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Memo to Col Dunlap
would like to have the
comments of your officers on
this [report] particularly of Holmes & Stockes
B-2
REPORT NO. II.
The third part of this report
will probably be furnished by Captain Maurice G.
Holmes. The first part, as usual, is in the form
of a diary, and the second part is general
observations and suggestions.
PART I.
I started my trip on the 10th of August, 1928,
arriving at Chinandega at about 2 o'clock on
that date without anything particular happening
on the train. As I had my trip prepared this
time, Manuel Armuero (the Liberal colonel I
referred to in my last report) was waiting for
me with a horse, ready to go, and at 3:30 p.m. I
started on my trip to Tempisque. As it was the
day the launch leaves to Ampala and La Union,
there were two more travelers besides myself.
One of them being a Mr. Sanchez, a liberal and
some kind of merchant from Chinandega who went
to La Union to sell some cheese. The second I
could not see until we were almost in Tempisque
as he was riding about half a mile ahead of us.
My friend Armuero and Sanchez were telling me
that this man had a bad conscience as he is the
brother of one Vargas who was formerly Jefe
Politico of Chinandega and who committed a lot
of cruelties against the poor liberals, and he
fears the revenge of the liberal people living
in this part of the country and therefore rides
alone. During the night of the 9th-10th a man
was killed on the road from Tempisque to
Chinandega near "El Guanacaste," a place near
the cross-road of the hacienda "El Paraiso"
which I referred to in my first report.
Arriving at Tempisque I found things had changed
considerably to their favor since my first visit
there. The place referred to in my first report
as being the cususa [cane liquor] distillery I
found abandoned by the owners, only a girl
staying at the house, and the sale of liquor
stopped. According [to] this woman and her man
(his name is Sinforoso Mungia) the former owners
had moved to some place in Guanacaste. As I know
them both from my prior visit there I fully
believe they have transferred their crooked
activities from Tempisque to Guanacaste. There
was a Guardia lieutenant there acting every
Friday as custom authority so everything went
smoothly. The launch arrived about ten o'clock
p.m. so I had time to get better acquainted with
Mr. Julio Vargas, brother of the Diego Vargas.
He is 27 years of age, fairly well educated, and
it seems to me he would take a part in the
political activities of his country, due to his
youth and the fact that he is a leader of the
Conservative Club in Managua. According to his
statement, for the past year he was the
president's tailor, but resigned the service of
Adolfo Diaz because of the different opinions of
his being a "Chamorrista" (he is a nephew of
General Chamorro) in the presidential campaign
inclining to the favor of Dr. Cuadra Pasos, and
started a rain-coat business on his own hook
between Nicaragua and Honduras.
At 11 o'clock p.m. we left Tempisque, and as my
friend Julio had a bottle of Scotch whiskey he
helped himself liberally. We continued our
conversation which was mainly of a political
nature, and I was firmly impressed that his trip
to Tegucigalpa meant something more than simply
selling rain-coats, besides he did not have any
with him, explaining that he had previously
forwarded them to Messrs. Uhler & Co.,
Tegucigalpa. We reached Ampala early in the
morning and were received by the port
authorities at 8 o'clock a.m. I was informed
that no launch was going that day / p. 2 / to
San Lorenzo and therefore Mr. Vargas and I were
forced to stay one day more in Ampala.
August 11. Ampala is a port which gives a fairly
clean impression and we stopped there in the
hotel Venecia. It happened that Vargas and I
were placed for our meals at the same table with
General Abraham Williams who is the commander of
Ampala and a very clever type of creole. I found
him to be a hot conservative, pleading for the
candidacy of General Tiburcio Carias for
president. He is the son-in-law of Hipolito
Agasse of San Marcos. On the north beach of the
port I observed a fleet of canoes which engage
in regular contraband trips to Nicaragua.
I had a room with Julio Vargas and when he went
to take a bath I had the opportunity to search
his handbag and his pocket book which he left on
the bed. I found nothing suspicious in his
handbag, and his pocket book contained $206.00
in American, Nicaraguan, and Honduranian bills
and a closed envelope with no address on it.
August 12. We left Ampala at 10:00 a.m. and
arrived at San Lorenzo at 11:30 a.m. Here the
ways of Vargas and I parted, he going to
Tegucigalpa and I went in search of a horse to
continue on my way to Choluteca. At 2 p.m.
everything was ready, the way is straight north.
There is a high road under construction but it
only goes for about 2 miles then the way gets
bad. The distance from San Lorenzo to Choluteca
is 24 miles. There is only one small settlement,
Pavona, between San Lorenzo and Choluteca, about
12 miles from San Lorenzo. Pavona contains about
40 houses and a telegraph office. About 4 miles
beyond Pavona I was caught in a thunderstorm and
was forced to spend the night at a ranch.
August 13. Early in the morning I continued on
my way and reached the Choluteca River which had
swollen to a depth of 10 or 12 feet during the
night, and I had to cross it in a canoe. I
arrived at Siercke's house at 9:30 a.m., where I
was made welcome. I explained to Mr. Siercke
that my purpose of coming was to visit his mine
Cacamuya, and he gladly offered me any help I
wanted. The first thing I did was to visit my
friend General Andres Leiva, the commander of
the Department of Choluteca. He was very glad to
see me and asked me to return in the evening to
go with him to the house of a friend to play
poker. I next wired Mr. Felix Erbe of Apasuru
(see first report) asking if he would go with me
to Apasuru, as I knew from my first strip that
Erbe is well acquainted with the Commander of
San Marcos, Pancho Guzman, and I wanted Erbe to
go with me that I might get better acquainted
with this man. In the afternoon I received
Erbe's answer stating that he would come on the
16th to join me.
At 7:00 p.m. I went to visit Leiva, he lives in
the same house where his office is in front of
the "Cuartel." I arrived very early as the
General was still at dinner, and he asked me to
wait in the office until he had finished. His
desk was covered with sheets waiting for his
signature, each was to call a man for the 21st
of August to the military service. Then there
was a list of 46 names, at the end of each name
being an "L" or an "N" which I presumed to mean
liberal or nationalist, but there were only two
"N's" on the whole list. The drawers of his desk
were closed but I did not dare open them for
fear of making too much noise and attracting the
General's attention. A few minutes later a young
man entered and the general presented him to me,
Guillermo Pinell. The general did not have
enough money to go out and asked me to turn my
flashlight on the combination of his safe; he
opened the safe and I was so near that I could
see that the little drawer on top was filled
with greenbacks. The three of us then went to
the house of the old General Mariano Ortez.
There the Governor, Ciriaco Padilla, was
awaiting us and we had a little poker. Nothing
interesting happened this evening. / p. 3 /
August 14. I visited the man who gave me on my
last visit the number of the "Ariel", but he
told me that shortly after my departure the
American Minister in Tegucigalpa interfered and
the paper was stopped. The whole thing made a
very great impression on the natives who
couldn't believe of such an influence. I went to
"El Rhin", a saloon owned by a General Nunez, a
director of the Conservative party. In the Rhin
I met Guillermo Pinell; we sat down and he
explained to me why he particularly is a Carias
agitator and why the conservative party is going
to win. He was going this same afternoon with
General Mariano Sanaoria on propaganda work, and
when I asked him if this job paid he just showed
me a bundle of American bills; my impression is
that I saw those same bills last night in the
safe of General Leiva.
When Guillermo Pinell had gone out, General
Nunez told me that about a year ago Pinell was
chief of police in Tela, but he handled his job
so crookedly that the United Fruit Company had
him fired, and that now he is doing all kinds of
dark political work and not even his own party
trusts him too much, but he is a good friend of
Carias. This same Pinell even now could be chief
of police in Choluteca, because the present
chief, Antonio Fajardo is known as a Tostista,
but when the order came from Tegucigalpa he
refused to hand his positio nover and was ready
to defend the police quarters with his 15 men
and to avoid a scandal they left him in office.
In the evening we were all, except Guillermo
Pinell, in the house of Mariano Ortez. Leiva
tells me that the forces in the north part of
the department are now divided and that General
Chavez and Major Matamoros have 60 men and the
territory up to Morolica, and Colonel Mondragon
is handling 40 men in the area of Duyure.
August 15. Nothing happened up to the evening,
when during the poker game the conversation
turned to bandits. The general opinion was the
incapacity of the Marines in this territory, and
that natives would have long ago finished with
them, stating all kinds of examples of old times
and so on.
August 16. At 4:00 a.m. Erbe arrived and at 5:00
a.m. we left for San Marcos. After we passed El
Banquito near San Francisco such a heavy
thunderstorm came that we were obliged to stop
at a ranch. At 6 p.m. another party came along:
Emeterio Carcamo, Pedro Larios, Benito Ortez,
and Vicente Sanchez; the first three
conservative leaders and the latter a liberal of
San Marcos. I knew all of them except Pedro
Larios from my first trip. They came from
different directions but all with the same goal
to bring propaganda money to San Marcos.
Emeterio Carcamo came from Tegucigalpa, Pedro
Larios from Salvador, Benito Ortez from
Choluteca, Vicente Sanchez has been as far as
Guatemala. In the evening we [were] sitting
around the fire and all of them were yelling
against the United States, even Pedro Larios who
has been 12 years in the States and is a
graduate of Cornell University. All kinds of
reasons were expressed for this hate, some of
them being very foolish.
August 17. At 10:00 a.m. we reached San Marcos.
The present manager of Siercke's store is a Mr.
Rudolfo Portillo. I explained to him that after
I had visited the mine, I would stay a few days
longer in San Marcos to make an assortment of my
samples. They gave me for my personal use a
whole house diagonally to store and owned by
Siercke. After I had been here about an hour the
whole of San Marcos came to welcome me. There
were a number of persons I do not remember
having seen before. In the afternoon I persuaded
Felix Erbe to invite his old friend Pancho
Guzman the Commander to go with us the next day
to visit Cacamuya, the abandoned gold mine of
Siercke. I went to Emeterio Carcamos' place,
called "La bola de oro" where the conservatives
had a meeting. The director of the club is
Natcho Pinell, an old man who owns a big ranch
down the way to San Francisco. Carcamo reported
about his trip to Tegucigalpa, and they decided
to form a committee to go / p. 4 / around the
small places and call all conservatives for a
manifestation for the 26th of August; the man
who yells most is Rudolfo Calderon.
August 18. Felix Erbe's invitation was accepted
and Pancho Guzman is riding with us. The mine
Cacamuya is about 16 miles southwest from San
Marcos; the first owner was Hipolito Agasse and
then it changed from hand to hand until the time
Siercke got it and finally abandoned operations.
During the ride to the time I was talking with
Guzman and found that he did not get along very
well with General Chavez because he was a real
Cariista and Chavez was not, and now they have
made Chavez a "Jefe Expedicionario" and he is
only a Commander. He charged Chavez openly with
being an ally of the reds and helping them in
anyway he can. (The writer doesn't believe that
so far, it's just simply that Chavez is not a
friend of Carias but that doesn't prove he is
not loyal to the Government.) At noon we reached
the mine; it has been abandoned since 1925 and
looks accordingly. I spent the afternoon in
climbing hills and collecting samples.
August 19. In the early morning we left
Cacamuya. I left my samples there instructing
the guard at the mine to bring them to San
Marcos at the earliest possible moment. We
arrived at San Marcos at noon, but my horse
being sick will have to remain [there] a few
days until he recovers. So Erbe is planning his
trip back to Choluteca for tomorrow and I am
looking for a good and dependable mozo. I
visited Hipolito Agasse, because he still has
some papers concerning the mine. I changed the
conversation to his Hacienda "El Rhin" and he
said that bandits are visiting his hacienda
friequently and he just thinks it's a lack of
energy on the part of the marines that they
haven't caught Ortez yet. He also told me that a
marine patrol was near Cornicuelo and I had to
hurry to communicate with them although I had no
real dope, as my man Faustino Vasquez, Commander
of Uyure, had not wired me anything. Agasse
recommends to me as a mozo a Nicaraguan
(conservative), and to hire the man who looks to
me. I spent the rest of the day arranging the
house as good as possible because I intend to
have the whole political circle of San Marcos at
my home as I believe this is the best way to get
information.
August 20. At 5:00 a.m. Felix Erbe left and a
few minutes later my mozo Jeronimo Rivas goes
with a letter to El Cornicuelo. At 4:00 p.m. the
mozo returns. He did not meet the marines but he
brought me a letter from a Jorge B. Aguilar who
was with them as a servant and who told me that
they had left the 19th.
August 21. I have the dope on at least where
these birds are. They stay in a house owned by
Juan Moncada (owner of Santa Emilia), (There are
about 20 - 25 men) in a place called Guayabal
making short excursions to La Desa and Mailote.
But now I don't know where the patrol is. My day
is wholly occupied with visitors. The circle
which is almost the whole day around me is
composed of the following persons: Nitcho
Pinell, Emeterio Carcamo, General Chavez, Major
Matamoros, Patro Larios and his brother Gilberto
Larios, Rudolfo Calderon and his brother Gonzalo
Calderon, Lizandro Lainez, Napoleon Tercero,
Luis Antonio Osorio, Benito Ortez,
conservatoves, and Jacobo Pinell and Vicente
Sanchez, liberals. They stay all day around my
house, playing, drinking and talking politics.
August 22. Early in the morning I sent my
servant with a letter and the order to find a
marine if he had to go up to Somoto. This
afternoon I had a very interesting conference in
my house with two great heroes, Jacobo Pinell
the liberal leader, and Lizandro Lainez the
active Captain (conservative). They both had
decided to go south but had not decided where to
go and came to ask my opinion as to the best
place to go when / p. 5 / the revolution starts
here. I first asked them when the revolution is
to start and Lainez showed me a letter from his
uncle in which he asks him to run because
Alfredo Schlesinger in Tegucigalpa has wired him
that General Gregorio Ferrera had returned from
Salvador and everything is ready to start.
August 23. This day I had a long talk with
Jacobo Pinell. He has been around in the States
for three years, and I should say he is the only
person in and around San Marcos who does not
hate the Americans. He recognizes their
superiority, but as the liberal leader in San
Marcos he must blow the horn as the mass likes
it and that means against the Americans. Later
Matamoros arrived and asked me to have a ride
with him. I have the impression that Chavez
wants me closely watched, and I would like to
have the answer from the patrol. At 6:00 p.m.
Jeronimo Rivas returned. He had been as far as
Somoto and he brings me the answer of Captain
Geo. F. Stockes, and two other envelopes
addressed to Captain Maurice G. Holmes. Now at
least I know where I will find the patrol.
August 24. Today an accident occurred in the
place of Emeterio Carcamo. Jacobo Pinell
mentioned that the Nationalists are taking all
the laborers from the ranches owned by liberals
and putting them into military service just to
keep them from voting for Ochoa Velasquez.
Rudolfo Calderon and Luis Antonio Osorio
protested and in the same moment pulled their
guns and were ready to shoot. I took Jacobo
Pinell out of the saloon and after about half an
hour everything was normal again. I had Pinell
spend the night in my house and some very
interesting things were talked over.
August 25. Early in the morning I sent for my
servant with a letter of my own and the two
envelopes to look for Captain Holmes who I
presumed must be somewhere around Oyote. At 7:00
p.m. the mozo came back with the answer that
Captain Holmes is waiting for me. The mozo also
stated that he saw there General Chavez, Major
Matamoros with four men and Hipolito Agasse. It
seems funny, because Matamoros told me yesterday
they would ride to Uyure, and the way to Oyote
is quite different. Captain Holmes informes me
he is staying in the house of Antonio Osorio.
That is good as I am very well acquainted with
Luis Antonio. I had just finished reading the
letter when Osorio and Ortez came to my house
and told me that in the house of Rudolfo
Calderon they are waiting for a party of men
coming from all sides to have a political
meeting tomorrow. When I arrived at Calderon's
they gave me a button of Tiburcios Carias and
made me a Vocal quite against my will. At about
9:00 p.m. a party of mounted men arrived yelling
"Viva Carias!" They then formed a committee
which went out during the night to invite
everybody they could get. The committee
consisted of Pedro and Gilberto Larios, Emeterio
Carcamo and Nitcho Pinell.
August 26. From the early morning one could see
the troops arriving. About 2:00 p.m. about 250
drunken men were hanging around the streets.
Also General Mariano Sanaoria, a very good
looking man, and Guillermo Pinell had arrived
from Concepcion de Maria. The General begn to
speak to the people, then Natcho Pinell spoke
followed by Emeterio Carcamo and Guillermo
Pinell. I was forced to go right behind the
leaders. The speeches concerned the highness of
the national party and the lowness of the
liberals, and that the Honduranian nationalist
would know how to fight. Meanwhile the mass
yelled "Viva Carias!", "Viva la guerra!". They
[There] were only two accidents. While Natcho
Pinell was speaking they caught a liberal and
beat him rather badly. About half a mile out of
town a conservative and a liberal killed each
other with pistols. At 5:00 p.m. a crowd of
about 30 persons came to my house and brought
their own guaro [cane liquor] with them. They
stayed until 8:00 p.m. then we moved over to
Carcamos place and stayed there the whole night.
/ p. 6 / Tomorrow I will ride with Luis Antonio
Osorio to his house if he is not too drunk.
August 27. At 4:00 a.m. I went home to saddle my
horse. I will leave some of my things and tell
them I will return this same evening. At 5:00
a.m., Osorio and the crowd were still drinking
and continued until at least 8:00 a.m. I lifted
him on his mule and we went to Oyote. As I
arrived Osorio went to sleep, so I had enough
time to go to the corral with Captain Holmes
where we changed our plans and decided to move
this same evening to Guayabal by way of Santa
Emilia. In the afternoon Pedro Larios arrived
and started to argue with the Captain as he was
still drunk, saying that the marines are not
pacifying Nueva Segovia and so on. The Captain
and I declared that we are going to visit his
home in Ocotal and that I will return in a few
days. That was accepted by all and we started
our trip almost straight east.
PART II.
Concerning the bandit activities on the border
between Nueva Segovia and Honduras the writer
made close observation and found:
The supply center for the group of Miguel Angel
Ortez and Vaquedano is now Uyure in Honduras.
The other group being Antonio Maldonado. Inez
Hernandez and Doroteo Hernandez get their
ammunition, rifles, etc., from Ortez, the rest
of the articles they steal from the ranches or
better said they get them from the people, as
the natives still consider the marines their
worst enemies. The fighting forces of both bands
reduced considerably, as most of their
Honduranian troops went back to Honduras in view
of a better bandit future there. As a matter of
fact both gangs together have right now not more
than 20-30 men, which of course changes daily
but not considerably.
It is an entirely wrong idea that the bandits
when attacked flee to Honduras, as they cannot
do such a thing. Their only chance to get help
from Honduras depends not on crossing the
border. The activity radius is this: El Espino
to Santa Emilia in this valley they have Las
Canas to live in and Los Robles, which are
fortified for defense, from there to Mailote
which they are right now fortifying the way down
to the creek. El Guayabal, the house of Juan
Moncada, serves them as a hospital and general
refuge; from there they make daily excursions to
La Presa.
The main handicap for the marine patrols is in
my eyes their slow speed. The writer could
observe on his own trip that during one night
not more than 18 miles was covered, instead of
40-45 miles which could be made. To hit those
bandits definitely I would suggest the following
plan: Arrange 4 patrols which start the same
night in this way: I. Patrol: From Somoto to
Espino then over San Ramon and to Santa Emilia
and take Las Canas. II. Patrol: From Somoto
straight to Los Robles then turn to Los Naranjos
and wait on the foot of the cerro Mailote. III.
Patrol: From Ocotal to La Quesera, La Presa get
the house of Juan Moncada in Guayabal and up to
Mailote. IV. Patrol: Goes either from Somoto or
from Ocotal and is composed of all the outfit
the rest of the patrols need. This patrol might
take as many miles as they ant and go straight
on the Camino Real to the house of Santa Emilia
which is almost center of the circle. There they
wait until Patrols I, II, and III return. The
first 3 patrols take as little baggage as
possible so that they may be able to hit the
bandits more or less at the same time. Be
careful in Los Robles and Mailote as they may
have machine guns in both places, even so they
have very little ammunition for them. / p. 7 /
The principal dope I secured in Honduras is that
both parties get financial help from Nicaragua.
The agents and messengers for the liberals are
General Neri Fernandez and Mr. Luis H. Debayle,
both of them are now in Nicaragua but make
separated trips to Tegucigalpa and Tela. There
is constant traffic in arms. The government
sends a great deal of arms south (to Choluteca)
and the north coast. In San Marcos they have
right now 144 Springfields, the same model as
the G.N. and about 40,000 cartridges. One Lewis
machine gun but no ammunition for it. They have
announced that in the first days of September
they will get more arms and another machine gun,
Chavez asked for that, but the soldiers are not
worth a penny. They are 90% liberal and the rest
for Tosta. One of the most interesting figures
in this play is Mr. Alfredo Schlesinger, private
secretary of Tiburcio Carias. If I am not
mistaken I heard about him in 1924; that he
helped Carranza to flee from Mexico, but I am
not so sure about that. My opinion is that he is
one of these political adventurers. The resume
is the revolution in Honduras is sure in the
last days of October.
[ END ]
M28.09.30a,
RG127/220/6
|
This report by "Agent #88" was
submitted to Colonel Dunlap, USMC, by a
Nicaraguan spy whose mission was to probe the
political sentiments of the political and
military elite in those parts of Honduras just
to the west of Nicaragua's Western Segovias. Posing as a mining investor, he departed
Chinandega by boat on August 10 and made his way
to San Marcos de Col-VoluntarioJoseEspinosa.jpg)
Who was Agent
#88? Possibly Captain Jos