The San Francisco call., 1908-05-29
CABR[RA'S RULE IS
REIGN OF TERROR
DIR. Herman Prove, Marked for
Slaughter, Escapes to
Tell the Tale

In a long letter to friends in this
city Dr. Herman Prove, formerly of
Alameda, who has spent the greater
part of the last 16 years in Guatemala,
has given the first details TO reach this
country concerning the reign of terror
now existing in Guatemala, the gen
eral facts of which were made pub
lie exclusively in The Call a week ago.
More terrible even than the first
accounts of the tyrannical sway OF
President Cabrera is this detailed his
tory Of recent events in the Central
American republic, in which the writer
himself played an important Fart For
DR.. Prove was slated to be one of
the victims of the dictator's vengeance,
and only to an opportune warning from
a friend close to the government does
he attribute his escape from the nor
rible fate which overlook so many or
the prominent citizens Of Guatemala.
He fed from the country and is now
in the City of Mexico. from which
place his letter was written.
DIR. Prove is well known in san
Francisco. Alameda and the bay cities.
He practiced here for many years,
and then went, about 16 years ago,
10 Guatemala, but has since made sew
eral visits to California His only
malan trouble was, according TO his
own story, that he gave medical and
surgical aid to three young students
of the military academy corps of Qua
temala who were wounded in the mas
sacre which occurred in the capitol
grounds at Guatemala on April 90.
Like every one else in the terroriZed
city who exhibited sympathy toward
the students or rendered them the
Of J11a 10 ~ m O
under the ban of Cabrera's anger.
AIDED INJURED MEN
Following the shooting at the capt.
tol Dr. Prove gave what aid he could
TO the injured. He extracted a bullet
from the neck of one of the wounded
cadets and administered treatment to
two others. He voiced no expression
concerning the trouble. but almost
at once threats were made against him
and he received a warning that to
avoid arrest and Imprisonment he had
better fee at once. He took the ad-
vice and left the country without even
taking the time to gather his cloth
ing or personal effects. His account
of Guatemalan troubles is written in
Spanish and German and fully cor
roborates the facts published last week
in The Call. 1t is a vivid picture of
several of the scenes of terror and
gives the names of a number of other
victims who were executed at Ca
brera's command.
Cabereras vengeance has been
wholesale. Not a man who has ex-
pressed sympathy with the students or
declared himself as opposed TO the
presidents high handed measures has
been allowed to go free. He has either
been executed, thrown into prison and
hogged, had his property confscated
or been forced to fee from the coun-
try. Colonel Burbano, chief of the
military academy. was not the only
officer of the institution shot to death.
Captain Maldonado, who had charge
of the cadets on the day of the at
tempted assassination of the president,
was executed, although his every ef-
fort had been directed toward pro-
tecting Cabrera, and Colonel Mendoza
and Colonel Cordova, both of whom are
well known in San Francisco, We're ex-
ecuted because they rushed into the
crowd at the time of the attempted
assassination and tried to prevent a
wholesale slaughter.
FIRST PLOT ABANDONED
According to DR.. Prove. it was be-
cause of the presence in Guatemala of
General Davis Of the United States
army, representing the government
that the first plot TO kill Cabrera was
dropped. Dissatisfaction had grown
among few students of the military
academy, and, backed by outsiders,
they planned to adopt Russian methods
and assassinate the president with
dynamite
The plot was to be carried out on
the day that Cabrera attended the
opening of the new railroad into the
north of Guatemala, but General Davis
was aboard the train and the conspir-
ators were afraid to go ahead with
their plans for fear he would be in
Jured. The matter became public. how
ever. and Cabrera learned the details.
On April 20, when the assassination
was finally attempted. Minister Heinke
Of the United States was being received
by the president According TO DIR.
Prove, Cabrera had a number of sol
diers secreted in the capital and had
instructed General Lima to take charge
of the defense. DIR. Prove learned all
the facts from the three students he
attended and says that he believes
their story implicitly.
This is that only three cadets were
actually engaged in the plot, while no
other members of the academy were
involved. These three cadets were
stationed at doorway through which
the president was expected to pass,
and had he followed the expected
route he undoubtedly would have been
shot. Instead of passing through this
doorway, however, Cabrera went out
another way and walked in front of
the body of the cadets corps which was
drawn up as his guard of honor
OFFICER FIRES SHOT
There was no sign of trouble until
the president had passed all the cadets
and drew near the doorway where the
three student conspirators were sta
toned. AS he approached them a mill
tary officer in civilians uniform. who
was standing in front of them, sud
denly fired at him. Cabrera threw up
his hands and the shot carried away
one of his fingers. The officer raised
his gun to fire a second time when he
stumbled. and before he could regai in
his feet he was shot dead by an ad-
Jutant accompanying the president.
The adjutant then turned and began
to fire into the cadets whom the presi-
dent had already passed. They did
not return the fire, but the three by
the door did. The soldiers who had
been secreted within the building
rushed out and began to fire into the
students, 20 of the latter being killed
and several more wounded IT was
to some of the wounded students tina,
DR.. Prove gave his services.
Before the day in question Captain
Maldonado the officer in charge of the