File No. 4478/2.
Minister Beaupré to the Secretary of State.
Buenos Aires, February 14, 1907.
Sir: Referring to my No. 489, of the 8th instant, in regard to the revolution that broke out in San Juan, capital of the province of San Juan, on the morning of the 7th instant, I have the honor to report that the condition of affairs reported as prevailing on the date of said dispatch has continued unchanged. The revolutionists seem contented with what they have obtained, namely federal intervention, and are tranquilly awaiting the outcome.
Dr. Cornelio Moyano Garcitúa, appointed to intervene for the Federal Government in the province, as reported in my No. 489 above mentioned, left the capital this morning at 9 o’clock, accompanied by his assistants and secretaries. While his instructions have not been made public it is evident that he goes with ample powers. This is evident from a response of the minister of the interior to a telegram of the 11th instant from the deposed governor, Manuel J. Godoy, in which the latter reports in detail the events of the revolution and asks that the act of intervention be limited to restoring him to power. In his reply the minister, Dr. M. A. Montes de Oca, says:
* * * The executive is firmly decided to resort to all its constitutional attributes in order to maintain internal peace, proceeding to this end with the energy and prudence which the circumstances demand. For this reason it adopted * * * the resolutions communicated to your excellency, and for this reason it will carry them out with unwavering rectitude * * *. The interventor, whose name is a guaranty of impartiality and competence, will study the antecedents of law and fact that will permit him to decide whether the authorities of San Juan ought to be established, or whether he ought to proceed to the reorganization of its powers * * *.
In other words, whether Governor Godoy should be restored or whether new elections should be held.
It is reported that Doctor Garcitúa has himself insisted on these ample powers, and both La Nacion and La Prensa editorially laud the act of the executive in investing him with them, and state that such is the only possible course in view of the facts. In an editorial [Page 19] La Prensa of to-day says, referring to Governor Godoy’s telegraphic request that the intervention be limited to his restoration:
The national Government can and ought not to take it into account * * *. The intervention is to guarantee the republican form of government destroyed and corrupted during a long series of years; for in San Juan the constitution of the Province is simply a fiction. There exists there no administration of justice, no municipal regime, no primary education; and as regards the exercise of civil rights, this is subordinated to the will of advisers thoroughly corrupt * * *. The cause of the revolutionists is * * * that of the people of San Juan, it comprehends the persistence of their institutions and respect for the exercise of their civic rights * * *. Whatever reservations there may be in the instructions [of the interventor] * * * let him not forget this: In San Juan there is a real cause, that is above all others, the cause of the people, whose voice and whose aspirations after justice have been heard throughout the Republic in spite of the repression exerted by audacious advisers [to the Governor].
The affairs of San Juan thus seem in a fair way to improvement. Meanwhile alarms and rumors are rife throughout the country. The governor of Entre Rios is overwhelmed with alarms. Reports from Corrientes are most unsatisfactory. Other uncertain rumors have been received from La Plata, capital of the Province of Buenos Aires, and the capital of the Republic itself is disturbed by alarms so serious that extraordinary precautions have been taken and a constant vigilance exercised. A detachment of the national marine was sent up the river Parana several days ago, and the Tenth Infantry has been ordered from the capital to Corrientes and replaced by another from the Campo de Mayo, a post near the capital.
I am, etc.,