Don Marco A. Soto to Señor P. Leiva, May 15, 1874

Señor Soto to Señor P. Leiva.

Extracts from “El Progreso,” of Guatemala.—Translation.

My Esteemed Friend: With pleasure I begin this letter, by congratulating you upon the confirmation that the Congress has given to your appointment as provisional President of Honduras. Receive, then, my sincere good wishes. Señor President Barrios has directed that my cousin-german, Don Ramon Rosa, proceed to your capital on a confidential mission that he has conferred on him near you, and I take this opportunity of presenting Rosa to you as a member of my family, and of recommending him to your friendship.

Two steamers since I wrote to you concerning the business that has given rise to this mission of Señor Rosa’s, and at present I will allow myself to speak fully, relying on the conviction I have of the rectitude of your intentions, your honor, and patriotism.

Public opinion already, by words and in print, has pronounced against the last events that have transpired in Honduras: that is, the fall of the government of Arias, by the allied forces of Guatemala and Salvador, and especially the capture of Amapala.

You understand perfectly the reasons for addressing to Señor Arias the paper signed by the two Presidents of the allied republics, which Señor General Gonzalez has had published. In that paper Señor Arias was invited to lay down the command and to call a popular election. In it the two Presidents assured Señor Arias that not only his life and liberty should be guaranteed, but that they would use all of their influence that the consideration due to his high character and personal merits should be respected and guarded. When Señor Arias surrendered in the Plaza of Comayagua, the article of surrender signed by the Generals Espinoza, Solares, and Lopez, guaranteed alike to Señor Arias, in the most solemn manner, his liberty and his life, and the same to his cabinet. With these antecedents it could not appear but strange that Ex-President Arias and his minister, del Cid, have been imprisoned, and it is still more strange that the latest information is that the Congress of that country is going to try Arias and submit his case to the common tribunals.

I, on seeing the names of the deputies that assembled at the installation of the national convention, have found an explanation of these acts.

There appear, in the first and greater part, true allies of the ultra-conservative party, and even those who composed the government of Utila! It is certainly not strange, then, that the national convention, so formed, pardoned Medina, and even applauded him, and condemned Arias to perpetual exile or death.

I do not believe that these individuals are competent judges for trying the political conduct either of the former, Medina, or of the latter, Arias.

In respect to Medina, the majority of them were partial to him, and even his accomplices; in respect to Arias, the whole of them were his personal and violent enemies.

The vote, then, of this grand jury cannot be the expression of justice. At present I cannot conceive the right they have of trying Arias. As dictator, the public opinion of his country is his only judge, and as chief of a nation who has surrendered in virtue of the solemn agreement which the generals-in-chief of the forces of Honduras, Salvador, and Guatemala signed, an agreement in which was guaranteed the life of President Arias and his ministers, there is not any judge competent to try them, for the law of nations places them entirely beyond all jurisdiction, and accords them, as voluntary prisoners of war, immunity of life and property and a full guarantee of their liberty.

The government of Guatemala, since it feels it is compromised by itself and its general-in-chief to consider what is due to Señor Arias, cannot see with criminal indifference the evil course that is pursued against one of the most sincere liberals of Central America, who has afforded such valuable service to the cause of the revolution, and has always been their friend and ally.

I firmly believe that the confidential mission which Señor Rosa undertakes to you will be appreciated at its true value, on account of the motives that cause it, motives which I do not doubt will find a warm response in your noble and patriotic breast.

I believe, moreover, that this mission will free you from the exigencies and intrigues of the enemies of Señor Arias, who wish to cause your ruin; because you, working in conformity with the agreement and for the sake of a friendly government which asks the liberty of Señor Arias, free yourself from the charge and responsibilities these bitter political cliques wish to impose upon you.

Frankly, my friend, I do not believe, nor do I wish to believe, that you have taken part in the disgraceful events that have been endured by and threaten Señor Arias Your high and noble spirit will always contradict even the suspicion that you can have taken part in them. Therefore, as I have shown you before this, and in the present letter, arise the sympathy and interest I have for you personally and for your government. I do not wish that your well-merited reputation should he diminished, or that they should say of you that when in power he has done the same thing he condemned in his predecessor.

Will you, then, receive my thoughts with kindness, and, on my recommendation, the Señor Rosa as true and sincere a friend as,

Your attentive servant,