For years the idea of a union of all the Central American republics had been cherished by Barrios as it had been by a number of his predecessors. In fact this idea has been the dream of nearly every president of each one of the Central American republics even to this day. Barrios thought this would be beneficial not only to his own land but to each one of the states. The methods he pursued were no worse than England and other countries have followed from time immemorial to accomplish similar ends. He was on good terms with all of the republics. San Salvador had presented him with a sword of honour in token of her esteem, and Costa Rica had made him a general in her army in recognition of her friendship.
The President of Honduras had signified his willingness to enter into such a union. Likewise the President of San Salvador had led him to believe that he favoured the movement. Nicaragua and Costa Rica refused to enter into a confederation. Nevertheless, Barrios, trusting in the ability of the three rulers to control the situation, issued a proclamation on the 28th of February, 1885, declaring a federation of the five Central American republics and proclaiming himself as Supreme Military Chief until a choice could be made. President Zaldivar of San Salvador played him false and the scheme failed. Zaldivar was able to do this as he controlled the cables and either refused to send or garbled the dispatches forwarded to the other powers. Barrios was not daunted, but invaded San Salvador to compel Zaldivar to yield. His oldest son was killed in battle on the 21st of April, and Barrios himself was shot from ambush when he went back to search for the body of his son. His remains are buried in a cemetery near Guatemala City, and the grave is marked by a slender, broken column set upon a great square, wooden cenotaph. His widow and six children soon after embarked for the United States, where Barrios had made investments to provide for just such a contingency.
Barrios was succeeded by Manuel Lisandro Barillas, a man of kind and benevolent instincts but ill fitted to control a turbulent republic like Guatemala. He at once withdrew the decree of federation which had proven so ill-timed and made peace with the other republics. Little was accomplished by him, although he attempted to continue the reform policies of Barrios. He was elected for and served for one full term, but was defeated for re-election by a nephew of the elder Barrios. This soured him and from that time until his death he was a more or less turbulent factor in the Guatemala political situation. When I was in that country he was in Chiapas, on the border of Guatemala, where, as I was informed by an American who had seen him, he had a force of twenty-five men “armed to the teeth.” This seems like a small force, but Granados had no more when he made his successful march and overthrew the existing government. Barillas had figured that the malcontents would flock to him as soon as he entered the country. He had sacrificed his all, and even his daughters had sold their diamonds to purchase guns and ammunition for his campaign. The President of Mexico compelled him to leave their territory, and President Cabrera rushed troops to the border, so that the movement was a fiasco. Had it not been for this, the result might have been different, for the discontented in Guatemala at that time numbered many.
Ex-President Barillas was killed in the City of Mexico on the 7th day of April, 1907, aged sixty-seven years. He was riding on a street car when a youth of seventeen climbed aboard and stabbed him twice in the neck, the first blow severing the jugular vein. The assassin was a young Guatemalan who seemed to have come to Mexico for that purpose.
The successor of Barillas as president, José Maria Reina Barrios, served only a few years and developed no marked policy. He was a man of energy and strong will, but did not possess the ability or strength of character of his uncle. During the first few years of his term he gave the country a fairly good government and worked much for the prosperity of Guatemala. Near the close of his first term, however, he sought by legislative enactment to extend his term of office for five years, and a series of revolutions followed. In February, 1898, he was assassinated on the streets of Guatemala City by a foreigner, evidently an anarchist, and the country was left in a disastrous condition.
The Premier Designado, which corresponds to the position of Vice-President under our form of government, at the time of the assassination of Reina Barrios, was Manuel Estrada Cabrera. He was a lawyer by profession and the first civilian to hold that office since the establishment of the republic. Upon his accession to the presidency he found the country involved in many serious complications. The foreign obligations were threatening to precipitate trouble with international entanglements, and the new President at once exerted every effort to place this indebtedness in a more favourable condition, and to organize the finances in such a way that the legitimate demands of creditors might be met. It is only fair to Cabrera to say that he succeeded in these efforts even more than might have been expected by his most sanguine supporters. His legal training stood him in good stead. The finances of the country were reorganized, foreign creditors were appeased, and, after the first few years, for he was elected to a full term in September of the same year, the way to permanent peace and prosperity seemed to open up wide. Guatemala appeared for a while to be preparing to follow in the footsteps of Mexico, and Cabrera’s adherents enthusiastically prophesied for him a career as great and meritorious as that of Mexico’s wonderful statesman.
“Cabrera is a wonderful man. He will do for Guatemala what Diaz has done for Mexico.” Thus spoke a high official of that government to me concerning Manuel Estrada Cabrera, who has now been at the head of the government for more than eleven years.
It seems to me, however, that President Cabrera has signally failed in many ways. He lacks in the quality of “simpatica,” a Spanish term that it is difficult to translate into English. He has failed to attract the affection and confidence of his people sufficiently to establish permanent peace and tranquillity. Although revolutions have not been successful, or even formidable, yet it has been only by the exercise of the most severe military measures and police espionage at all times that such has not been the result. That severity alone does not suffice to make a ruler respected, or even feared, has been demonstrated over and over again. It is not the schoolmaster who inflicts the severest penalties who preserves the best order in the schoolroom, and it is not the ruler who inaugurates a reign of terror who lays the surest foundation for permanent peace and prosperity. In a Latin-American republic, where the president is the ruler, and not a figurehead, he must possess that peculiar and undefinable ascendency of character, that personal magnetism which lays a spell on the popular imagination and impels them to submit to his wishes willingly. If he lacks in either of those essentials, his influence will soon wane, other leaders will receive the popular plaudits, and a revulsion of public favour will leave the late favourite high and dry upon the deserted strand.
The best elucidation that can be made of this subject is by a comparison between the careers of President Cabrera and Diaz. The latter succeeded to a government that had been in the throes of revolution for three-fourths of a century, with a bankrupt treasury and a large foreign debt, the army disorganized, and the country overrun with bandits; and yet in his first term of four years, and in a country seven or eight times greater both in area and population, he accomplished far more for the betterment of Mexico than Cabrera has in eleven years at the head of affairs in Guatemala. Diaz used harsh measures where necessary, but he has accomplished more by diplomacy and the exercise of good judgment than he has by the use of mere force. To-day there is only one party in Mexico and that is the Diaz party.
That there is great dissatisfaction in Guatemala the events of recent years fully indicate. In 1907 an attempt was made upon the life of President Cabrera by exploding a mine, but this failed. Severe measures were adopted by the officials, and several of those suspected of implication in the plot were put to death, while a larger number were imprisoned incommunicado—that is, without privilege of communication with friends or counsel. Among this number were several foreigners who were suspected of designs against the President. Again, in April, 1908, another attack was made upon the President by some of his soldiers and he narrowly escaped death by shooting. The conditions that followed have been described as a “regime of terror” because of the many executions and incarcerations. An official report stated that eighteen men were court-martialed and sentenced to be shot for participation in this conspiracy.