River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1882-08-10
THE BRUTAL BlRRIOS.
some Facts Concerning the RuIe of
the GautemaIan Dictator, Who is
Now in this Country-Iiis Brutal
Treatment of Women u d Political
Enemies

II
the GautemaIan Dictator, Who is
Now in this C0untry-iiis Brutal
Treatment of Women d Political
Enemies.
A Washington correspondent of the
Boston Herald had an interesting con-
versation concerning President Bar
rios. of Grutemala, who arrived IN that
city recently, with a gentleman who
has resided many years in Spanish
American countries and is very Ia
miliar with events in Guatemala. 10
people familiar with Central American
affairs it Is quite amusing to see an
nounced in the local papers on his ar
rival in this city that his devoted
countrymen have grouped George
Washington, Simon Bolivar, and Ru
finos Barrios as their ideal triumyirate
of the heroes of republican liberty. 1t
is historical fact that his government
has been from the beginning Dictator
ship, with scarcely the forms of law,
and as United States Minister
Logan reported to the department of
state once, his opponents are
held down with an iron, made up, so to
speak, of muskets and brass bands"
To understand the character OF his
government it may be will to give few
items from among the multitude OF
notorious facts which are familiar to
everyone who has visited Guatemala.
Take, for instance, the assassination OF
1877. In one of the frequent revolts
of the mountain Indians, Gen. Barrios
arrested about 100 of them, and or
dered them all to be shot. The vii
lage priest, Mortified at the order, went
in person to the house where Barrios
was, gained admission to the room and
begged for the lives of his parisbioEers.
The general heaped on him a volley
of oaths, and ordered him from his
presence. The priest persisted In his
petitions, whereupon Barrlos assaulted
him with a whip, which he always kept
at hand for corporal punishment of
ogenders, striking him over the face
and head. The priest, with natural in
arm of Ba1rios, when the latter
cried out and his officials and servants
rushed in, tore the priest away, threw
him ON the floor and commenced kick
ing him. In this helpless condition,
Barrios drew his pistol and fired shot
into his body. His example was fol-
lowed by the others, and the priest,
riddled with bullets, was kicked out of
the house and buried. The event caused
intense Indignation throughout the
country President Barrios gave out
that the priest had attempted to assas-
sinate him, but Minister Williamson,
in his report of the affair, said: 81
have failed to meet single individual
who credits the statement" See dip
lomatic correspondence 1878, GA.
Barrios is constantly on the alert
against conspiracies which he finds are
being formed against his tyrannical
government. The country is
FILLED WITH SECRET POLICE AND SPIES,
and when he has information of a real
or supposed conspiracy, he has the
suspected arrested and brought to his
private residence without any forms of
law. He puts them through a person
al examination himself, during which
the prisoner undergoes all kinds of in
dignities, and he orders them to be
shot, whipped, tortured, imprisoned or
released at his sole will. One of the
most atrocious of these events occurred
in November, 1877, when he arrested
eighteen or twenty persons, some of
them among the most respectable citi-
zens, and charged them with conspira-
CIV. They were brought to his resi-
dence and examined by him. They
would make no confession, and he or
dered them to be whipped and under
go the most horrible torture, but with
out securing q revelation. Thoroughly
enraged, he condemned them all to be
executed. The next day they were
taken out to the grand square of the
city and shot to death, some of them
so weak from their whipping that
they had to be carried in filters and
one had lost his reason. 1t is stated
that Barrios ordered and witnessed the
execution from a window and shouted
out to them insults and curses that
Mortified even the soldiers and execu-
TONERS. During his dictatorship the
Spanish punishment of torture and
whipping has been revived, and all
over the country this method of pun
ishment is constantly resorted to. He
does not hesitate to inf1ict it upon the
most respectable citizens, and further
to humiliate his political prisoners he
condemns them to work on the public
streets chained to the most abandoned
common criminals. AS already init
mated, it is his practice to have brought
tie his own residence persons suspected
of any hostility to him or his govern
ment. After stating whatever COM
plant he may have against them, if
offensive in mis- eyes, and it does
not justify execution or imprison.
ment, in the presence of his officials
he showers upon them a volleY of
abuse and insults, and then, Selling
his whip, which he keeps constantly
at hand, he strikes the citizen about
the face and head and drives him
out of his presence, warning him to be
careful of his conduct in the future.
Embraced in this class of punishment
might be named an ex-cabinet minis
ter, lawyers, planters of the best fami-
lies, and an honored father, whose only
offense was that his daughter had failed
to accept an invitation of one of the
perlects to a social entertainment. His
treatment and
~ AENTf 80