Page:Barbarous Mexico.djvu/221

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EIGHTH UNANIMOUS ELECTION OF DIAZ
189

bered four, La Voz de Juarez, El Insurgente, El Chinaco, all weeklies, and El Anti-Re-electionista, a daily. All were published in the capital.

The first blow fell upon La Voz de Juarez (The Voice of Juarez). August 3, 1909, that paper was suppressed and the plant confiscated. "Slandering the army," was the charge. The police looked for Martinez, but failed to find him. All minor employes found about the shop were jailed, and it was announced that the plant would be sold.

September 3rd the secret police descended upon El Insurgente and El Chinaco, also upon El Paladin, a weekly paper published by Ramon Alvarez Soto. The type forms of all three publications were seized and taken to the offices of the secret police as "pieces de conviction." Soto, Joaquin Pina, Martinez's managing editor of El Chinaco, Joaquin Fernando Bustillos, another editor, five printers, two other employes and Mrs. Martinez, were taken to jail. After five days the reporters and printers were released. But Mrs. Martinez and Enrique Patino, a member of El Paladin staff, who had been apprehended later, were held on charges of sedition.

El Anti-Re-electionista, the last of the Martinez papers, succumbed September 28th. The office was closed, the plant seized and sealed with the seal of the court, and twenty-two employes found about the office were all taken prisoner and charged with sedition. The list consisted of three members of the office executive force, one reporter, fifteen typesetters and three bindery girls.

How long these twenty-two remained in prison is not recorded. Six months later I saw a report that at least one of the Martinez editors, D. Feliz Palavicini, was still in prison. Mrs. Martinez remained in jail for sev-