Arizona republican., 1898-05-05
THEY ARE WITH US.
Central Aner1ca Has Good a.asans
 to Bc Friendly

to OG Fre1Gly.
 New York, May 4.-Senor Nicanor Bolet-Peraza, consul general Of the republic of Central America in this city, who was a prominent member of the Pan-American congress and minister of Venezuela in Washington in 1889, said yesterday in reference to the report cabled from London that number of consuls from South Ameri- can countries had expressed their sym pathy for Spain:
 'I cannot speak as consul general of the greater republic, because have not as yet received any official notice from the united governments of Sal vador, Honduras and Nicaragua But as a native born Venezuelan, who for a number of years represented that country in Washington, l am em- phatic in saying that Venezuela and its people are in thorough sympathy with the United States in the present con- flict. In the first place, Venezuela owes debt of gratitude to the United States for having defended it's rights against the unjust pretensions of Eu-
 
 we believe that this country is actu- ated by the same patriotic and disin- terested motives that influenced Boli var, the great liberator of Venezuela It had been his plan, after he had driven the Spaniards from the South American continent, to liberate Cuba, but his death prevented our fore fathers from accomplishing this noble oici elan, landed in Cuba with large force, but he was defeated by the Spaniards, taken prisoner and shot. This was the first Venezuelan blood offered for the liberation of Cuba In the ten years war many Venezuelans, among them hundreds of young men from the best families of that country, joined the forces of the Cubans, and died on the field of battle or were shot after being taken prisoners.
 Venezuela has no reason whatever to fear that the United States has gone to war with Spain in order to annex Cuba, but, on the contrary, be- lieves in this country's good faith as to it's whole continental policy. When we asked the United States to act in our behalf at the time of the Guiana boundary dispute with England, it was most earnest in it's course and was successful in obtaining the consent of England to submit the question to arbitration. At that time, as today, the fear was expressed by the nations of the old world that the United States wished to acquire Venezuelan | territory, and to obtain thereby un- reasonable commercial concessions. We have not forgotten the effects of the presidents message on the f1nan- cial interests of this country or the appropriation of $1O0,000 to defray the expenses of the Venezuelan commits sion. What did the United States re- ceive in return from us? Nothing; not one inch of territory, not a cent from our treasury, and not one con- cession from our government; not even the reciprocity treaty which the United States sought, but which Ven ezuela never consented to sign. Wh, | therefore, should Venezuela not sym pathize with this country?
 We South Americans do not hate l Spain, because we cannot forget that she is our mother country, but since she disclaimed her maternity and fought against us, we had to adopt a new mother. and this mother is Iib- erty. which unites as loving brothers all the peoples of America. And among these brothers are the Cubans, now struggling for liberty as we did years ago. Why should the United States not help Cuba in the same way as France did in the American revo- lutionary war, or England when it helped Venezuela in it's struggle for independence? In my opinion there is no war at present going on between the Anglo-Saxon and the Latin races, but solely between Cuba and its ally, the United States, on the one side and Spain on the other. We are con- nected with Spain by many close ties, but we cannot forget that the United States in extending a friendly hand to Cuba is performing an act which gives freedom to one more Spanish Amer ican country in the western hemis- phere."