Following interview with one Tulio Rodriguez of Jalapa, who had been captured by the bandits and later escaped is quoted: (Feb 9th)

Q. Don Tulio, where and when were you captured by bandits?
A. The twenty-eight day of January at a place about five miles north of Apalí in the main road to Jalapa, named LA PUERTA.
Q. What time of day was this?
A. About 4:30 in the evening.
Q. Who was with you?
A. Ramon Matute, from Tastalí, near here.
Q. When did you first see the bandits?
A. They jumped out of the bushes at the side of the road and told me to put my hands in the air.
Q. What did they do then?
A. They tied a rope on my arms and took my horse, and told me to walk.
Q. How many men were in this group?
A. There were ten men with rifles, all but the leader, José León Díaz, and he had a pistol, .38 Special, and he took mine which he stuck in his belt.
Q. What happened to Ramon Matute?
A. The same thing as me.
Q. What happened then?
A. They took us to a house where there six more men tied with rope and twelve more bandits and the leader was Juan Gregorio Colindres, he was mad at me and called me a she pig.
Q. Did they molest you any?
A. No.
Q. Why did he call you that?
A. We had a fight one time in Danlí, Honduras.
Q. How were these bandits armed and dressed?
A. All of them but four had rifles, one had a T.S.M.G. and Colindres Fenero [Ferrero?], alias Layo, and José León Díaz had pistols.
Q. How much ammunition did they have?
A. The man with the T.S.M.G. had a drum and two clips and Colindres had two belts but the rest had all their shells in canvas sacks, and they didn’t look heavy.
Q. Did they mention any plans for the future?
A. No. They told me that as soon as a certain jefe and ammunition came that they would free the people of Jalapa from the clutches of the machos.
Q. Did they take you to their main camp?
A. Yes. That was where Colindres was, about five miles west of Agua Caliente, and about four miles from the Honduran border.  [p. 2]  The next morning, 29th, two patrols were seen, and one entered the camp, but the bandits hit about two hundred yards from the camp. The other was east of Agua Caliente about noon (Jalapa patrol, the other Jicaro and Apali combined).
Q. Why didn’t they fight us?
A. I don’t know, but they acted with fear.
Q. How did you get loose, did they give you liberty?
A. No. The third night we were sleeping in the mountains and my ropes on my arms got loose, so late at night I slipped away and one of their dogs followed. His name is Yankee. (In Jalapa now).
Q. Did they ask you for money?
A. Yes. But I didn’t have any so they made me sign a paper, saying my brother-in-law would pay $200.00 in Danli, Honduras.
Q. Did he pay it?
A. I don’t know. I have not seen or heard from him.
Q. How long did they allow you to pay this money?
A. They told me if I didn’t pay it in four days that they would get me.
Q. Where and to whom was your brother-in-law to pay this?
A. I don’t know.
Q. Where did you go when you got away?
A. I went into Honduras for three days always in the mountains and then I came back down to La Puerta, Nicaragua. It took me four days to get there.
Q. Why did it take you so long for this distance?
A. Because I was hungry and weak. I was afraid to go in houses.
Q. Why did you return to La Puerta?
A. I was lost. I thought I was on the road to Jalapa.
Q. Did you know your wife was there?
A. No. Not until I got there.
Q. Have you gotten any letters or notes from the bandits since you got back?
A. No.

This interview was witnessed by Lts. Schick, Collins, Wallace and Sgto. Rodriguez, and questions asked by Lts. Wallace and Schick and Sgto. Rodriguez.

It is my (Lt. Wallace) firm belief that his wife paid the two hundred dollars as she was not in Jalapa for nine days, supposedly in Ocotal. Also told Lt. Schick that she (Mariana Rodriguez) was very poor now. Even though the story that don Tulio told is quite possible.

IR32.03.01: 35-36

Transcribed by Pleet Initiative-funded Lebanon Valley College student-researcher Nicholas J. Quadrini.