HEADQUARTERS CENTRAL AREA
GUARDIA NACIONAL DE NICARAGUA
JINOTEGA, NICARAGUA
15 July 1932

STATEMENT OF ENRIQUE SANCHEZ, F., WHO WAS CAPTURED BY BANDITS.

1. My name is Enrique Sanchez, F. a resident of Leon, age 30 years, and I was captured while on my farm at Mayocunda, to count cattle. This is about 4 leagues south of Villa Nueva on the road to Valle de las Zapatas.

2. I had been on the farm fix days, arriving there May 23rd, and on the night of May 29th at about 10:00 PM, a group of about thirty bandits, jefe Umanzor, came to my place and took me prisoner. They were armed with rifles and pistols, and had one Lewis Gun and one Thompson gun. All of them had rifles and some also had pistols. They seemed to have plenty of ammunition which they carried in small sacks.

3. Previously, in November 1931, when Sandino’s force was in the vicinity of Villa Nueva, contributions were levied and I was notified that I would have to pay $400.00. I did not pay this sum but notified the authorities in Leon about the demand.

4. When they captured me, they took me away on the road to El Sauce. We slept the first night on a farm called San Pablo, owned by my father-in-law, who was also taken prisoner by this same group. Early in the morning at the behest of Umanzor, I wrote a letter to my family asking that they pay the bearer of my note $1000.00, which was the amount of my ransom money. A mozo of San Pablo was sent with the letter and told to bring back sent me ahead with about 12 men, to be kept in the woods until the money came. My family sent the money, but the bandits took me to a campomento, the location of which I do not know.

5. I then traveled with them from May 30th to June 4th, and for five or six days we passed through an inhabited country. I believe we went toward Esteli, for one of the bandits told me that lights we saw of a town was Esteli. After nine days we took to the wilds and saw no habitations or humans. We crossed a large river in boats, and the boat I was in overturned. The boatmen were Indians and did not speak Spanish. After crossing the river we spent four nights in the woods and then I was taken to huts where maybe one family lived, but not to any camp. One or two armed men would take me from one to another, and these stops were about half a day of travel apart. It was four days after crossing the river that I arrived at Sandino’s camp. It was in the woods [p. 2] and there were only two huts, no signs of a camp. Sandino lived in one hut and the other one was occupied by two families. There were only about six men there, and they wore khaki clothing, felt hats with red and black hat bands, and long boots. Some of them had hat cords which they claimed were Guardia cords dipped in red ink, the blue becoming black and the white, red. About 4 had rifles, 1 had 2 pistols, and the other 1 pistol. No automatic weapons were seen, nor other arms or ammunition.

6. I arrived at his camp June 28th at about 2:00 PM, and at about 7:00 PM Sandino came to my hut. He told me he was sorry that I had such a long trip, but my ransom had not arrived. I told him that I was sure my family must have paid, as my father-in-law was not taken. He then put his hand on his head and seemed to be thinking for quite awhile. He then said that there must be some mistake and that he would try to find out why they had not told him if the money was paid. Wednesday, June 29th, he again came to see me, and said “Mr. Sanchez, I congratulate you, as I have learned just today that your money was paid June 2nd. Umanzor, instead of notifying me he had the money, went on several important commissions first, and so delayed informing me. And so, you are again free and I will send you back”.

7. I stayed there Thursday, Friday, and left Saturday morning, July 2nd at about 9:00 AM, but by a different route.

8. Coming back I was accompanied by three men, one of them apparently a jefe of considerable importance. They called him Juan Santos. He was well dressed, had a good pistol, and the others accorded him the greatest respect and attention. The other two had rifles. When I left, Sandino told me that I was sure to have a safe trip as this man who had me in charge was most careful and capable.

9. After again crossing the big river, we kept on through the woods for about 3 hours and slept in the woods Wednesday night. On Thursday, we again traveled until we arrived at a hut at the side of a smaller river, which was towards nightfall. We slept there and stayed there until noon, Friday. At about 2:00 PM Friday, Santos handed me over to two men, one of whom was a civilian carrying a machete, and the other was armed with an old shotgun.

10. I traveled with these men until 6:00 AM Thursday, sleeping in the woods, and we did not pass any houses or people. We lived on bananas picked along our trail during this trip, as we took only two tortillas when we left Santos. We finally arrived on an old trail which apparently had been abandoned, and the two men who were with me told me to ride about four hours and I would come to houses. I had a very poor mule which they gave to me at the house by the small river, but had not been able to ride it before as our trail [p. 3] was so bad. Both going to the camp and on the return journey, my captors very seldom traveled beaten trails, but simply made trail through the woods and across country.

11. I followed this trail and came to a house after about 4 hours, but it was abandoned. I kept on going and came to another one but it had been burned down. Further along this trail, I came to a cane mill where they were some people and I asked them how far it was to Jinotega. They told me about 12 leagues, so I kept on until I reached the river, Paso Real. I was afraid to go further as it was getting dark, so I went back to a house where the people seemed friendly when I passed it, and slept there. This house is near Paso Real and there was a man and two women there. I didn’t ask them their names.

12. I left there this morning and came to Jinotega.

13. Sandino was dressed in khaki riding breeches when I saw him, had a white silk shirt and white silk neckerchief, and was wearing a very fine pair of boots. He was unarmed.

14. He seemed in excellent health and didn’t look to me as if he had been sick or wounded.

15. He told me that he did not want me to get the idea that this is a war between the classes, or the setting of the poor against the rich. The rich man can help with his money and the poor man with his services. Our only aim, he said, is to liberate Nicaragua. Also that the money paid for my ransom was not for him but needed to purchase the necessary things for this crusade. If they ask you in the interior, he said, my opinion is that as far as I am concerned this war had lasted seven years and can last for seventy more for after I am gone these (pointing to two small boys) can carry it on. He discussed the coming election and said that any election not carried on solely by the Nicaraguan people is just as bad as Moncada’s election.

16. My impression of the Umanzor group is that they were very poor soldiers. The jefe had very little control over them and they stole everything they wanted from the people. They did not have even a semblance of uniform, and constantly changed clothes with natives who were better dressed than themselves. I heard the jente at different places we stopped state that this group was the worst one they had to contend with, as they were totally irresponsible to their jefe. Also I heard the bandits say that they knew these jente hated them and were their enemies, so they would take everything from them.

/s/   Enrique Sanchez, F.

M32.07.15

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