Mr. Romero to Mr. Gresham.
Washington , March 29, 1894 . (Received March 29.)
Mr. Secretary: I have the honor to acknowledge receipt of your note of yesterday in which, referring to mine of the 19th instant touching the importance of the arrest and punishment of Victor L. Ochoa, who is endeavoring to prepare in the United States expeditions against Mexico, you state that the Attorney General informs you that he will take pleasure in instructing the proper district attorney to institute proceedings against Ochoa for violation of the neutrality laws whenever he is furnished with positive evidence of violation of said laws, and that he does not consider as evidence of that nature the letter of Ochoa published by the Citizen of Albuquerque which I submitted to you in my above-mentioned note.
You also state that the War Department will cordially cooperate on its part with the Attorney-General to the same purpose.
[Page 431]I have the honor to say, in reply, that if the letter published by Ochoa in the Citizen of Albuquerque is not sufficient in order to institute proceedings against him—and granting that the opinion of the Attorney-General on this point is of great weight—it affords no reason why he should not be prosecuted for the expedition which he organized in the United States in 1893 and carried out into Mexico, where he committed many crimes, being ultimately driven off by the Mexican forces.
I have, under instructions of the Government of Mexico, requested the arrest and trial of Ochoa for violation of the neutrality laws in the United States in organizing in this country an expedition in arms against a friendly nation, of which the facts can be proved before the competent Federal court of this country, and I am confident that the Government of Mexico will assist in adducing all the evidence that may be necessary in the case. Should the Attorney-General of the United States think it necessary to examine the evidence before proceeding against Ochoa, I shall apply for the same at once.
Please accept, etc.,