Imperial Valley press., 1914-03-13

the officers were merely searching
for court records stolen or taken from
the home of the clerk of the court of
first instance, but on searching the
effects of the two former Mexican
officials incriminating evidence was
discovered in connection with the kill
ing of Sanchez and Valencia. This
discovery changed the entire proceed
ings. Pecina maintained day after
day that he had nothing to do with
the theft of the court documents and
was substantiated by Salinas.
Among the letters found in the
trunks was one written to President
Vicoriana Huerta by A. Pecina, which
has been the main evidence against
the two Mexicans. Pecina had been
informed that Salinas was to be trans
ferred to La Paz and endeavored to
inform Huerta of Salinas clever
handling of the murder which might
bring on international complications.
Pecina claimed through the letter that
Valencia and Sanchez were merely in
Mexico to act in the capacity of spies
under a revolutionary junta in Los
Angeles. Pecina maintained this
morning at the county Jail that neith-
er Sanchez nor Valencia were Ameri-
can citizens, claiming that Chief I'M
migration Officer Conell of Los An
geles had conducted an investigation
into the affair and reported through
papers in Los Angeles that Valencia
was a Mexican subject and that it
could not be found that Sanchez had
ever become an American citizen.
The letter to Huerta, after describ-
ing the character of Sanchez and
Valencia, goes on to relate how an
escort captained by Rafael Fonseca
proceeded with Flores, Sanchez and
Valencia toward Ensenada with in
structions ''tO close their accounts on
| the road. At distance of four miles
from this town the accounts were
closed, but in such careless and in
efficient manner that it would seem
just to charge cOwardice, for they
left alive one Of the men and did not
bury any of Them
Following is the entire letter as
translated from Spanish into English
and printed for the first time:
"Mexicali, January 7, 1914.-Hon.
General Victoriana Huerta, President
of the Republic of Mexico.-Honor-
able Mr.. President: l am doing my
duty in informing you of the details
regarding the motive which l have
in asking you to suspend (put off)
the change in regard to Judge Meza
Salinas to La Paz.
On the Goth of last December,
through Investigations of the immi-
grafton office which is in my charge,
l discovered that Encarnacion San
chez, Jose Valencia and Pablo Flores
had come from the revolutionary CEN
ter in Los Angeles, California, to spy
upon all the military operations of
the garrison at this place, in order
to report upon them and to put them
selves in touch (accord) with the
rebels of this whole region who, in
various parts, are marauding over
this region, and who desire to make
an attack upon this town (contem-
plate an attack, in order to do which
they plan to distract the attention of
the column which, under the command
of Lieutenant Colonel Esteban Cantl,,
has gone out for the purpose of en-
countering the nucleus of these reb-
els.
Zone of the proofs which we had
were the kilograms directed to San
chez by one of the principal revolu-
tionary agents in Arizona and the
identification which was made Of him
and his companions, by witnesses who
serve us as secret police in Calexico.
Moreover, the consul in CaleXico, who
worked tirelessly in these matters,
confirmed to me this data, which he
received at first hand.
"Thus, being certain of the char
acter of such individuals, I consigned
them to the subprefecto politico here,
who is at the same time chief of the
garrison, and this official, having
corroborated my data, and with other
data, which, as I know, he obtained,
sent them in the direction of En-
senada with an escort whose chief
was Captain Rafael Fonseca, and with
instructions to close their accounts
on the road. At distance of four
miles from this town their accounts
were closed, but in such careless
and inefficient manner that it would
seem just to charge cOwardice, for
/ Iac& Hf ka, o,,I Il