After all these events I succeeded in getting permission to leave this section and return to La Chorrera, which I reached after a painful journey of four days. As I arrived completely disabled, owing to my illness and the journey, they ordered me to occupy one of the cells there.
About three days after my arrival some forty Ocaina Indians arrived as prisoners, who were shut up and enchained in another large cell. About 4 a.m. on the next day Victor Macedo, the chief of La Chorrera, had about eighteen employees brought in from La Sabana, and when they arrived he ordered them to flog the unfortunate Ocainas, who were imprisoned and in chains, to death. This order was at once carried out, but as many of these unhappy Indians did not succumb to the lash and the club, Macedo renewed the order, telling them to take the Indians out of the cell where they were, drag them to the bank of the river, shoot them there, and then set fire to them. These orders were strictly obeyed.
At about 9 a.m. they began carrying the fuel—wood and kerosene—that was to be used for the cremation, and at about 12 a.m. one Londoño, by order of the criminal Macedo, set fire to the unfortunate victims of the Ocainas tribe. This smouldering pile of human flesh remained there until about 10 a.m. on the next day. It was on one of the days of carnival in 1903 that this repugnant act of cruelty was committed, and the place was at some 150 metres from La Chorrera, almost exactly where the building of the “club” of La Chorrera is situated to-day. The higher employees of this company when they get drunk toast with glasses of champagne the one who can count the greatest number of murders.
A few days after this event I went up to the chief and manager of this establishment, Victor Macedo, and asked him for my account, telling him that I did not wish to work for this company any longer and that I wanted to return to Iquitos. The reply this miserable criminal gave me was to threaten me with more chains and imprisonment, telling me that he was the only one who gave orders in this region and that all who lived here were subject to his commands.
In accordance with this I had to leave La Chorrera for Santa Julia, the chief of which was the criminal Jiménez, who ordered me to set out at once for Providencia, where I again met Macedo. Macedo ordered me to begin work at Ultimo Retiro, where I found as chief José Inocente Fonseca. A few days after my arrival this chief had the Chontadura, Ocainama, and Utiguene Indians called, and about twenty-four hours later hundreds of Indians began to appear about the house in accordance with this order. Then this man Inocente Fonseca grasped his carbine and machete and began the slaughter of these defenceless Indians, leaving the ground covered with over 150 corpses, among men, women, and children. This operation he carried out in company with six of his confidential secretaries, some of whom used their carbines, while others used their machetes. Fonseca, with his extra large chief’s machete, massacred right and left the defenceless wretches, who, bathed in blood, dragged themselves over the ground, appealing in vain for mercy.
This tragedy over, Fonseca ordered all the bodies to be piled up and burned. This scene was still more horrible, for as soon as this order was obeyed and they were being burned cries of agony and desperation proceeded from those victims who were still alive. Meanwhile the monster Fonseca shouted out, “I want to exterminate all the Indians who do not obey my orders about the rubber that I require them to bring in!”
Some time after this Fonseca organised a commission of twenty men (by order of Macedo), under the command of one of his criminal confidential secretaries[121] called Miguel Rengifo, with orders to go to the Caquetá and to kill all the Colombians they found there. He also told them to bring the fingers, ears, and some of the heads of the victims, preserved in salt, as a proof that they had carried out these orders. After some seven days the said commission returned, bringing the remains that had been asked for. These were sent to the celebrated chiefs of this company, Victor Macedo and Miguel S. Loayza, so that they could see for themselves the success that the commission had met with.
The secretary, Rengifo, also informed Fonseca that one of the Indian guides whom he had taken along with him to discover the whereabouts of the Colombians had not behaved well. This sufficed for Fonseca to have him hung up by one leg, together with his little son, a boy about ten years of age. In this position they were given fifty lashes each, after which he had the chains by which they were suspended loosened at the top so that they would fall to the ground, striking their faces against the floor. As soon as this was concluded Fonseca ordered one of his employees to take his rifle, drag the unfortunate victims to the bank in front of the house, and to shoot them there, which was done immediately.
While this was being done an Indian woman arrived from Urania to put herself at the orders of Fonseca, but, horrified at this shocking spectacle, she started to run away. Fonseca then ordered four of his employees to arm themselves rapidly and kill her. When the woman had run about fifty metres, fleeing from the danger, she fell dead, pierced by the discharge that the four marksmen fired at her, the bullets burying themselves in the head of the innocent victim.
To terminate my already long narration of the great crimes of the Putumayo that I have witnessed during the seven years that I stayed there, I shall give you the names of some of the other monsters who dwell there, as I am ready to do if called before a court of justice. These diabolical criminals are: Arístides Rodríguez, Aurelio Rodríguez, Armando Norman, O’Donnell, Miguel Flores, Francisco Semanario, Alfredo Montt, Fidel Velarde, Carlos Miranda, Abelardo Agüero, Augusto Jiménez, Bartolomé Zumaeta, Luis Alcorta, Miguel S. Loayza, and the negro, King.