Arizona republican., 1906-01-27
VENEZUELAN
 SHAKE-DOWN The Story Told by EmiS-
 Sdry BdCkuS
His Negotiations With the Govern ment Ring for Possession sfAsphals Property.

Indianapolis, Jan. 26.-ColoneI Vic tor Nj. Backus of this city is one of the most important witnesses in the Vene- zuelan asphalt controversy. He was the confidential man sent to Caracas by the asphalt company at the first sign of Castro's hostility to find out exactly what was going on. His story is already in possession of the sta,e department. and will probably become public in full when congress gets from the president the full details of the asphalt controversy, as it may do any day.
 Colonel Backus says that he repre- sented himself as the emissary of as phalt interests who wanted to buy mines in Venezuela, and as he appeared to. have plenty of money it was noE long before he got into negotiations with the government ring in Caracas. This ring had an asphalt claim called La Venezuela Men close to Presi- dent Castro had already offered this claim to the New York and Bermud sz company for sSOO,OOO down and a royalty. Colonel Backus opened up negotiations to purchase this claim | through Senor Arocha, a foster broth CT of Mrs. Castro, Senor Figuera, and | General Barret de Nazaris, Mrs Cas- tro's secretary. Here is Colonel Back. us story of his negotiations at Mira | flores, President Castro's palace, as re- Hated to a. representative of the Indian apolis News:
 i "Arocha, Nazaris, Figuera and ] were in a large room, seated at a table In an adjoining room was President 1 Castro and as we talked Arocha woul1 l explain to the president, who came to the doorway dividing the room we were in and the room in which he was, what we were doing and made | figures, and, in fact, President Castr1 appeared to be directing the deal.
 ''The Upshot of it was, that I agreed to pay s420000 for La Venezuela and promised that l would have the money l there in thirty days. I had paid some money on the deal and spent a good Il deal more working 1t up. In the nego- tiations l expressed a fear that the courts would not sustain the right of F'i- guerra to La Venezuela Figuera tod me that he had been instructed to say to me by Arocha that the supremf court of Venezuela would sustain Fiji guera's claim, and there would be n, danger in making the purchase. Sl it was demonstrated to me that Figuerd was really a fiGurehead in the affair that the real owners were Presiden Castro and his brother-in-law and per- haps Nazaris.
 'I went back to New York, ana President Castro, as is known, seized the property under an old Spanish law that requires the recipient of a conces sion to do certain work and pay cer' tain royalties and he contended tha this law had not been compiled with A receiver was appointed, and that re ceiver is A. H. Garner (fOrmer loca manager of the asphalt company wit whom I consulted every day while ne
 gotiating with Figuera and his silen partners. And General Nazaris is nov the financial agent of the Venezuelal government.
 When I got to New York I saw tn
 asphalt people and made a full repor
 of all that had been done. l turned tn
 letters and documents over to D
 Lancy NicoH and most of them ar
 now on file at Washington.
 There is no question but the Gen
 eral Asphalt company owns the asphal
 lake and that President Castro. Gener : al Arocha, his brother-in-law, an
 General Nazaris, the financial agen
 of the government, are attempting
 gigantic hold-up. There will be nor
 of this when congress goes into an in
 vestigation, and until that time I d
 not wish to say anything more"