Legation of the United States,
Guatemala and
Honduras,
Guatemala, March 18,
1903.
No. 36.]
President Estrada informed me a few days since his information was that
Bonilla was making a successful struggle; that Bonilla’s forces were
drawing closer and closer to Tegucigalpa both from the east and from the
west.
[Inclosure.]
Mr. Heyden to
Mr. Combs.
United States Consular Agency,
Amapala, Honduras, March 7, 1903.
Sir: The communication between this port
and Tegucigalpa is still interrupted and I therefore have the honor
to inform you about the political situation of this country.
[Page 579]
A great part of the members of the Congress that was in session in
Tegucigalpa, amongst them the President of the Congress, fled from
the capital to the frontier of Salvador the 30th of January, so that
Congress was de facto dissolved on that date. It seems that the
council of ministers formed a new Congress out of the remaining
deputies and the substitutes of the fugitives. The new Congress
proclaimed Dr. Juan Angel Arias president, and Gen. Maximo B.
Rosales vice-president of the Republic. The new Government was
recognized by Nicaragua, but I do not know if it was recognized by
the other Central American Republics.
In the meantime General Bonilla has gone ahead with his military
operations against the new government. His forces have taken the
fortified towns of Ocotepeque, Santa Rosa, and Gracias, near the
frontier of Nicaragua.
On the 22d of February General Bonilla was attacked in El Aceituno by
General Sierra, the ex-president, who was completely defeated and
escaped with several hundred men, the remainder of his troops, to
the fortified town of Nacaome, where he still is. General Bonilla
has now an army of about 4,500 men. * * *
I have, etc.,
W. Heyden,
United States Consular
Agent.
