File No. 812.00/20190
[Inclosure—Translation]
Mr. Arriola,
Chief of the Mexican Secret Service in the United States, to the
Department of Foreign Affairs
Querétaro,
December 16, 1916.
Taking into consideration that the present conferences have for a
purpose to definitely establish a suitable policy between Mexico and
the United States, to which both Governments will be subjected in
their future relations, I consider it my duty to call your attention
to the American vigilance service along the frontier, the deficiency
of which has had so much to do in our international affairs, due
more than anything else to the scarce personnel which the Department
of Justice has at its disposal to watch all that which might be
considered a violation of the neutrality laws of that country to the
detriment of ours. It is not my intention to accuse or criticize the
American Government, as I am a witness that on many occasions the
American agents have been very well disposed to assist our
Government and whenever I have asked them to do so, but
unfortunately, they have been unable to prevent in many cases the
large contrabands of arms and ammunition and a constant propaganda
of the reactionaries, due to the fact that many of the agents of the
Department of Justice do not speak the
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Spanish language and their personality does
not make it easy for them to mix among the groups of reactionaries,
and even though they would be able to go between them they do not
speak the language sufficiently to understand the plottings that are
being prepared against our Government, due to the fact that the
number of agents which the American Government has in the frontier
is very small, as there are places in California, Arizona and Texas
where there is no agent at all. In other places, like Tucson,
Arizona, there is only one agent and in places like El Paso, San
Antonio, New Orleans and other large cities there are between three
to five, but these agents in their majority are always busy with
their own affairs, as I have personally observed it, and on other
occasions when I have personally pointed out the necessity of
increasing the vigilance in matters concerning our country they have
shown me very good will but they have not the time. It is,
therefore, that I consider it my duty to report this to your office
in order that the matter be brought to the attention of the American
Government through our representative in Washington, asking for a
competent number of agents from the Department of Justice devoted
exclusively, if possible, to investigating plottings against our
Government, for the purpose of avoiding constant combination all
along the border and with whom the Mexican Secret Service would be
willing to cooperate in behalf of the welfare of the two
Governments, and I am sure that if the American Government would
take equal pains to those displayed by our Government all of these
plottings would cease within a very short time.
Our political enemies are very careful in hot using means which might
fall within the action of the neutrality laws, confining themselves
to the publication of alarming and exaggerated reports, which excite
public opinion and cause immense harm to our country, and also by
forming political groups described under bombastic names of leagues,
clubs and fraternities, which might be avoided by the American
Government and would also prevent the purchase of war material by
the enemies of our Government which they openly are carrying on in
many parts of the United States.
The system that has been established on the border, as well as in
many points in the interior of the country, referring to the sale of
arms and ammunition is the following: Every commercial house in this
class of merchandise must supply a duplicate invoice of the sale to
the agents of the Department of Justice, as has been shown to me by
a few of them, but as many of the houses engaged in this trade are
enemies of our Government, I have discovered that they only send to
the agents whatever suits their convenience, making a great many
clandestine sales to the followers of Villa without making any
mention of them to the agents of the Department of Justice, these
goods afterwards being smuggled into Mexican, territory, evading in
the majority of cases the vigilance of the American officials. To
substantiate the above, I will mention a concrete case, to wit:
During the last month of August the hardware store of a Mr. Henry
Mohr, situated No. 309, in South Eagle Pass Street, was selling
large quantities of ammunition to Villa and in one of the pales was
reported to the Department of Justice. This ammunition was taken
from the store, of Mr. Mohr to his residence in small amounts, and
as a witness of this maneuvering I can name Benito Rodriguez, a
clerk of the above-mentioned store and a follower of ours who
informed me quietly of the above. The person who carried this
ammunition is Jose Loya, a brother of a Villista captain, who is now
in Chihuahua. Also the ex-Villista Colonel Davila and Sabino and
David Guadarrama are constantly purchasing ammunition without any
notice of this having been given to the Department of Justice, and
all this is due to the fact that the number of agents of the
American Government is very limited, as I can assure you that
vigilance in the United States is limited to the Department of
Justice, no participation in this work being taken by the civilian
authorities, who in many cases appear to be friendly to the
reactionaries and as a proof of, this I will cite the following
cases: At Tucson, Arizona, there is a paper called El Combate, published by the well-known reactionary
General Santiago Riveros and a Dr. Seryin, who are also the leaders
of revolutionary meetings in that place and who recently have been
accused of securing 200 saddles in the house of Leonardo Gamez arid
200 horses through the assistance of a man named Serrano, and at the
same time it is known they are organizing at Zapori and a mining
camp in the State of Arizona named Washington, and notwithstanding
their activities these men enjoy all kinds of consideration because
they arc propagandists among the Mexican element of the candidates
for Governor and sheriff and have the support of the authorities.
Similar occurrences happen in El Paso, Texas, whose Mayor, Mr. Tom
Lee, was a defender of Huerta and is
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a decided partisan of the old régime and is at
the present time very much dissatisfied because the Alderetes,
American citizens of much political influence in all that region,
were not able to secure the concession for gambling in Ciudad
Juarez, and we have, therefore, in Mayor Lee a terrible enemy. The
very same thing happens in San Diego, California, where the official
interpreter of the county sheriff is a decided Felicista and took
active participation in the coup d’etat of
Huerta, and like the above named there are many others I could
mention.
I hope therefore that the Department under your worthy charge may
take some action so that the American Government may be requested to
increase its vigilance on the border.
