For you Latin American history buffs, I found a fascinating letter

[EFerrari]

yesterday.

It captures the moment when Sandino decided Marti was not to be trusted, ca. 1930. It's not a complete copy and I'm still working out who wrote it and to whom but I can post what I have in full because it's public domain.

At this time, Sandino was in Mexico and Marti was with him. Both men had less than five years to live. The writer has spent some time with Gen. Sandino and is writing to a colleague in Mexico City.




Veracruz, 9 June 1930

Dr. Pedro José Zepeda
General Representative of the Defending Army in the Defense of the National Sovereignty of Nicaragua
3rd de Balderas, Number 24
Mexico, D.F.

My esteemed and distinguished friend:
I have just received your kind letter dated on the 6th of this month. By our letter and by the newspaper clippings that accompany it, I have truly come to know about the incident with González. He wrote to me on the same day saying he was leaving for El Salvador in the afternoon and that I should reply to him there.

I will begin by telling you that González did not assist but to one meeting, which took place at General Sandino's request. It was attended by the directors of the following groups: the Anti-Imperialist League, the Hands-off Nicaragua Committee and the Communist Party of Mexico. The purpose of this meeting was to shed light on the allegations that the calumnies claiming that General Sandino had sold himself through the Mexican government had originated in these groups. The following persons attended these meeting: General Sandino, Hernán Laborde, Professor Rafael Ramos Pedruza, a certain Mr. Sáenz from Costa Rica, Federico Bach, Esteban Pavletich, Constantino González, Dr. Carlos León, a Russian man accompanying Laborde, whose name I do not remember, Augustin F. Martí and I.

Once all the above mentioned persons were present, and I don't know if any other escapes my memory, the General began to speak, stating the objective of the meeting. Everyone said that it was not true that they had pronounced such maligning calumnies and proceeded to condemn such defamations.

Afterward, the question of the funds of the Hands-Off Nicaragua Committee was brought up, and General Sandino said not to have received Turcios, his representative in those days, but $250 Dollars. Mr. Ramos Pedruza was present, acting as Treasurer, and he informed that the files had burned and he could not therefore render account.

Later, the topic changed to the system of struggle to be used, in which the General had no participation at all because it was a matter that had to be resolved by the directors of the said group. But instead of beginning by looking for the most convenient means, Laborde unleashed a series of personal insults against Ramos Pedruza for earning six pesos daily as a school teacher. Bach was equally attacked, also for being a teacher in another school, and because they could not attack the government as it was ordered by the Communists while receiving a salary from the government.

Professor Ramos Pedruza defended himself by saying that he had written a book entitled Red Star and that he was providing more guidance and more propaganda with that book than they with their demonstrations and scandals, which had gained nothing practical for the benefit of the workers. He expressed it in an analogy that was as graphic as it was eloquent: "if you wish to derail a train, I am not going to stand in front of it in the middle of the track with my arms open because the train would run me over¼ ¼ destroyed would not have accomplished more than the sacrifice ¼ ¼. But if I use my intelligence and I blow up the train ¼¼ judgment would give me my life but I would destroy the train. That is how you are, you imitate the government, you scream and make scandals, the government closes your offices, persecutes you, and what have you accomplished? But if intelligently we engage in a mission of understanding among the masses, based on truth and based on tact, the objective attained and elements necessary for the struggle are not lost."

Afterward General Sandino was invited to do a propaganda tour in Europe. The General agreed to give an answer at a later date, and after two days he resolved to accept. On the same day, they agreed to send a cable to Berlin, and said that it would only be a matter of days for a response to arrive. According to the General, he, Pavletich, Constantino and I would go on the tour. He also asked that they pay the expenses of such tour because he had no funds whatsoever. This was in the first days of the month of February <1930>. The remainder of the month passed, as did March, and by mid-April, when still no response had arrived, the General decided to send his men out of the country. This was the time when Constantino arrived by plane to fetch the General.

When Tejada came through this city, I asked him to remind the General he could send me his people and I would see how I would put them up over here. Then, the General obtained from the Yucatán government the necessary passes for all his people, but he remained with Estrada, Martí, Peralta, and Diaz. González rounded up the money that would be used to send those people to the border with the passes I arranged in this harbor with the help of compañero General Miguel M. Acosta.

In any case, it may appear as though I am blowing my own horn, something I am not in the habit of doing nor do I wish to do, but in describing these facts I have to touch upon them in their naked truth. And so, the General arrived on Palm Sunday and I went to meet him at the pier, and when he saw me he called me aside. When we walked to the bow of the ship, still on board, he told me that one ought not to speak to Martí. Such recommendation surprised me, but I decided to wait. Once in this house, which is yours, he informed me that there had been an unpleasant incident with Martí, that the latter, while drunk, had challenged the General "What is Sandino?", that he "did not give a hoot about Nicaragua," that he "had not betrayed Sandino even though he was there for that purpose" and he "insulted the General's mother ."

Estrada intervened, disarmed Martí and was ready to punish the offense directed against his Chief, but the General desired no trouble, especially when traveling under an assumed name, and prevented Estrada from striking or killing Martí.

Then the General began to think about all the actions of Martí. Martí sustained secret correspondence with the Communist Party and he was found out while still staying at the Grand Hotel in Mérida, Yucatán . The General had no money, and there was an actress in the same hotel, who through the friendship she had with the General found out about the General's financial situation, so she provided him with funds that were later reimbursed. She told the General what was going on, and to keep an eye on Martí.

Once he was warned, the General went to inspect a bundle of correspondence and when this happened Martí turned white. But by unfortunate coincidence a young lady came to visit the General, who was obliged to attend to the visitor. When he came back he found a bunch of paper burning, and when he asked why those papers were burning, Martí answered that they were no longer useful. The General's doubts were thus partly confirmed, although he was not able to produce sufficient proof. Moreover, the General is magnanimous to a degree that has at times been detrimental to him. On another occasion, the same Martí completely inebriated (although no drunk will eat fire) held a gun to the General and insulted him. The General used his energy and pulled his own pistol. Martí then asked a thousand pardons, and the General pardoned him.

I have digressed a little from the issue that occupies us in order to explain well that Martí has given reason to be suspicious for a while. His actions were not accidental and they betray a preconceived plan. It was the hand of Communism that operated in that manner.

Well, once the General was here, he indicated to me that we should leave the next day for the capital city. We left on the next train on the way he thought that we should not go to the place the previous time, that is at the Balderas 24 house the interviews with journalists and make oneself more visible.

Then Constantino offered the house at which he was staying. But the General had no desire to go there because the previous time Constantino invited us to stay there, the General did not think that there were enough people there. In the end, the General accepted and that is where he ended up staying.

As you well know, every time I accompanied the General I brought the money to pay for the expenses, and I personally paid Doña Mimi the money for our stay. If it is true that Constantino paid some money for the General, $20 first, that money was the General's, and what is more, I even paid for the expenses of Constantino during our stay in that house. As a consequence, we did not stay anywhere else but in the Guest House of Jalapa #70.

Indeed, The General had relations with the Communist Party, but he never contracted obligation with them in my presence. One occasion, they tried to corner him to make declarations against the Mexican government but he said: "But do you think that I am such an idiot as to set fire to the house while I am still in it? No Sir, I will make declarations when I judge it to be opportune, but if I start opening the lid with insults, they would expel me and hand me over to my enemies and so I would accomplish nothing more than to be sacrificed stupidly. I always carry life like this (and he showed the kerchief that he always clenches). If I am to throw my life away it must be with a purpose, not stupidly."

They answered that it is what they wished, that the General be expelled so as to have a motive for agitation, but the General told them again what they wanted was to create victims without producing any practical results for anyone. "I am a communist because I understand it will, or is, the highest there exists, but I am not in agreement with a bunch of opportunists who call themselves Communists and who always engage in nothing but intemperate schemes, which profane such a high principle worthy of better fortune." They answered that "those kinds of members" had already been expelled, that the Communist Party was now purified. But the General answered that he would decide, in good judgment, what he thought was convenient.

Constantino says he witnessed various communications destined for the Communists signed by General the himself. Not only did I see them, but the General told me on several occasions, especially when the General was about to leave, he "could not be subordinated to anyone, and he needs complete freedom of action. We will be disciples of the Mexican Revolution, but we will not make its mistakes; for all those things that cost lives and money to the Mexican Revolution to experiment with, we will take the practical part for the benefit of our workers and peasant masses but we will never try to implant exotic doctrines nor stupid radicalisms."

See here Doctor, I am a believer that we are giving a very unedifying spectacle to our partisans when we engage in this type of polemics. I am the first to recognize, and this is why I had your declarations printed in the newspaper here, that you have the direct line with General Sandino like I have it, and have all honest men and conscious partisans of the continental struggle that is represented in its maximum expression by General Sandino, but our enemies avail themselves of these dissentions among ourselves for their own benefit.

Constantino, in his fantasy, makes himself appear as a most important factor in the struggle. Do you think that persons of common sense give credit to such baffoonery? I think not. Since we were in that city , the General himself told him on several occasions that Constantino knew nothing else than to want to get away with it. It was the affair with the archive, one could say, that is at the origin of these difficulties with you. He wrote to me wishing to prick my pride, telling me you had said that if I that city with some transaction for Sandino you would authorize me, and so I replied that you could authorize me authorized by the General, and in agreement with you and not .




NOTE: The copy of this letter in my possession is unfortunately incomplete.

http://www.sandino.org/letter3.htm