Department Electoral Board
Esteli, 6 November, 1928.

The following information was furnished by Humberto Torres, substitute Judge of the Electoral Court of Esteli, who served as an officer in Sandino's Army during the period 1 March - 21 May, 1927.
 
Augusto Calderon Sandino ("Cesar" has recently been substituted for "Calderon" by Sandino himself), born in Niquinohomo, Carazo, about 1894, attended school in Carazo and did not go beyond the primary grades; mechanically inclined. Went to Mexico as a very young man and spent some time in the oil fields on the east coast of that country, working as a blacksmith, after which he joined Pancho Villa and became an officer in the latter's army.
 
After General Villa retired from his military career, Sandino joined another bandit group and remained in Mexico until May, 1926, when he returned to Nicaragua and, landing at Corinto, he passed through Leon on his way to the San Albino gold mines, where he secured employment and later became storekeeper for the mining company at that place.
 
He secured four pistols, and with this equipment and five followers, he started an independent revolution against the Chamorro government in August, 1926. Later he secured 30 rifles from Honduras and about the same number of recruits, among whom was Camilo Guillen. He left his arms in the care of Guillen at a point near Quilali and, accompanied by two of his officers, started down the Coco River to Puerto Cabezas with the intention of offering the services of himself and followers to the commanding general of the revolutionary forces which were then mobilizing at the latter place. He met General Beltran Sandoval, who was in command at that time, and received the promise of 500 rifles, but when the matter was referred to the revolutionary secretary of war, General Jose Maria Moncada, the plan was disapproved, as the latter said he had very little faith in the Segovians (natives of the departments of Nueva Segovia, Esteli, Jinotega, and Matagalpa).
 
Although denied arms by the revolutionary secretary of war, Sandino remained in Puerto Cabezas a few days longer and finally secured an issue of forty rifles and 4,000 rounds of ammunition and started back up the Coco with his old friend, Colonel Salvador Bosques, whom he had known in the old fields in Mexico. The party stopped at Santa Cruz, Jinotega, where Camilo Guillen and the Quilali force joined them and other recruits were secured from the vicinity of Santa Cruz. Sandino now had a total of about 80 men, armed with 70 rifles and a few pistols and with this force he marched to Yucapuca, a flat-topped, treeless mountain, where many small groups of / p. 2 / recruits joined him from the area around Yali and La Concordia, bringing his force up to about 100 armed men.
 
In march 1927 a Federal force of about 400 men armed with rifles and 6 machine guns, under General F. Gabriel Artola, attacked Sandino on Yucapuca and in a hardfought battle lasting seven hours, the Federal forces were driven off with heavy losses, including many arms which fell into Sandino's hands.
 
From Yucapuca Sandino marched to San Rafael and from there to Yali; from Yali to Concordia and three days later back to San Rafael. These movements are for the purpose of gathering recruits and inspiring confidence among the inhabitants of that section as a preliminary to moving on Jinotega; but before setting out for Jinotega he dispatched small detachments of from 10 to 15 men each to Quilali, Bocay, Chipote, and Santa Cruz to prevent Federal sympathizers from organizing in his rear. On the way to Jinotega he met Felipe Machado with 50 men and defeated him near San Gabriel on 24 March. On 28 March he attacked Jinotega with 200 armed men and after a full day of fierce fighting routed the Federals and Sandino entered the town. His force was badly disorganized as a result of this fight and promptly set to looting the town, so Sandino ordered a withdrawal to San Rafael in order to reorganize his force and after three days returned to Jinotega, which was 4 April, and remained there until the arrival of General Francisco Parajon on 15 April.
 
From Jinotega, both Sandino and Parajon marched in separate and independent columns to join General Moncada at Bejuco, near Mercedes, Chontales, where the two forces arrived about 28 April. This time Moncada welcomed Sandino's services and issued him 15,000 rounds of rifle ammunition and gave him a machine gun and a Thompson rifle. On the same day Sandino left for Boaquito, which he reached with great difficulty, due to various encounters with Federals enroute.
 
From Boaquito Sandino went to La Lima, where he remained until the 2nd or 3rd of May. After La Lima was occupied General Moncada moved his headquarters to Boaquito and remained there until after the signing of the Tipitapa agreement.
 
From La Lima Sandino moved back to Jinotega, where he called the people together to ascertain if they were willing to follow him, but failing to get a single recruit, he moved on to San Rafael del Norte with his force, which then consisted of about 300 men. He established his headquarters in San Rafael, where on 20 May he was married to Blanca Arauz, a very beautiful girl of about 18 years of age and the daughter of Pablo Arauz of that town. The Arauz family consists of the father, mother, 3 sons and 3 daughters and each of the 8 members of this family are experienced telegraph operators.
 
While in San Rafael he made up his mind to keep his fight against the government and decided to move his forces to Quilali. In order to make this movement in secret, he divided his command into small columns and sent them by different routes and Sandino himself left San Rafael on 25 May with 80 men. While in San Rafael he allowed some 50 or 60 of his men to return to their homes as they were not willing to follow him to Quilali. Before leaving San Rafael for Quilali, Sandino had decided to occupy and organize Chipote, as he was already very familiar with this position. This plan was carried out and he remained on Chipote until driven out by the Americans 25 January, 1928. / p. 3 /
 
Sandino is of medium height, very slender, weighs about 115 pounds; education limited to primary grades; and extreme optimist and possesses unusual ability in convincing others of the feasibility of his most fantastic schemes; extremely energetic; explains his plans in great detail to his lowest subordinates but often keeps his officers in doubt; is far from being cold-blooded and was never known to commit any act of cruelty himself; very religious and believes that for every wrong committed adequate punishment will be meted out to the offender, regardless of the steps taken by the agents of the law; he has little interest for acquiring money for personal use and rarely has a penny in his pocket; is very vain and sophisticated, fully believing that his wisdom is infallible; he will not tolerate for long a subordinate of outstanding ability; feigns modesty at all times, but in fact is most vain and selfish; his one slogan is "The Welfare of Our Fatherland," always stressing his interest in the peasant class; he has frequently said that if he or one of his close friends ever got into control of the government that the port of Corinto will be promptly closed and everything diverted to Port Cabo Gracias a Dios, so that the isolated sections of the Republic may have the greatest advantage in their contact with outside civilization.
 
J. B. Pate,
Chairman

M28.11.06.  RG127/205/1