File No. 812.00/1034.
The Mexican Ambassador to the Assistant Secretary of State.
Washington, March 20, 1911.
My Dear Mr. Wilson: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 16th instant, in which you transcribe to me the telegram sent by a representative of the district attorney of Douglas, Ariz., according to which the Mexican soldiers who were at Aguaprieta the day previous to the date of the telegram took nine Mexican prisoners after a skirmish with revolutionists, many of these Mexicans [Page 429] being laborers engaged in work on American territory, and immediately after apprehending them shot them, without any trial, though they were not armed, the only persons witnessing the acts being curious onlookers. The informant adds that, on the morning of the day of his telegram, it is said that 11 executions similar to the previous ones were made, and that there are prisoners in the jail at Aguaprieta who are asking the intervention of the civil authorities either themselves or through their counselors, it being understood that this relates to the American authorities, since the informant says that they can not do this, and includes himself among them.
The signer of the telegram asks the authority whom he addresses whether it is possible, in the name of humanity, to prevent the continuance of this “barbarous butchery of innocents,” whereupon he adds that two Americans who witnessed the affray were the target for shots from the Mexican troops, but were not hit.
After inclosing the foregoing message, you tell me that the United States Embassy in Mexico did not report whether it was subalterns of the Mexican Army that committeed unauthorizedly the acts which gave rise to this painful report, of which you very rightly deem that I ought to have knowledge.
In reply I have the honor to state to you that I have transmitted the entire contents of your letter by telegraph to my Government, including, therefore, not only the statement of the facts, but also the opinions of the judicial authority who sent it, and I am sure that strict orders will be given to make a thorough and impartial investigation of the case, since the honor of the army is pledged to do this, and to punish those who may have been guilty of such acts in case the assertions contained in the aforementioned message should prove to be correct.
Nevertheless, I keenly regret, and you must also have done so, that the judicial officer of Douglas allowed himself to make insinuations and comments so much out of place in a message sent by him to his superior, since it is illogical to pretend that a Government should be responsible for acts committed by subalterns without orders from their superiors and even contrary thereto. In the case of a Government like mine, which has given evidence of its love of justice, it is sufficient to merely report an act which appears criminal in order to induce it to investigate the occurrence and hold the guilty parties responsible.
When this embassy has had the honor to address the Department of State in order to point out failure on the part of certain subordinate authorities to fulfill the obligations incumbent upon them it never presumed to make undue generalizations, since it knows the feeling of love for justice which inspires the American Government in its acts.
When my Government learns the result of the investigation of the events of Aguaprieta, which it will certainly order, I shall have the honor to transmit the result to you in order that you may take the proper steps in view of the circumstances and at least show the representative of the district attorney of Douglas the impropriety of his utterances.
At all events the levity with which the aforementioned judicial officer proceeded in making his unwarranted comments is to be lamented, [Page 430] since such a mode of judgment keeps up the excitement on the frontier, the official character of the informant and fact that he was addressing a superior being especially noticeable.
I will avail myself, etc.,