Arizona weekly citizen., 1881-11-06
1 Cloud on the Southwest.
TN. '. worId.I

N. |. AOriu-I
 Sa much attention has Of late been drawn in this country to the resources
 ard the future of Mexico, und SO much
 American capital has already been iu-
 vested and is now investing m enter
 urises to be conducted within the Mexi-
 can territories, that Americans have a
 direct and special interest m the pOliti-
 cal condition and prospects of Mexico
 beyond that indirect and general inter-
 est which all intelligent men must feel in
 tbe state and prospects of SO important
 8 region of the New World. It is to be
 hoped, therefore, that the Government
 at Washington, now that we have got
 through with the funerals and the fes-
 tiyitles which have eaten up so much of
 the current political year, may find time
 to concern itself seriously and intelli- gently with a matter which begins to as sume a rather threatening appearance on the southwestern frontier of the
 Mexican Republic. Nearly sixty years ago, on the 12th of August, 1894, body calling itself the Supreme Junta of the State Of Chiapas assembled at Ciudad
 Real, the capital of that State, and in
 the presence of a Mexican Commissioner,
 Don Jose Xavier de Bustamante, exam ined the returns of votes taken through out the State on the question whether Chiapas should belong tO the Republic Cf Mexico or to the Republic of Guate-
 Inala- This Junta declared that 9O6,S inhabitants of the State were in favor of uniting the State with Mexico, that o. 4ll were in favor of uniting 1t with Guatemala, including all the inhabitants Of the rich cocoa and coffee producing district of SOcOnuscO on the Pacific, and tliat 15,724 of the inhabitants declined to promo lnce one way or the other. Two dIys after this the State of Chiapas was formally declared to be State of the Mexican Federal Union. The bella were duly rung, a Te Deum duly sung-fOr ID those days the Church vas a power both in Mexico and in Guatemala-and the Govern ment of Guatemala was formally notified that Chiapas and SocunuscO had ceased to make a part of that Republic. The step was viewed with great dissatisfac- tion at the time in Guatemala. For some quarter of q century after the Spanish conquest of Chiapas that prov ince had formed part of the Audiencia OI Mexico or New Spaln. But by a royal decree of January 2O, 1853, 1t had been segregated from the jurisdiction of New Spiin and put under the Kingdom of Guatemala" constituted in l542 and erected into Captaincy-General, with boundaries, privileges and prerogadyes distinct from those of the Mexican Vice royalty of New Spain. The spiritual au- thOrity in Chiapas had also been consti- tuted as a province of the BishCpric, afterwards the ArchbishOpric of Guate- maia- Thus allied with Guatemala by the ties Cf law, civil and religious, as we'll as by those resulting from the prOx- imi5y of the two territories, Chiapas, with SOcunuscO, was to all intents and purposes an integral part of the Guate- malau dominion when the separation from Spain took place. This occurred Iu Chiapds in 1891. The Mexican Plan 0f yuaila. as 1t was called, proclaimed in ebruary of that year, was adopted by Chiapas on the 3d of September, 1891, before any revolutionary movement oi importance had occurred at any other point within the Kingdom of Guate- mal-' IL Is unnecessary tO lead our readers at this time into the InaZes of the events through which the indepen- denCe of Mexico was developed and the empire of Iturbide was OverthrOwn
 Suffice 1t that the attempt of Genera FilisOla in 1893 tO unite Guatemala with Mexico having failed, Guate- mala, as sovereign state, insisted upon her right to the allegiance of ChIapas and SOcOnuscO. She insisted Tn vain, as We have seen, but after the union O3 Cnlapas and SOcOnusco with Mexico had been consummated, Guatemala for maliy protested against the inclusion Tn that arrangement of the distrct of SOcO- nuscO. This protest Guatemala has at different times slnce renewed. When CarrCra had established his power in Gautemala firmly he made no secret of his intention Of exacting from Mexico the ces siOn of this rich and fertile dis tTict. This intention he did not live to put into execution. An Sbler. cooler, | more judiciOus ruler now controls the resources of Guatemala, and for several ! years past 1t has been apparent to all who concern themselves intelligently with the affairs of the Spanish-American 1 republics that a serious attempt to an- ] nex or to reanncK SOconusco would cer- tainly be made by President BarriOs | whenever in his judgment Guatemala | should be prepared to make such an at | tempt successfully. There are many | signs that this moment seems to the en- ergetiC President of Guatemala now to | have arrived. If this be the case, our | own Government should be ready to ex- l ert its influence Tn Central America to | moderate the possible results of such | policy upon the relations Of that region ! with Mexico, in precisely the same spirit ! in which it Is c. be hoped that our own l Is already exerting itself to | arrest the development of a policy of I and aggression on the continent ! of South America, The course of Spain l in the New World left to most of her | provinces a fatal legacy of quarrels over | just such questions as this which has | been srlouldermg for half century be- ! tween Mexico and Guatemala. It will 1. be a calamity to the Western Hemis- | phere sIOuld new questions of the same | sort be originated between | other Spauish-American states by the | triumph of the military spirit over the | spirit Of commerce and of respect for the | laws in any of those states.