File No. 812.00/9529.
[Inclosure—Translation.]
Speech of Senator Belisario Domínguez made of
record in the Mexican Senate but not read, being ruled out of
order on September 23, 1913.
Gentlemen: You have all read with deep
interest the message presented by Don Victoriano Huerta to the
Congress of the Union on the 16th instant [September].
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There is no doubt,
gentlemen, that you as well as myself felt indignant in the face of
the accumulation of falsities contained in that document. Whom does
that message aim to deceive, gentlemen? The Congress of the Union?
No, gentlemen; all its members are cultured persons who take an
interest in politics, who are in touch with events in this country
and who can not be deceived on the subject. Is it the Mexican Nation
that is to be deceived? Is it this noble country which, trusting in
your honesty, has placed in your hands her most sacred interests?
What must the National Assembly do in this case? It must respond
promptly to the trust and the confidence of the Nation which has
honored this body with her representation, and it must let her know
the truth and so prevent her from falling into the abyss that is
opening at her feet.
The truth is this: During the reign of Don Victoriano Huerta not only
has nothing been done in favor of the pacification of the country,
but the present condition of the Mexican Republic is infinitely
worse than ever before. The revolution is spreading everywhere. Many
nations, formerly good friends of Mexico, now refuse to recognize
this Government, since it is an illegal one. Our coin is
depreciated, our credit in the throes of agony. The whole press of
the Republic, either muzzled or shamelessly sold to the Government,
systematically conceals the truth. Our fields are abandoned. Many
towns have been destroyed. And, lastly, famine and misery in all
their forms threaten to spread throughout our unhappy country. What
is the cause of such a wretched situation?
- First, and above everything else, this condition is due to the
fact that the Mexican people can not submit and yield to and
accept as President of the Republic the soldier who snatched the
power by means of a treason and whose first act on arising to
the presidency was to assassinate in the most cowardly manner
the President and Vice President legally consecrated by the
popular vote, and the first of which two men was he who promoted
and gave position to Don Victoriano Huerta and covered him with
honors, was the man to whom Victoriano Huerta publicly swore
loyalty and faithfulness.
- Second, this situation is the result of the means adopted by
Don Victoriano Huerta and which he has been employing in order
to obtain the pacification of the country. You know what these
means are: nothing but extermination, death for all the men, all
the families, all the towns which do not sympathize with his
Government.
“Peace will be made at any cost whatever,” said Don Victoriano
Huerta. Have you studied, gentlemen, the terrible meaning of these
words of the egotistical, ferocious man, Don Victoriano Huerta? They
mean that he is ready to shed all the Mexican blood, to cover with
corpses the whole surface of the national territory, to convert our
country into one immense ruin, so that he may not leave the
presidential chair nor shed a single drop of his own blood.
In his insane desire to keep the post of President, Victoriano Huerta
is committing a new infamy. He is provoking an international
conflict with the United States of America, a conflict in which, if
it is to be solved by fighting, all surviving Mexicans would
participate, giving stoically the last drop of their blood, giving
their lives—all save Don Victoriano Huerta, and Don Aureliano
Blanquette, for these disgraced ones are stained with the blot of
treason and the nation and the army will repudiate them when the
time comes.
It seems as if our ruin is unavoidable, for Don Victoriano Huerta has
taken hold of power in such a way, in order to insure the triumph of
his candidacy to the presidency of the Republic in the elections to
be held October 26, that he has not hesitated to violate the
sovereignty of the greater part of the States, deposing the legally
elected Constitutional Governors and supplanting them with military
governors who will take good care to cheat the people by means of
ridiculous and criminal farces.
However, gentlemen, a supreme effort might save everything. Let the
National Assembly fulfill its duty and the nation is saved, and she
will rise up and become greater, stronger, more beautiful than
ever.
The National Assembly has the duty of deposing Don Victoriano Huerta
from the Presidency. He is the one against whom our brothers up in
arms in the North protest, and consequently he is the one least able
to carry out the pacification which is the supreme desire of all
Mexicans.
You will tell me, gentlemen, that the attempt is dangerous, for Don
Victoriano Huerta is a bloodthirsty and ferocious soldier who
assassinates anyone who is an obstacle to his wishes. But this
should not matter, gentlemen. The
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country exacts from you the fulfillment of a
duty, though there is the risk—the certainty—that you will lose your
lives.
If in your anxiety to see peace reign again in the Republic you made
a mistake and put faith in the false words of the man who promised
to pacify the Republic, today when you see clearly that this man is
an imposter, a wicked inept who is fast pushing the nation toward
ruin, will you, for fear of death, permit such a man to continue to
wield power? Reflect, gentlemen; meditate, and reply to this
query.
What would be said of those on a vessel who, during a violent storm
on a treacherous sea, would appoint as pilot a butcher who had no
recommendation to the post other than the fact of his having
betrayed and assassinated the captain of the vessel?
Your duty is unalterable, unavoidable, gentlemen, and the nation
expects of you its fulfillment.
This first duty discharged, it will be easy for the National Assembly
to fulfill others derived from it, asking all revolutionary chiefs
to stop all active hostilities and to appoint their delegates in
order that by general accord the president be elected who is to call
for presidential elections and who is to take care that these he
carried out in all legality.
The world is looking on us, gentlemen, members of the National
Assembly, and the nation hopes that you will honor her before the
world, saving her from the shame of having as first magistrate a
traitor and assassin.
(Signed)
Dr. B. Domínguez.
Senator for Chiapas.
