Venezuelan Infamies.

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 347, 1 January 1903, Page 5

Venezuelan Infamies.

(By "Despertador" in the " London Daily Mail;)

\ The inhabitants of the West indies and South America have recently learned that the London Press has at last thought fit to occupy itself with the situation in Venezuela. All honor to the " Daily Mail" for calling attention to the atrocious state of affairs now existing in that unhappy country. It needs the pen of a Defoe or a Dante to correctly portray the atrocities which now take place in all parts of Venezuela, practically under the sanction of the United States, and by the cowardly connivance of Great Britain. Since the time of the great Bolivar —a name almost unknown in Great Britain—there has been no peace in all that great territory which the Liberator rescued from the infamous rule of the Spaniards. Coming down to later times one finds a systematic continuation of bloodshed, rapine, and every description of criminality, Recently I asked an old Venezuelan how many years had elapsed since there had been representation in Venezuela according to the Constitution of the country, and he replied, " Sir, there has been no legitimate representation in Venezuela for the last forty years. I remember when it was suppressed at the point of the bayonet." The Constitution of Venezuela says int»' alia, that the President must be elected by the people. That is a very reasonable proposal. But what are we to say when a highway robber comes into the capital at the head of a horde of bandits and says: " I am the President ]" Yet that is exactly what Che present President of Venezuela did. Oastro simply hunted his predecessor out of office and took possession by force of arms. Oastro originally came from a small hamlet in the Andes, where he probably drove mules or carried sacks of coffee for a living. «The situation became tedious to him, and it occurred to him to seize the Presidency. The thought bred the action. From that point we see him on the high road to the Presidency. Starting with some seventy followers (some of whom in a civilised country would have been convicts according to the criminal law) he continued an almost unbroken career of victory, which culminated at Tocuyito, where the victor left over 15 dead and wounded for five days en the field of battle, the wounded rotting with gangrene and dying of hunger and exposure for want ef attendance. Meanwhile Castro continued a course of victory until he arrived within striking distance of Caracas. Then he sent word to the existing President Andrade to clear out, and Andrade cleared out accordingly. Incidentally he left only a few cents in the treasury, but that was only a detail. Castro then took possession and issued a glorious manifesto announcing ; new men, new ideas, new everything; yet within twenty-four hours he started the old infamy of gaoling without trial or sentence every man whose conduct displeased him. From that time began the miseries which now curse Venezuela. Oastro brought into Caracas a ruffian crowd of Andinos (as the inhabitants of the Andes ' are called) and installed himself in the Government offices. His officers and I soldiers swaggered about the public i parks and streets with knives and ! revolvers stuck in their belts; shot civilians on the slightest pretext; ; ordered drinks and never paid for them in hotels; called for meals at the I restaurants, and pulled their daggers or revolvers when the owners asked for payment; insulted ladies in the streets, and all, be it remembered, without the slighest fear of arrest, because they belonged to Oastro'a party. At Yellow House, the recognised centre of Government, a number of oamp-fttllowers were installed by his officers, and were to be seen daily lounging on the steps in the sun. With such a beginning Oastro commenced bis infamous career of murder and robbery, and with the official sanction of the Foreign" Ministers carried fire and sword through the length and breadth of Venezuela. Few, indeed, of his infamies reach the outside world, because the local Press dare not say a word except by express sanction of the Government.- The "New York Press" wilfully suppresses information so that foreign populations may not know what is going on, and the London Press has not yet discovered South America. From the time of his invasion up tfil now Oastro, with a gang of cutthroats at his side/ has spread ruin in every direction through Venezuela. It is a common occurrence for his bandits, with the full cognisance of their President, to enter into town, rob the stores and private houses, violate the women, murder every man

who dares to 'protest ngaintt' these infamies, set fere to the town and then go marching on with the Veneaueian flag at their head* '* ■ No one dares brenth a word in Garacae, against Oastro/ The hotels, restaurants* every street corner every place of public resort are full of spies, and for .the slightest word women aire hurried off to gaol without trial or sentence and kept in prison just as long as Castro and his friends think fit Actually there, are hundreds and hundreds of men in the gaols of Venezuela to day who have been prisoners for one or two years without ever having been brought before any court of justice Or accused of any offence Some of the prisons are damp and horribly unwholesome, and the wretches immured in them die little by little every day with their iron manacles eating into their flash. And the English Government knows this and the American Government upholds it;. Of Oastro personally one can only speak as of a common ruffian. The enormous revenues exacted from Venezuelan merchants through the Custom houses are turned into gold, and a large portion goes directly into Castro's possession and it is by him sent away to his private account on the Continent. So it has happened that Oastro, who arrived in Caracas a few years back without money to pay for his bed and beard, is now worth at least five million dollars, Those few words explain most of the revolutions which now occnr in South and Central America. The vagabond of to-day may become the millionaire of tomorrow, no matter who suffers. To account for the deficit in the revenue of the nation, a fictitious balance sheet is issued debiting public works, roads, bridges , &c, with hundreds of thousands of dollars, but these public works are a myth, and the supposed expenditure upon them is merely a cloak to cover the-robbery of public moneys. The state of affairs in Venezuelan today is a blasphemy on civilisation, and not only has Oastro spread like gangrene over Venezuela, but he has been to a very large extent the cause of the present civil war in the adjoining Republic of Colombia. Caßtro's gunboat helped largely to carry on the revolution against the Colombian Government, and a Venezuelan gunboat, the Bolivar, actually bombarded Savanilla, a Colombian port, without any declaration of war. I was in Caracas when Oastro. President of the Republic of Venezuela gave audience at Yellow House to the Colombian General Uribe, the acknowledge leader of the revolution against the Colombian Government, despite the fact that the two nations were friendly, The VenezuelanPresß naturally kept silent over the incident. Behind, and tacitly supporting all this violence, corruption, and abuse, we find the silent power of the United States. The Venezuelans themselves, even when committing their infamies, say, "It does not matter; the United States will not allow anyone to interfere With us." They are quite right. So the game goes on in Pouth America, and Great Britain cringes before the situation while the United States hold out a threatening fist and talk of the Monroe Doctrine to all foreign Powers. Commerce is paralysed, foreigners abused, maltreated and of ten murdered, whole towns delivered up to the horrors of fire, sword, rape, and all the brutalities of a licentious soldiery, the gaols crowded with innocent persons, men snapped up in the streets by press gangs, justice at a standstill, the superior courts giving their decisions according to the orders of an Official appointed by Castro. Murderers are walking*unmolested through the streets because they are Castro's friends ; criminals are set free without ever being brought to the bar of justice; the Chief Justice was sent to gaol on Castro's personal order for declaring to call attention to certain abuses connected with the prison—and all because the United States say that the Powers must not interefere with the (alleged) Republics of South. America. That is to-day the greatest secreLof misrule in Venezuela. *