412 



GUATEMALA. 



las in 1888. Young Irungaray issued apronun- 

 ciamiento in the department of Chiquimula, was 

 joined by more than 1,500 deserters from the 

 Guatemalan army, seized the capital of the de- 

 partment, and compelled Barillas to concentrate 

 his army on Guatemala city to prevent it from 

 being captured by the rebels. The military 

 generally were dissatisfied, their pay being in 

 arrears, and in the capital the President did not 

 dare to show himself, as the mob threatened his 

 life. He had proclaimed martial law through- 

 out the republic. On July 26 an attempt was 

 made to assassinate Barillas. While the hostile 

 armies lay encamped in sight of each other, the 

 two dictators were occupied in suppressing civil 

 dissensions in their own countries. The inva- 

 sion of Gen. Villavicencio with Salvador refu- 

 gees and Guatemalan volunteers had been effect- 

 ively checked and by a prompt manosuvre San 

 Salvador had been recaptured from Gen. Rivas, 

 and the rebel leader and a great many people of 

 all degrees of prominence who were suspected of 

 treason to Ezeta had been shot without trial. 

 The territory of Honduras, however, was still 

 used as a base for hostile operations against the 

 Ezeta Government, notwithstanding Bogran's as- 

 surances. Dr. Rafael Ayala, Vice-President un- 

 der President Menendez and, according to the 

 Constitution, the legimate Provisional President 

 of Salvador, set up a rival government at Sen- 

 zuntepeque, near the Honduras frontier, under 

 the protection of a considerable army led by 

 Miranda, a distinguished and influential Salva- 

 dorian general. Gen. Bogran again prepared to 

 give open military assistance to Barillas, sending 

 a body of troops under Gen. Figueroa to support 

 Gen. Miranda, while he marched with another to 

 join the Guatamalan force that was sent against 

 the insurgents in Chiquimula under the com- 

 mand of Gen. Pedro Barillas, a cousin of the 

 President. The people of Guatemala, where 

 food rose to famine prices, the coffee crop was to 

 a great extent lost for lack of hands to pick it 

 and the trees injured for years to come, and the 

 patriotic impulse of resistance to foreign domi- 

 nation that gave Ezeta his popular strength 

 played no part, were generally refractory and 

 disaffected toward Barillas. Sedition was rife in 

 the circles of the Government, and insurrec- 

 tions were threatened in the capital and in vari- 

 ous other centers. Gen. Jose Reyna Barrios, son 

 of the late dictator, was recalled from exile in 

 San Francisco to head a general uprising. In 

 the last engagements with the Salvadorians, 

 whole battalions threw down their arms and ran. 

 Gen Irungaray and his associates Estanislao 

 Sandoval and Maximo Cerna, who had issued 

 proclamations from Spala and Palo Grande, had 

 been joined by disaffected Guatemalan soldiers 

 till they disposed of a force of some 3,000. On 

 Aug. 5 Gen. Pedro Barillas gave them battle 

 and gained a decisive victory. Barrundia, who, 

 in conjunction with Col. Brito and Col. Garfias, 

 had raised a force of refugees on the Mexican 

 border that was daily augmented by Guatema- 

 lans who fled to escape the vengeance of Baril- 

 las, was stopped by the Mexican authorities 

 when on the point of invading Guatemala. Still 

 the President's difficulties were not ended. The 

 hostile party at the seat of government was al- 

 most strong enough to depose him, and it was 



rumored that he contemplated fleeing by sea to 

 enjoy in security his fortune, estimated at $8,- 

 000,000, which he had invested in foreign coun- 

 tries, as many other wealthy Guatemalans have 

 done. The Treasury was empty, and the troops 

 were unpaid and ill supplie'd. The French 

 bankers who had negotiated a loan declared the 

 contract void, and refused to honor the drafts of 

 the Government, which then attempted to ap- 

 propriate the customs receipts pledged to the 

 English bond holders, but desisted in response to 

 a vigorous protest of the British minister. 



The reverses of the insurgents in the open field 

 and the cessation of hostilities on the part of the 

 Salvadorians afforded time and opportunity to 

 Barillas to regain his failing prestige and to dis- 

 able his secret enemies by remorseless persecu- 

 tions. On Aug. 6 he canceled the exequaturs of 

 the foreign consuls that he thought were inim- 

 ical to his rule, namely, those of Mexico, the 

 Argentine Republic, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, 

 and Bolivia. The Governor of the Federal Dis- 

 trict, Gen. Rafael Romana, was removed and 

 sent to prison, where he is supposed to have been 

 shot on suspicion of being engaged in a plot to 

 overthrow the Government and restore the Con- 

 servative or Church party to power, with Gen. 

 Julio Garcia Granados, an exile in Nicaragua, as 

 its leader. The culminating point of the con- 

 test was reached when Barillas ordered the ar- 

 rest of Enrique Martinez Sobral, the Minister of 

 Foreign affairs, who was hurried to prison and 

 condemned by the President's decree to be sum- 

 marily shot. The Spanish minister interceded 

 with Barillas, who promised to spare Sobral's life. 

 The accused man was returned to the penitenti- 

 ary, and a false rumor gained currency and was 

 generally believed that he was secretly shot. 

 The other four ministers sent in their resigna- 

 tions, which Barillas refused to accept, ordering 

 them to remain at their posts. This they re- 

 fused to do, upon which he sent them letters of 

 dismissal. A season of anarchy followed, during 

 which the partisans of Barrios endeavored to 

 gain the upper hand, but the power and energy 

 of Barillas gave him the mastery. 



Intermediation. Lansing B. Mizner, the 

 American minister accredited to the Central 

 American republics on May 30, 1889, who re- 

 sided in Guatemala, like all the diplomatic repre- 

 sentatives of foreign countries in Central Amer- 

 ica, was unable to communicate with the State 

 Department at Washington after the war broke 

 out, trustworthy telegraph service by the land 

 line running through Guatemala and Mexico 

 being impossible. Alarmed for the safety of for- 

 eigners and their property, as well as for the 

 consequences to the belligerent countries, he in- 

 vited the diplomatic representatives in Guate- 

 mala to hold a conference at the United States 

 Legation. The first conference, which was held 

 on July 31, was followed by others. The min- 

 isters all agreed to lend their good offices to se- 

 cure peace without being able to come to a cor- 

 dial understanding in regard to concerted action, 

 which was rendered more difficult by a rumor 

 that Secretary Blaine had sent a dispatch dis- 

 countenancing Mr. Mizner's invitation to Euro- 

 pean governments to co-operate with the United 

 States in mediating a difficulty between Ameri- 

 can powers, The authorities at Washington or- 



