HEADQUARTERS GUARDIA NACIONAL DE NICARAGUA
MANAGUA, NICARAGUA.
5 FEBRUARY 1929.

GN-2 NOTE NO. 1 OF 5 FEBRUARY 1929.
 
1. The following report has been received in this office and is quoted for your information:
 
"FEW DETAILS ON CERTAIN PERSONS WHO ARE SANDINISTAS UNDER COVER."
 
GENERAL MONDRAGON:
 
Chief Commander of the Honduran Forces on the Border, who has been supposed to cooperate with the American Marines against Sandino. Mondragon, while on duty, has not been a friend of the Marines; with false information he gave, he managed to destroy Marine Plans that were well thought against the bandits. Here is something worth being brought to your knowledge: In September 1928, Mondragon had a meeting at Carmela Gonzalez's house (Mondragon's mistress) with General Carlos Quesada (Sandinista leader), Cornelio Zamora (from Danli) and others. During the meeting they talked about Sandino's business with Honduras. At the end of the meeting Quesada stated that he had orders from Sandino to burn Ocotal. Quesada left Danli that same night and joined Sandino in Cinco Pinos.
 
RAMON RAUDALES AFFAIR:
 
On the last days of October 1928, Mondragon, through a wire, received orders from President Miguel Paz Barahona (President of Honduras) to capture the Sandinista agent Ramon Raudales from Ula, Jicaro Zone, who left from Tegucigalpa with a train of pack mules with ammunition, arms, clothes and supplies for Sandino. Raudales was told by Jose Maria Albir (Honduran Deputy) and brother to the Albirs in Ocotal, that such an order had been issued against him. Raudales knowing about the order, all the same left for Danli where he was not bothered by Mondragon. He stayed there two nights and then left for Cinco Pinos where he joined the bandits. Raudales also brought to Nicaragua some secret correspondence from General Ferrera, Liberal leader in Honduras, who then was ready to invade his country, in case the Liberal Party would lose the Presidential Elections, which were held a week after Raudales joined Sandino in Cinco Pinos where a few days after the rebel was attacked by the Marines who among other things captured from him a typewriter.
 
JOSE IDIAQUEZ:
 
A very hot Sandinista (Honduran) has been living for some time in Cifuentes. In order to prevent him from helping Sandino, President Paz Barahona sent an order to Avelino Diaz, Comandante de Danli, to move Idiaquez to Tegucigalpa. Diaz answered President Barahona that Idiaquez was dangerously sick and that it would kill him to move him from his home. Avelino Diaz's statement to President Paz Barahona was false because Idiaquez was never sick. That is how the Honduran officials on the border laugh at their President's orders. Idiaquez has taken all kinds of advantages in Cifuentes, taking active part in Sandino's trade with Honduras. / p. 2 /
 
HOW SANDINO WAS ABLE TO GET SUPPLIES FROM HONDURAS DURING LAST YEAR:
 
Late last year before the Presidential Elections took place in Nicaragua and Honduras, Sandino was backed up by both parties from Honduras. The Cariismo (Conservatives) sent him arms and supplies in order to have him starting trouble in Nicaragua and so help indirectly the Nicaraguan Conservative Party. On the other hand the Honduran Liberal Party was supporting Sandino with the purpose of using him and his forces in case the Liberal Party would be defeated. Ferrera's plan was to have Sandino invade Honduras through Guatemala where he was ready to do so. General Mondragon and General Avelino Diaz have had as their secret agent in El Ocotal, Genaro Lopez and Federico Nolazco, who manage to send them reports of what is happening in Ocotal regarding the National Guard and Marine Corps activities.
 
GAMERO'S FAMILY:
 
They have been Sandinista. It is a numerous family and probably will have a great influence with new elected President Mejia Colindres. The Gameros are from Danli. Jose Idiaquez's sister is married to an important member of that family. Abel Gamero was elected deputy for Danli District.
 
REPORT ON THE SANDINISTA SITUATION IN NICARAGUA AND ON THE HONDURAN BORDER: ITS DIFFERENT PHASES.
 
WHAT IS SANDINISMO?
 
Sandinismo is a modern Latin American School for Banditry, it was founded in Nicaragua in 1927 by Augusto C. Sandino and supported by the false Latin American Patriotic Feeling exploiting the idea that the Americans have not come to Nicaragua with a friendly feeling but with the only purpose to oppress the small Caribbean Republic.
 
WHO IS AUGUSTO C. SANDINO?
 
Sandino is one of General Moncada's jefes in the revolutionary Liberal Army, that after signing the Disarm Agreement [Espino Negro Accords, or Treaty of Tipitapa, 4 May 1927], did not keep his military word of honor and took to the mountain to give ample freedom to his bandit feelings.
 
TWO KINDS OF SANDINISMO:
 
There are two classes of Sandinismo: Intellectual Sandinismo and Material Sandinismo.
 
INTELLECTUAL SANDINISMO:
 
This Sandinismo is the propaganda made in and outside of Nicaragua in favor of Sandino's attitude by Froylan Turcios, Honduran; Jose Idiaquez, Honduran; Gustavo Aleman Bolanos, Nicaraguan; Solomon de la Selva, Nicaraguan; Fernando Larios and indirectly the Honduran Government (Dr. Paz Barahona has not realized yet that without his knowledge certain elements around him have been working in favor of Sandino with political purposes). How do they work? This element has supported military officers along the border with instructions not to Stop Sandino warfare. This propaganda has been spread all over Latin America and in many other places by Froylan Turcios through newspaper articles, poetry, victor disks [Victrola discs, i.e., record albums on hand-cranked Victrolas], meetings, trade marks, false reports on the result of Sandino's contacts with the American Marines and everything fit to profit / p. 3 / from a cause apparently just and patriotic. Froylan Turcios has been and is the owner of such tremendous, we may say -- business, and the most responsible of the present situation in Nicaragua.
 
MATERIAL SANDINISMO:
 
The so-called General Sandino followed by a bunch of bandits most of them being Hondurans and half-minded whose last actuation has been to protect with their arms the profits of their banditry and carry it safely to a friendly market on the other side of the Honduran border.
 
MARKET FOR SANDINO'S MERCHANDISE:
 
This market is really formed by a few merchants: Casa Siercke in El Paraiso and Alauca and Danli; Casa Rossner, located in El Paraiso and Danli; Jose Calazan Vallardes [Ballardes], located also in El Paraiso and Danli; Hipolito Agasse in San Marcos de Colon, who buy from Sandino at very low prices, gold, cattle, mules, horses, dry hides, coffee, soap, and everything that the bandits under Sandino rob from the poor people in the Northern Departments of Nicaragua. The money Sandino gets from these merchants is directly sent to Froylan Turcios who buys for the rebels, ammunition, arms, clothes, and supplies, and everything they need. This is the reason why Sandino and his followers can live in a mountain where now it cannot even be found a single place where to buy any kind of food.
 
SANDINO'S SECRET SERVICE:
 
Sandino has nothing like a secret service. The information he gets is based on the Sandinist feeling among the low class of people scattered all over this Department. Sandino does not need any information to avoid the American Forces. He knows the system used by the Marines to pursue him and he thinks himself safe by traveling during the night and by short cuts into the mountain. Sandino has avoided the American Persecution due to his small number of followers who at a certain moment convert themselves into peaceful civilians. The American Marines are respectful and when they see a man working they respect him. But it happens that sometimes the man that apparently is working and respected by the American Forces as a peaceful citizen is also an active bandit.
 
SANDINO'S FOLLOWERS HIDING PLACES:
 
Every small town, every locality, every hut out in the country, wherever you find people, are the real hiding places for the Sandinistas. The most important places are: El Corral de Piedra, located at about 18 miles West of Ocotal. El Amatillo, also at the West in a mountain called Marimacho. Al Aguacate, at 3 miles from Santa Maria, Las Canas at 3 miles from Santa Maria, Las Canas at 2 miles fro Macuelizo, Cuje to the South of Palacaguina, Quibuto Mountain has also been a very important Sandino stronghold, Cinco Pinos in Murra Zone, Yauli in Murra Zone, Las Mercedes Minerals to the South of Murra, Los Lavaderos de Congojas to the South of Murra, Montanas del Remango to the South of Murra, El Guineo to the South of Murra, Minerals that belong to Juan Jose Colindres Reyes near Poteca, El Pedregalito (valley) in Honduras, 9 miles to the North of Santa Maria, Alauca, near El Paraiso, Sabana Redonda located on the border near Alauca, Las Dificultades, Las Manos, El Paraiso and Cifuentes on the border, Danli, Mineral de Agua Fria is very important hiding / p. 4 / place for the bandits. The owner of these minerals (an American Company) gives work to the bandits because they happen to be excellent mine-workers (guirises). It must be known that even the Doctor employed at Said minerals happens to be one of Sandino's relatives who is called Alfredo Zambrana, who is always working on his cousin's behalf. La Zona de Jamastran is full up with Sandinistas.
 
HOW THE SANDINISMO COULD BE DESTROYED:
 
The very first thing that must be done is to establish good authorities on the other side of the Honduran Border in order to block Sandino's trade with Honduras. Also to enforce the need of passports to everyone that needs to cross the border. If the new Honduran Government is decided to help to finish with Sandino, it would be a good measure to order the concentration of all Nicaraguans living temporarily in the zone infested with Sandinistas, in Honduran Territory. To get in touch with the Manager of the Mineral of Agua Gria [Agua Fria?] in order to stop as much as possible the indirect help the minerals give to the bandits by giving them work under certain conditions. There is a certain kind of Sandinista who spends his time in spreading false news about Sandino's situation in order to keep alive the Sandinist feeling among the people which must be captured and punished. Here are a few names and where they are located: Cornelio and Luis Zamora who live in Danli (Honduras), Samuel Sosa [Soza], Sebastian Medina, Lorenzo Acietuno, Lucio Paz, all of those live in Danli and are real propagandists. It must be understood that all the people that live on the border, both Nicaraguan and Honduran, are Sandinistas due to the fact that they profit with his trade through the border. Antonio Zuniga Idiaquez, a dentist, is a real active Sandinista who lives in Danli.
 
2. Please consider this note as being confidential. Destroy it or place it under lock and key.

Victor F. Bleasdale.
Major, Guardia Nacional,
GN-2
Distribution: B-2. R-2, 11th Regt. R-2, 5th Regt. NS-2. Hon-2. GN-2 note folder.

RG127/205/1