File No. 823.00/116.
Minister McMillin to the Secretary of State.
Lima, February 4, 1914.
A revolutionary movement headed by Augusto Durand, supported by the army and a very large part of Congress, broke out this morning between four and five o’clock. It took possession of the Government, arrested the President in the Palace and forced him to sign his resignation. He is now in the penitentiary.
The Palace is held by some three hundred troops under the command of the ex-chief of staff, who resigned last night before assuming control of the revolutionary forces. The Minister of War has been killed and the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Finance both resigned last night. Much indiscriminate firing, confined chiefly to the troops, continued for some hours in the city. The jails were opened, the military hospital receives civilians, and the Red Cross service has been organized; all business is closed, but the city is now quiet.
The revolutionary party has issued a manifesto on the following lines:
The presidential decision to dissolve Congress and hold new elections is declared to be unconstitutional and despotic.
Congress no longer recognizes the President’s authority and places all responsibility for the revolution on his [omission] to dissolve Congress; calls upon the nation to help it save the country; considers that the army and navy in remaining faithful to a government which had violated the constitution, became criminal, and itself assumes the defense of the Republic.
It declares vacant the presidency; places the President outside the [omission] and constitution; absolves the army and navy from obedience to him; and while it is determining what course to take in regard to the executive power, it places that authority necessary for the reestablishment of a constitutional order in a Junta presided over by Augusto Durand and enjoins obedience to its dictates upon all public officials.
This manifesto is signed by twenty-eight senators and sixty-three deputies. The President’s family with the exception of his eldest son who was in his father’s government, have taken sanctuary in the Legation.