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Statement of prisoner Mois?s Castro, implicated in crimes of Juan But?n  (Sept 1930)
 
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Statement of prisoner Mois?s Castro, implicated in crimes of Juan But?n

     This statement by captured bandit Mois?s Castro contains an intriguing mixture of fact and fabrication.  I call Castro a "bandit" because the evidence shows that he was not a Sandinista, but instead a member of the gang led by the notorious Conservative gang leader, rapist, and ex-Guardia Juan Heriberto Rodr?guez, a.k.a. "Colonel Juan But?n."  As was true of Dionisio Arteta (p. 46), "Colonel But?n" was a criminal.  After his incarceration in the National Penitentiary in Managua on July 26, 1928, and serving less than seven months for various vicious crimes, including rape and murder, he was released on February 18, 1929 on the condition he serve in the Guardia.  Then, after quitting or deserting from the Guardia, he formed a band of his own, terrorizing the inhabitants in the district east of Estel? before being hunted down and killed at Nance Dulce on August 6, 1930.  (Photo of Conservative troops at the end of the Civil War; caption reads:  "Colonel Rosa Forina (center) and her two aides de camp. A Nicaraguan Amazon who raised a company of fifty men and women to fight Moncada's Liberal army. She was a Conservative for President D?az"; USNA2).
 
     Mois?s Castro's statement is followed by the patrol report of Lt. George C. Smith, who led the attack on But?n's gang at Nance Dulce and captured Castro.  It's a fascinating report, as is the endorsement by Capt. McDonald.  The strongest evidence that these were not Sandinistas are the descriptions of rape:  as noted previously, Sandino absolutely did not tolerate rape.  Another strong piece of evidence is that none of his men had any documented affiliation with Sandinista bands.
 
     Castro's statement thus needs to be read with great skepticism.  Just about everything he said about Sandino was probably fabricated (e.g., Sandino was not wounded by airplane shrapnel at Yucapuca, but rather, at Saraguasca; he was injured but did not take ill; he had not yet returned to Nicaragua in March 1930; et cetera).  In that sense, his tales suggest what was popularly rumored amongst ordinary Segovianos at the time:  that Sandino had been wounded; that he camped at Chipote; etc.  Castro's statement suggests how hard it could be for the Marines & Guardia to disentangle truth from lies in the statements of their captured prisoners ? just as the phenomenon of "Colonel Juan But?n" shows how robbers, rapists, and murderers exploited the political environment created by the US invasion and occupation to commit their heinous crimes.


1 SEPTEMBER 1930

From:        The Department Commander, Department of Esteli.
To:          The Jefe Director
Via:         The Area Commander, Northern Area, Ocotal

Subject:     Statement of bandit prisoner, Moises Castro.
 
1.           Forwarded is statement of subject named prisoner who was captured in contact at Nance Dulce 6 August 1930.

I have been a bandit for over two years and captured fighting the Guardia with Colonel Buton's army at Nance Dulce. We were only about forty strong in this battle and the Guardia badly defeated us, captured all our animals and killed our Chiefs, Colonel Buton and Palmazon and all our store of ammunition.
 
I was fighting by the side of General Sandino at Yucapuca when we were attacked by six American airplanes [report here] and about three hundred Guardias. General Sandino was wounded twice in this battle, once in the left leg and once in the left shoulder. General Sandino is in ill health and has all his men do his work for him. He is armed with two forty-five pistols and has a doctor who takes care of our wounded soldiers whose name is Alejandro Herrera, who comes from Suni, Honduras. After General Sandino was wounded at Yucapuca, Doctor Alejandro Herrera of San Rafael del Norte, Jinotega, treated the wounds of our General and assisted in caring for the wounded solders. General Sandino was wounded by one of the airplanes. Sandino's whole left leg is stiff and he walks with difficulty. After the planes bombed our position and the Guardias attacked us we changed our position during the night as the planes knew our position too well.
 
With our General at Yucapuca were two ex-Marines who stay continually with Sandino and are expert machine-gunners. One of them as been with General Altamirano for a long time and now is a trusted jefe. He is tall and slim, has a few freckles on his face, and has red hair. He used to be the jefe doctor with General Pedron. The other is tall and has dark hair but is white the same as the red-headed ex-Marine. I do not know their names, as we all call them by their rank of lieutenant. Both of these ex-Marines arrived with General Sandino from Honduras and are part of his personal guard.
 
During the month of July, 1930, Sandino was camped on the Rio Grande near Cua. After the fight Sandino formed all the troops and Generals and told us that we should not be discouraged by our defeat, that there would be future activities with victory. We only have seven machine guns, and most of the soldiers are armed with Drag rifles and a few Springfields, but we have a lot of trouble getting enough ammunition. Pedro Blandon was the jefe in the fight at Los Brasiles. The other jefes were Lopez, Ortez, Buton, and Vaquedano. After this fight General Sandino sent us workd to re-assemble at Chipote. Pedro Blandon is supplied with ammunition by Antonio Altamirano who lives at Llano el Chaguite. Antonio Cruz of Colon, a neighbor of Antonio Altamirano provided us with food. Most of our mounts were stolen from Ciriaco Gonzalez and Simeon Gonzalez and others whose names I do not know, on the Mesa of Moropotente. We take the stolen animals to Honduras and sell them, with this money we buy arms and ammunition.
 
I do not know where or whom the Generals bought the arms from, as in our army the Generals handle all the money. I fought against the Guardia at Yucapuca, Los Brasiles, Saraguasca, and Nance Dulce. I have only fought twice actually with Sandino's army, once with Colonel Blandon and once with Colonel "Juan Buton." I had one hundred rounds of ammunition at the battle of Nance Dulce and a Krag rifle. These articles I threw away when I was captured by the Esteli Guardia at the battle of Nance Dulce. At Yucapuca we had a lot more than two hundred well armed soldiers, and if it were not for the airplanes, we could have captured Jinotega.
 
General Sandino does not pay us in cash for wages, but furnishes his army with clothing, arms and ammunition. During my services I received two complete outfits of clothing, one after the fight at Yucapuca and the other after we returned to Chipote after the fight at Las Brasiles. General Sandino has old camps at Guapinol, and Pena Blanca, but his big main camps are by the side of, and on, Chipote. The machine guns which we have were brought to us at Chipote by a group of Hondurans who returned to Honduras after they had delivered the arms and ammunition to General Sandino on 11 March 1930, at Chipote on the Rio Negro. There were three pack mules which carried six cases of ammunition and four pack mules which brought in the seven machine guns. I saw all this personally and helped to unpack the mules. After the arrival of these supplies, General Sandino issued one machine gun to General Pedron, and one case of ammunition. The other equipment was distributed among Pedro Blandon, Colonel Peralta, Candelario Altamirano, and the other chiefs (Thinks this man son of Pedron.)
 
We have a lot of women at Chipote who do our cooking. General Sandino did not bring his woman with him to Nicaragua but left her in Honduras, but after he was wounded he went back to get her again. We use mainly the La Rica crossing of the Rio Negro to Chipote and from Chipote there is nothing to stop us from crossing into and from Honduras at will. Our main supply of beef we have to get around the edge of Jinotega and Esteli border as it is very scarce further north. Most of our men are well fed and do not go hungry. When we go out on patrol to get horses and cattle we carry our rations of tortillas and dried meat in our sacks, as we have strict orders not to waste time while cooking meals in strange houses, and where we do not know the people well. Every person north of Esteli are our friends and help us when necessary, but in Esteli almost every time we try to get horses and cattle we have had to fight, and run, and lose all of our animals. We do not like to have to enter the Esteli area but we have to, in order to supply the big main armies at Chipote with food.
 
/s/ Moises Castro
 
/s/ D. McDonald

M30.09.01


Ancillary Documents

1.   August 8, 1930.  PC30.08.08.   Contact Report of Lt. G. C. Smith, Estel?, with endorsement by Capt. McDonald.

GUARDIA NACIONAL DE NICARAGUA
OFFICE OF THE DEPARTMENT COMMANDER, ESTELI
8 August 1930.

From:      2ndo. Tnte. George C. Smith, Jr., G.N.

            Esteli.
To:        The Jefe Director, G.N., Managua
Via:       Official Channels.
 
Subject:   Contact Report.
 
1.    On the night of 4 August 1930 information was given me from refugees who arrived in large numbers, that Pedro Blandon with four other jefes and a group estimated at one hundred twenty-five bandits had sacked all the fincas in the Carao area (48.4 - 24.3), on the previous night 3 August 1930.
 
2.    I immediately ordered Lt. John M. Cobb G.N. and seven enlisted with one sub-Thompson and rifle with grenades from La Trinidad to Esteli, who arrived Esteli at 2320 same night. Upon authorization from the Area Commander, I cleared with a combat patrol with Lt. Cobb and twenty-five enlisted all mounted, at 0500, 5 August 1930.rolex replica watches We proceeded directly to Carao, where information was gained that the bandit group had split, Pedro Blandon heading north and Juan Boton heading south. My informant stated that Boton was close, as he had raided haciendas on night of 4 August, the area southeast of Carao. We continued the march southeast, across the Zapote mountains, arriving at dawn 6 August 1930 at finca of Epifanio Herrera, abut two leagues east of Sacasti (11.4-H.3, 5th Regt Spl Map of Nic), in the Department of Jinotega. Men and animals rested here about three hours. We found this entire area devastated, the women beaten and raped and the houses burned.
 
3.    We proceeded in the general direction of Matagalpa from Herrera's finca, arriving at the finca of Geronimo Rizo, about one half league from Nance Dulce (12-H) at 1100. A boy of about fourteen years of age was found here, who, after being threatened with death, admitted knowing the position of the bandit camp, and agreed to lead us to it. We approached the bandit position which was located on the top of a small rise almost impenetrable on account of heavy brush and thorn bushes, from the West. About a mile from this point I ordered the men to dismount and proceeded forward on foot, leaving two men guarding the animals. When abut five hundred yards from the enemies position, I divided my force into three groups, giving Sgto. Melendez the left flank Lt. Cobb the center and taking the right flank myself. After covering about half the distance, Lt. Cobb's party came in sight of the bandits in their camp, and at once opened fire. The bandits, although completely surprised, immediately returned our fire, retreating to the east. I at once ordered a general advance, the attack being covered by the Lewis machine gun fire on the right flank, and rifle grenade fire on the front and left flank. We pursued the fleeing bandits for about a mile and a half to the east along a three hundred yard front. The firing, which lasted approximately two hours, finally ceased, and I ordered the men to assemble on me, as all were completely exhausted -- and hand, faces, and uniforms were badly torn and scratched due to the heavy thorny brush on the ground the engagement was fought over. I called the roll and found none dead, wounded or missing. I then instituted a search of the field. Six dead bandits and one wounded were found.tag heuer replica watches The wounded one gave his name as Guillermo Meza and stated that the group numbered forty-five, that General Juan Boton, Colonel Palmazon, and Pedro Salgado were the jefes. He identified Boton and Palmazon amongst the dead. The following articles were captured from the dead bandits and from the site of their camps.

2 Krag Rifles #473878 & #179325 with ammunition belts.
43 Rounds, Ammunition Cal 30 Krag rifle.
2 Long barreled shot-guns, with pouches and large supply of powder, caps and balls.
9 Mules, 6 horses with complete riding equipment and blanket rolls with numerous articles of clothing.
6 Revolvers -- two Smith and Wesson, Two Colt, and Two Spanish, each with ammunition belt and holster.
36 Rounds, in all, pistol ammunition.
1 Automatic Lugar, with attachable shoulder butt, and six magazines
3 Dynamite bombs -- 8 Red and Black Hat Bands.
9 Rain Coats, rubber -- 3 flash lights -- 8 Brass Hilted Honduranian Cutachas.
Numerous articles of Guardia uniforms and equipment marked with the number #1261.

4.    Boton was killed during the first few minutes of the combat, by a direct hit through the heart, fired by Raso Pastor Rodriguez, #3220 at a range of 250 yards. A careful search of the scene for dead and wounded bandits was impracticable due to the exceedingly heavy under-brush and thorns. However, Torencio Herrera, a native living near Nance Dulce reported to me at Esteli on 7 August 1930 that he had found bodies of six dead bandits near the scene of the combat, badly eaten by buzzards. It was estimated, at the time, that twelve bandits had been wounded, taking into consideration the numerous signs of blood and the evidence of the captured bandit.
 
5.    We cleared the scene of the contact, after the mounts had been brought up and six dead bandits and loot had been packed on the captured animals. Geronimo Rizo, known bandit and member of Boton's group, was captured hiding in a corn field about one mile West of Nance Dulce, and was brought prisoner to Esteli. The patrol arrived Esteli at 2000, 6 August 1930. The dead bandits were put on exhibition in the park for all to see, and the two captives securely locked in the brig. Boton and Palmazon were recognized many times by over two thousand people who viewed their bodies, and who were very much elated over the death of these two men. Some of the women who had been raped by these same two men a few days previously were among the onlookers. A committee of citizens from Esteli and the surrounding countryside called in a body at the Cuartel and offered congratulations to all Guardia. All loot captured, except the arms and ammunition, has been returned to the respective owners.
 
6.    2do Tnte. John M. Cobb, G.N., Sgto Octavio Melendez #1190, Cabo Bernardo Molina #1203, Raso Aquilino Lopez #1222, Raso Pastor Rodriguez #3220, and Raso Pedro Rodriguez #1125, are worthy of special citation, which I will cover in a separate letter.
 
7.    The patrol was armed with one Lewis Machine-gun, one sub-Thompson Machine-gun, two Springfield rifles with grenades and dischargers, and hand grenades.
 
8.    Total distance covered by patrol 63 miles.

 

     /s/ George C. Smith, Jr.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

GUARDIA NACIONAL DE NICARAGUA
OFFICE OF THE DEPARTMENT COMMANDER, ESTELI
8 August 1930

 

From:      The Department Commander, Dept. of Esteli, Esteli, Nic.
To:          The Jefe Director, G.N., Managua, Nic.
Via:         The Area Commander, Northern Area, Ocotal, Nic.
 
1.   Forwarded.
 
2.   It is recommended that Second Lieutenant George C. Smith, G.N. be awarded the Navy Cross, for his excellent leadership and skill which he demonstrated on this occasion, which resulted in the killing of bandit General Juan Heriberto Rodriguez and Colonel Palmazon. The first named bandit leader, alias Juan Boton, has committed many atrocious crimes, mostly against young girls ranging from eight to ten years of age. On the day prior to his death, he raped a small girl eight years of age at Moropotente, Department of Esteli. His group ransacked the surrounding countryside and was the cause of many farmers abandoning their farms, and was returning from an animal stealing excursion from Matagalpa when he and his group were attacked by Lieutenants Smith and Cobbs patrol. His death is a serious blow to organized banditry and a great relief to womanhood of this vicinity. Boton was identified by the Jefe Politico, District Criminal Judge and many other citizens of Esteli. Buton had a large machete scar on the back of his neck, by which means he was positively identified, and his family also stated that there was no doubt that was the body of Juan Buton. Buton was an old Guardia and an excellent Lewis machine gun man, and prior to turning bandit resided in Esteli.
 
/s/ D. McDonald.

RG127/202/10/52

2.  September 18, 1928.  Description of Guardia Prisoner C-1, Juan Heriberto Rodr?guez, aka "Juan But?n" 

JUAN H. RODRIGUEZ, Number C-1.

 

Conscripted into Casual Company,Guardia Nacional, 20th July, 1928 after the Civil Authorities at Matagalpa had directed his release on bail for having committed the following offense:

 

Beating (whipping) Mrs. F?lix L?pez a pregnant woman to death.  Beating resulted in death of child also.-- Place:  Matagalpa.

 

Other offenses committed by Rodr?guez as mentioned by the Civil Authorities when they complained about his not being granted his liberty are:--

 

Wounding Enrique Molina                  Wounding Est?ban Altamirano

Wounding Dionisio Gonz?lez               Wounding Sim?n Salgado

Wounding Felipe Hern?ndez                Wounding Perfecto Hern?ndez

 

GN-2.  Comment:-- Rodr?guez is a Conservative and was associated with the Civil Police Force of Matagalpa.  He has a number of influential Conservative friends and relatives in that area, who will try to effect his release.

 

 

 

----------------------------------------------------

 

 

 

DIVISION DE PENITENCIARIA NACIONAL

GUARDIA NACIONAL DE NICARAGUA

MANAGUA, NICARAGUA

 

13 February, 1929.

 

From:     The Division Commander

To:         The Jefe Director

 

Subject:  Prisoners confined in this Penitentiary on orders other than Judges. ...

 

... RODRIGUEZ, Juan H., C-1, conscripted 26 July, 1928.  [Handwritten note in margin:]  Rel 2/18/29

RG127/202/16/76



ABOVE:  Political prisoners in the National Penitentiary, Managua, US National Archives.  There is no identifiable photograph of C-1, Juan Heriberto Rodr?guez in the dozen or so photos in the US National Archives of prisoners in Managua's National Penitentiary during these years.  Those identifiable in this photograph are:  C-6, Patricio Moreno (Conservative accused of murder).  C-8: Francisco Guadamuz (Conservative criminal, Carazo Dept.).  C-11: Juan Alberto Briones (Conservative gang leader, Estel?).  S-5: Carmen Vilchez  (Conservative gang leader, La Trinidad).  Prisoner with white towel over right shoulder looking into camera:  C-9, Anastacio Hern?ndez, Conservative gang leader, Ocotal, and the subject of my "Horse Thieves" article (1996).  Source for names:  National Penitentiary, Managua, Records of Prisoners, Casefiles, Special Orders, from 18 Sept. 1928 to Feb. 19, 1931, 38 pp., RG127/202/16/76.

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