The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1920-05-27
SEND CARRANzA' s
BODY To CAPITAL
Special Train Carrying Remain,
to Mexico City.
MAS AScASSINATED BY AID?
Fugitive President of Mexico and Sew
eral of His Friends Made Prison
ers and Then Executed by
General Herrera.

train carrying the body of president
| Venustiano Carranza is on its way to
the capital
Accompanying the dead president
are seven other baskets, containing the
bodies of his most intimate followers.
A small group of thirty-two chief
tains, two civilians and the eight cof-
fins are all that remain of 1000 pow
erfully armed crack troops and huge
crowd of the former presidents satel-
lites who fled from Mexico City, carry
ing a nations loot and treasure.
Here in the capital are confusion
and a vague sense of terror of the con
sequence at home and abroad.
ITS delicate situation gravely
declared Col. Benito Ramiers, chief OF
Obregon's staff
Two Versions of Killings.
There are two versions at staff head
| quarters as to how the killings took
| place. One-and it's the one that the
revolutionary leaders are praying is
| the correct one-iS that Carranza and
| his seven followers were casualties in
| a regular battle. The other most like
| ~ version is that Gen. Dodolfo Her
rera made the eight men prisoners ana
| assassinated them.
| The dead. I'M addition to CarranZa,
probably include Luis Cabrera secre-
| tary of the treasury; Gen. Francisco
| Murgua, Carranza's commander In
thief; Agurre Berlanga secretary OF
he interior; Alfonso Cabrera, brother
If Luis. former governor of the state
! It Pueba. and the man who arrested
| Consul Jenkins and caused all the
trouble over the kidnapping; and Cen
eral Urquizo, subsecretary of the war
department.
Herrera the Key Figure.
At the little town of TleXicaltenango
In northern Puebla, near the great
light and power plant at NecaXa which
supplies Mexico City, occurred the
| tragedy on the explanation of which
| HINGES tie fate of Mexico. Encircie'
! by pursuing revolutionary forces UNI
|
that escape was impossible, one of
two things took place-either the rebel
! troops commanded by General Her
rera discovered and attacked the pres
idential party and Carranza and his
seven companions were killed in bat
tie, or Herrera, as a member Of Car
ranza'S fugitive group, turned on his
chief and murdered them.
HcrreraS status will decide wheth-
or the drama was the unavoidable out
come of war or pure murder.
Rebels Appear in Clear.
In either event it is difficult to see
Just how the revolution headed by
Obregon can be blamed. Herrera was
Mexican rebel against Carranza. His
| forces operated in the state of Vera
Cruz, on the southern fringes of the
Manuel Pelacz oil zone around Tam
pico. Last November Herrera took adj
vantage of an amnesty decree issued
| by Carranza and surrendered to the
| federal government.
His forces were incorporated in the
| regular army and they passed out of
! the limeight.
When Carranza evacuated Mexico
| City, Herrera accompanied him. At a
great battle at Rinconada, when Gen.
JacintO Treyino, operating under OBJ
RECON, disastrously defeated the forces
Of Murguai and the presidential fugi-
tives abandoned the II special trains
and plumber Herrera-and here is
! the crucial spot in the whole affair
zistas and joined General Mariel, an
other Obregon commander, at the en-
gagement.
Herrera then is said to have joined
in the pursuit of the president.
He Is then supposed to have opened
an attack at dawn Friday, probably
while the Carranza camp was asleep.
Violated obregon's orders2
The fact that only important per-
sons were killed, and apparently no
soldiers were either attackers or at
tackled, and no other member of the
| Carranza crowd was even injured,
seems TO bear out the version that
Herrera either rejoined Carranza att
er RincOnada, then turned on him, or
never did desert him and become an
! Obregonlsta.
Where the revolutionary party can
be linked up with the affair lies in the
possibility that Herrera did attack as
an Obregonista and captured and exc
cuted the victims. In this event he
violated Obregon's orders to all his
generals not to harm President Car
rama or his followers, but TO give
them all guarantees of safety
| If Herrera did this he obviously
would be arrested. He has not been
arrested, and Obregon's chief of stN2
told me he wouldn't be, as 1t was a
formal battle and the casualties, ire
grettnble rs they are" could not be
avoided.