it might be desirable to defer your departure until the situation has been clarified. While this department is naturally desirous of being of service to you, you will appreciate that it would not be in a position to assume responsibility for your decision.”
The warning was issued not because of any new development in the disturbed area, but because many requests for advice were being received from Americans and also there were reports that the United States was preparing to warn Americans out of all parts of Mexico. The latter reports were said by the department to have “no basis.”
Owen St. Clair O’Malley, British Minister to Mexico, who was recalled by his government following the break in diplomatic relations between the two countries, was expected to pass through Washington on his way to England. He was scheduled to reach New Orleans tomorrow by steamer from Veracruz, en route to Washington and New York, where he will embark for London.
Dr. Najera booked passage on a plane for Washington this afternoon, due to arrive in the capital tomorrow morning.
Dr. Najera left this morning from San Luis Potosi, where he has been conferring with President Lazaro Cardenas for several days with regard to foreign and domestic questions, principally those involving the expropriation of oil properties.
“I am taking with me proposals for settling several of our domestic problems,” Dr. Najera said. He declared that he could not disclose details at this time, but that a conference is planned with American oil and banking officials in Washington.
The Mexican Ambassador said that he saw no signs of military activity in the Huasteca region, and added that everything is quiet in Tampico. The Mexican Government has complete control of the situation in San Luis Potosi, he declared.
General Saturnino Cedillo’s headquarters, he stated, have been located at a mountain point known as Elmeco, in a heavily wooded section that is hard to approach. General Cedillo has used this same point as a base for operations in previous conflicts.
Business circles explained that as a result of an intense campaign for the use of Chilean coal a majority of the reviving industries, manufacturing plants and mining enterprises had commenced to use it, with the result that production gradually fell behind consumption until the problem has now become acute.
Real Time + 70 Years ping.
There is a typo in the headline. It should read -70.
Ole!
Leni
IIRC, Lazaro Cardenas was the Mexican President who nationalized the Mexican oil fields. His son Cuahtemoc Cardenas is a leading leftist politico.
You RC. I posted a front page story at the time of the take-over some time back. I will dig it up and ping you.
I didn't know about the son. These guys just won't go away, will they?
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