Minister Beaupré to the Secretary of State.
Buenos Aires , February 8, 1905 .
Sir: Supplementing my telegrams of the 4th, 5th, and present instant, I have the honor to report that on the afternoon of the 3d instant rumors of an intended movement subversive of the established government of this country came to the Federal authorities from various [Page 28] parts of the Republic. These rumors were at first discredited, but finally proved so persistent that the President and heads of the various departments of the government proceeded to take measures of precaution. In the early hours of the morning of the next day, the 4th instant, the anticipated outbreak came simultaneously in the capital, Rosario, Mendoza, Cordoba, and Bahia Blanca, these being the largest cities of the Republic and the principal political and military centers.
In the capital the plan of the revolutionists seems to have been to attack the police stations and military arsenal, with a view perhaps of forcing the police of the capital into their ranks and of supplying themselves with arms and munitions. At the arsenal, by a simple statagem of the minister of war, the malcontents were lured into the building and arrested. About the police stations there was some fighting, particularly at Station No. 14; but the insurgents proved unprepared and insufficiently organized, so that by dawn the movement had completely failed in this city. Except that many of the shops remained closed throughout the day of the 4th, and except for the presence of armed police in the streets, there were no evidences of any revolutionary effort. Some half dozen fatalities are reported.
The prompt and effective suppression of the revolution in this city is due in large measure to the energy and judgment displayed by the President and his ministers, who spent the entire night in the Government House in council. Following up the precautionary measures of the 3d instant and the active measures of the night of the 3d and 4th, the President proceeded at 8 a.m. of the 4th to declare the Republic in a state of siege for a period of thirty days, to call out the reserves and to establish a censorship of the press and of the telegraph service.
The movement in Rosario was about as brief and unsuccessful as that in the capital, so that by the forenoon of the 4th it was known to have failed in the two principal cities of the Republic. Here there was also some blood shed.
In the meantime the real center of the movement was the city of Cordoba, while serious trouble seemed in view in the city of Mendoza, where the revolutionists were said to be in a strong position, and in the province of Buenos Aires, where troops and marines were already in movement from Bahia Blanca upon the capital. To prevent concentration from these points upon the capital all railway service was suspended, the rails even being removed in various places by order of the government. Then the government proceeded to take the aggressive. General Winter was sent at noon of the 5th by rail to Cordoba with two batteries of the Second Artillery, 150 men, and 100 marines. He was joined by the Fifth Artillery from Parana and 300 prison guards. He was further joined en route by forces of country police. On the same day General Saturnino García was sent from Tucuman with the Fifth Cavalry, Third Mountain Artillery, and First Chasseurs to join General Winter. The same day General Fotheringham was ordered to Mendoza with the Thirteenth infantry and the Fourth Artillery, and was joined by Lieutenant-Colonel Rawson with 300 men and by Colonel Tiscornia with the Fourth Infantry and Second Artillery. To meet the forces proceeding under Major Villamayor across the province of Buenos Aires from Bahia Blanca upon the capital the gendarmeria of the province was concentrated in La Plata. Thence there were sent out two divisions by train, the first under Colonel Zeballos, consisting of 450 gendarmes armed with Remingtons and [Page 29] Mausers; and the second under Captain Baez, consisting of 400 gendarmes and prison guards armed with Mausers and a Maxim gun.
At an early hour of the morning of the 7th instant General Fotheringham’s forces arrived before Mendoza. At sight of the Federal troops the revolutionists, having learned that the movement had failed in the capital, fled toward the borders of Chile, where some of the leaders have since been taken and await extradition. They had taken possession of the city of Mendoza with some bloodshed and had sacked the Bank of the Nation; the money stolen, being some $300,000 Argentine paper currency, they carried away with them.
The defeat of the forces in the province of Buenos Aires was equally complete, there being some 7 killed and 10 wounded. Major Villamayor fled toward the west and is being pursued. Later reports may give more casualties.
The revolutionary forces at Cordoba had made prisoners of the vice-president of the Republic, Dr. Figueroa Alcorta, and other prominent citizens. These prominent men they are reported to have proposed putting in their vanguard unless concessions were made to them. This and the conditions of the revolutionists the vice-president telegraphed to the Executive, who did not allow himself to be moved by threats or even by sympathy for his colleague. Consequently the revolutionists, finding threats and resistance vain, fled yesterday before the government troops arrived. With the failure of the movement in Cordoba the revolution is considered at an end and the country has returned to its former condition of peace and tranquillity.
This movement came as a surprise to the inhabitants of this city and is universally condemned and deplored. The President is the recipient of congratulations from all quarters, various bodies of business men having presented formally and in person resolutions of sympathy and approval. In the end it will serve, I believe, to strengthen the existing government.
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I am, etc.,