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Ciriaco Picado, rebel soldier under Gen. Miguel Angel Ortéz, captured & interrogated

     While Sandino, Pedrón, and other major chieftains operated on the eastern frontier of Las Segovias, in the vast expanse of mostly uninhabited jungles and mountains of Jinotega Department and points further north & east, another cluster of rebel chieftains operated in the more densely populated Western Segovias.  Here several dozen small towns, many whose histories stretched back hundreds of years, were integral to the social landscape, while the existence of the nearby Honduran border shaped political & social realities in innumerable ways.  Here in the Western Segovias and adjacent zones in Honduras were the haunts of Sandinista Generals Carlos Salgado, José León Díaz, Miguel Angel Ortéz, and scores of lesser chieftains.
 
     This statement was extracted from Ciriaco Picado, a rebel soldier serving under General Miguel Angel Ort
éz, after his capture by the Marines & Guardia.  In it one can glimpse the impoverished material circumstances of the Western Segovian rebel bands, along with the antagonism that often marked relations between rebels and town-dwellers.  Evident, too, is the asymmetrical balance of military power, with the Marines & Guardia enjoying a far greater capacity to inflict violence and wage war.  The statement also sheds light on the rebels' effort to disrupt the upcoming elections -- less than a month away -- by preventing eligible voters from registering.  Sandino viewed the elections as illegitimate and a sham while his homeland's sovereignty was being "trampled underfoot" by the hated Yanqui invaders.  (Photograph of unnamed rebel soldier captured by Lt. Salzman near Somoto on 18 September 1928, with a good likelihood it's Ciriaco Picado; see TOP 100, PAGE 16)

 

 

Following are extracts from R-2 Report, 11th Regiment, Ocotal; information given by prisoner captured by patrol to Guayabal:

" (a) During the months he was with Ortez none of them received any pay or clothes. Ortez told them that he was expecting a lot of money from Sandino and that when it arrives, which would be very soon, all of them would have a lot of money.
" (b) That their food supply was very poor.
" (c) That Ortez had forty rifles (Mausers, Con-Cons, and [ine] Marine Springfield) and that the men all had ammunition varying from twenty-five to fifty rounds apiece.
" (d) That while in Los Robles, people who did not contribute food willingly were forced to do so.
" (e) That at night they sleep mostly in the mountains and occasionally in towns." ...

... Following an extract from R-2 Report, 11th Regiment, Ocotal:

" 2. Picado a prisoner claims Ferrera [Miguel Angel Ortéz] told him the general plan of operations for this section, for the time being, was to prevent registration and voting by intimidating citizens. Under only two conditions were Marines to be engaged. (1) When bandit groups had been so relentlessly pursued that the limit of endurance had been reached. (2) To prevent capture of any location where rifles or ammunition was stored. All bandit Jefes under Ferrera have been directed to confine their movements to the hours between sundown and daylight."

IR28.10.08: 8, 10, RG127/43A/3l

 

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