BarbarousMexico JOHN KENNETH TURNER

188 BARBAROUS MEXICO
This being the case, there were many reasons to suppose that
Peniche, in publishing the accusation, was working in the publi'
interest and was not committing any crime. Instead of this, he
is convicted of defamation, an even more serious offense than
libel.
El Diario del Hogar, an old and conservative daily
paper of the capital, which has espoused the cause of
the Democrats, printed an account of Peniche's banishment
also, the article appearing under the caption
"Newspaper Men Watch Out." The authorities at once
forced the suspension of the paper. The owner, Filomena
Mata, an aged man who had retired from active life;
Filomena Mata, Jr., managing editor, and the mechanical
foreman, were taken to prison. A month afterwards
it was reported that father and son were still in jail
and that Mata, Sr., was dying of ill treatment received
from the jailers.
Some time later, in March, 1910, the government
forced the suspension of Mexico Nuevo. It was revived
later, however, and is the only Democratic paper which
survived the Reyes campaign.
Paulino Martinez was one of the oldest and bestknown
newspaper men in Mexico. His papers were
the only ones in opposition to the policy of the administration
which succeeded in weathering the storm of
press persecutions of past years. For several years his
papers, La Voz de Juarez and El Insurgente, were the
only opposition papers in Mexico. Martinez kept them
alive, so he told me himself, by refraining always from
making direct criticisms of high officials or acts of General
Diaz.
But with the campaign against the Democratic movement
Martinez's papers went with the rest. When the
government began action against him his papers num-