Tag: San Juan de Ulua Prison Mexico

Hellraisers Journal: From the International Socialist Review: John Murray on the Prisons of Diaz, Part III

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Freedom Ricardo Flores Magon, ed, Speech re Prisoners of Texas, May 31, 1914———-

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday April 6, 1909
John Murray on the Horrors of the Private Prisons of Diaz, Part III

From the International Socialist Review of April 1909:

Mex Rev, Diaz Prison by Murray, ISR p737, ISR Apr 1909

[Part III, Conclusion]

[John Murray’s interview with the escaped prisoner, Antonio, continues:]

The sick man’s pauses in this narrative were frequent. At times the old lady give him water to drink, and then again he would take two puffs at a cigarette rolled by the president, all of which kept him going to the end of his story.

We were accused of participating in the rebellion started in September, 1906, by the Junta Revolucionaria Mexicana in Jimenez, and in Acayucan. Chained in gangs with two hundred others, we were brought to the fortress and political prison of San Juan de Ulua.

Some of us were betrayed by that Judas, Captain Adolfo Jimenez Castro, an officer of the post at Cuidad Juarez, while others were betrayed by Trinidad Vasquez at Cananea.

Among the number were persons entirely innocent of any participation in the rebellion, but they received neither consideration nor mercy, and, like many of us, saw their homes burnt by the soldiery and their families left to starve.

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Hellraisers Journal: From the International Socialist Review: John Murray on the Prisons of Diaz, Part II

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote R Magon re John Murray, ISR p643, Mar 1909———-

Hellraisers Journal – Monday April 5, 1909
John Murray on the Horrors of the Private Prisons of Diaz, Part II

From the International Socialist Review of April 1909:

Mex Rev, Diaz Prison by Murray, ISR p737, ISR Apr 1909[Part II]

[John Murray at San Juan de Ulua Prison, continues speaking with the sympathetic soldier…]

Without a word the soldier turned and walked towards the archway. I followed at his heels and we made our way around outside the walls, entered the arsenal and climbed an inner staircase to the battlements of the fortress.

Pointing out to sea, my guide showed me a small man-of-war coming into the harbor.

“That’s the ‘General Bravo’—look at it. Keep looking at it, senor, and while we are here alone I will stand behind your back and tell you all I know of the martyrs imprisoned in Ulua.

“The friends of Magon in the army are many. Here, in Ulua, all would be glad to see a way out of this hell—but will it ever come?”

I answered as I believed, in all sincerity, “It will come,” and with a look of encouragement the young soldier went on:

Six months ago I came to Ulua from Sonora, and never once have I seen the political prisoners. But this I saw with my own eyes:

Late on a Sunday afternoon, a boat with two occupants came rowing towards the guardhouse of the west side landing. I saw it before the others, being far-sighted, and this my first day of guard duty on the island. As the boat touched the pier, a white-haired lady wrapped in a black shawl, and trembling with age, was just able to mount from the rocking gunnel to the first stone step, where she sank down, panting and exhausted. The oarsman was a small, black Indian from the mountain tribes near Orizaba. Martin Jose Pico, our hook-nosed, thief-of-a-sergeant—ration-robbing is his trade-roughly demanded her pass, but she had none.

This was such a strange occurrence—a white-haired woman of over eighty years trying to gain entrance to the prison without credentials—that the officer of the day was summoned.

Captain Garcia likes not old women, and to the black figure seated at his feet on the stone step, his words were short and sharp:

“Speak! What do you want?”

“To see a boy who is imprisoned here,” replied the trembling, low-toned voice of the old lady.

“A boy? We have no boys. Who is he?” testily demanded the officer.

“Juan Sarabia,” replied the white-haired woman.

At this name the captain took a sudden step back, for of all the prisoners most strictly kept “incommunicado” is this famous revolutionist, Juan Sarabia. Even to mention his name is forbidden the soldiers of Ulua.

White-faced, the officer gripped the old lady by her arm and stuttered a rasping question:

“Fool! who are you?”

“His mother,” came the answer.

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Hellraisers Journal: From the International Socialist Review: John Murray on the Prisons of Diaz, Part I

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote EVD Mex Revolutionairies, AtR p2, Oct 10, 1908———-

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday April 4, 1909
John Murray on the Horrors of the Private Prisons of Diaz, Part I

From the International Socialist Review of April 1909:

Mex Rev, Diaz Prison by Murray, ISR p737, ISR Apr 1909
—–

[Part I]

Mex Rev, Diaz Prison by Murray, A, ISR p737, ISR Apr 1909S soon as we were alone at the end of the pier breasting the Vera Cruz harbor, the little, pock-marked secretary of the revolutionary group pulled from his pockets a piece of grey stone and held up before my eyes.

“Look at that!”

I took the fragment from his slim, brown fingers and turned it over curiously. It was a piece of coarse, grey coral.

“See! It’s porous. Now do you understand? The whole prison’s built of it.”

With an upward jerk of his hand he leveled an accusing finger at the white-washed walls of the fortress-prison shining in the sun across the waters of the blue bay.

“There it stands! On that island, yonder! San Juan de Ulua! The foulest spot in all Mexico—Diaz’ private prison for his political enemies!”

The corners of the man’s mouth drew down into a snarl and his eyes narrowed to burning slits of hate as he gazed in the direction of the fortress.

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Hellraisers Journal: Eugene Debs: “Plot Must Be Foiled..Conspiracy to Murder Mexican Comrades..by Order of Diaz”

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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Quote EVD Mex Revolutionairies, AtR p2, Oct 10, 1908
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday October 10, 1908
Eugene V. Debs Urges Working Men and Women to Save Mexican Comrades

From the Appeal to Reason:

THIS PLOT MUST BE FOILED
—–
Conspiracy to Murder Mexican Comrades
Now Imprisoned in This Country
by Order of Díaz
—–

by EUGENE V. DEBS.

Mex Rev, Juan Sarabia, St L P-D p53, Apr 5, 1908

There is no longer the least doubt, if there ever was any, that the United States government, through its present administration, has entered into a conspiracy with the bloody and barbarous government to foully murder the revolutionary leaders of the Mexican people. The visit of Secretary of State Root to the Mexican capital, the pomp and display with which he was received, and the continuous ovation that was tendered him, are well remembered, as is also the fact, by Socialists at least, that the object of that love feast was to pave the way for the exploitation of this undeveloped country by American and Mexican capitalists. The entente cordiale was established between the House of Roosevelt and the House of Díaz, and since then there has been perfect understanding and harmonious cooperation in carrying out the international program.

When the Mexican revolutionists established their junta at St. Louis and were followed by the bloodhounds of Díaz the latter were reinforced by Furlong’s detectives and the junta was finally destroyed by the joint persecution of the minions of the American and Mexican governments.

The Mexican revolutionists, whose only crime was their opposition to Díaz, the bloody butcher of the so-called Mexican Republic, are men of heart and brain and conscience who could not endure witnessing the atrocities perpetrated upon the ignorant masses; they were animated by the same passion for freedom as were the American revolutionists a century and a half ago and with far greater justification for resisting tyranny and oppression

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