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Patrol from ocotal to las manos, honduras, western segovias
 


27.11.19.  Wells, Patrol from Ocotal to Las Manos, Honduras

 

 

DIVISION OF NUEVA SEGOVIA
OCOTAL,            NICARAGUA
19 November 1927.


 
Report of patrol this date from Ocotal to Las Manos, Honduras and return:
 
    Cleared Ocotal with 5 marines and 5 guardia; also Mr. Albir, Honduranian Consul and Alcalde of Ocotal. Patrol proceeded through Dipilto to Las Manos which is in Honduras. Found all houses between Ocotal and the Honduras border deserted with the exception of two. These were at a place called San Jose. At one house there was a woman and two children. She said her husband had gone to Ocotal to purchase supplies. One of our mules was unable to proceed further and it was left in her care. She offered us a horse for our use which was accepted. She informed us that a house, which could be seen farther up the mountain, was occupied by bandits. We saw two men run from this house and it was deserted when we reached it. Mr. Albir's house, which is about five miles north of Dipilto, has been burned within the past two weeks. Dipilto is a town of about 35 houses and, from all appearances, has not been occupied for several months.
    For many miles between Dipilto and Honduras both sides of the trail and practically all of the ravines are covered with coffee trees. There are, also, many head of cattle in this area with apparently no owners.
    At Las Manos, which is just across the border in Honduras, we found 15 or 18 men all armed with revolvers. They seemed to be very much perturbed by our presence. They said we were the first Americans they had ever seen. Three of them requested permission to come to Ocotal, enroute to Esteli, under arms. When refused this they left their arms at Las Manos and followed us to Ocotal.
    On our return trip we traversed a different trail. We circled about fifteen square miles without seeing any activity of any nature.
    It is believed that if there are any bandit gangs operating in this territory of more than two or three men they must come across the border from Honduras.
 
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - / s / D. E. WELLS - - - -
 
 

127/43A/3

 

Summary & Notes:

•   Report used to open my "Sandino Rebellion Revisited" chapter in the Duke volume (1998):  four groups of actors here & manner of interaction used as allegories for four social processes transforming Nicaragua during this period:  Marines (imperialist intervention); Guardia Nacional (state formation); "bandits" they stumbled into (continuing civil war); EDSN (popular nationalism; the episode's invisible presence and why Marines were mucking around in Nicaragua to begin with).
•   Report even more complex & layered than my analysis suggests.
•   Woman warns patrol & lends them her horse (fluidity of identities and allegiances).
•   Mr. Albir's straddling of national boundaries (ambiguities of identities in the borderlands).
•   Burning of Mr. Albir's house (continuing violence & property destruction after the Civil War).
•   Coffee trees and roaming cattle (emergent capitalist economy meshed with older pre-capitalist one).
P C - D O C S :      P A T R O L   &   C O M B A T    R E P O R T S
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