BarbarousMexico JOHN KENNETH TURNER

184
BARBAROUS MEXICO
ported that both of them will be sent for long terms
to the penal colony on the Tres Marias Islands in the
Pacific.
During the months following the attempt to place a
candidate in the field against Vice-President Corral the
Democrats tried to strengthen their position by contesting
some state and local "elections." As a result there
were many arrests and several massacres by troops or
local authorities.
At Petape, Oaxaca, the Twenty-fifth battalion of regulars
fired on a crowd of the opposition, killing several.
Seventy were jailed.
At Tepames, Colima, there were many shootings.
After the jail was full, the authorities are reported as
having taken out some of the prisoners, compelled them
to dig their own graves, then shot them so that they fell
into the trenches.
At Tehuitzingo, Puebla, in April, it was reported that
sixteen citizens were executed without trial, and that
many others had been condemned to twenty years' confinement
in the fortress of San Juan de Ulua.
In Merida, Yucatan, federal troops were placed in
the polling booths and large numbers of Democrats
were arrested.
In the state of Morelos. in February, 1909, the Democrats
attempted to elect Patriclo Leyva in opposition to
Pablo Escandon, a slave-holding Spaniard whom Diaz
had selected for the place. For accepting the Democratic
candidacy Leyva was dismissed from his government
position as Inspector of Irrigation in the Department
of Fomento. The president and vice-president
of the Free Suffrage Club at Jojutla and the officers of
a similar club at Tiaquiltenango, as well as many others,
were jailed on charges of sedition, while the authorties