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