MEXICO: Iron Hand

Under the crushing force of the ruthless hand of President Elias Plutarco Calles, called by some the strongest man in Mexico since the despot, Porfirio Diaz, the recent revolt (TIME, Oct. 17) was put down, the rebels routed.

This was not accomplished without some hard fighting in which the Federal troops were always reported as victorious. Many rebels were captured. General Arnulfo Gomez, the only remaining opposition candidate to one-armed General Alyaro Obregon, was said to be in hiding in the mountains and seeking an opportunity to escape from the country.

Many rumors spread during the week to the effect that there had been unnecessary brutality and killings. In all 82 executions were reported. For example it was alleged that General Francisco Serrano had been “murdered” while at the dinner table with 13 of his aides. None could doubt that there had been much cruel and useless bloodshed; but the revolt was seemingly over, despite rumors to the contrary and assertions of bandit terrorism, which probably had nothing to do with the revolt. And that, in the opinion of most observers, was that. Protests from foreign powers seemed unlikely, the rumpus being a purely local affair.

The most astounding development in the situation was a statement from President Calles to the effect that he knew all about the plans for the revolt months ahead of time. According to Senor Calles, he forbore to act in the hope that the plotters would renounce their treasonable intentions. He admits that he could have prevented the rising, but did not act out of a desire “not to cast doubt on the members of the army whose decorum I was eager to save.”

However, it was pointed out that Senor Calles probably played a waiting game. In other words he waited until the conspirators actually incriminated themselves and to that end gave them enough rope to hang themselves, so to speak. It was hardly possible for him to act before, for prosecution on the mere strength of the evidence he had would have laid him more than ever open to political partisanship in connection with the elections next year, the campaign for which was the basic cause of the revolt. He therefore attempted to dissuade the conspiring generals—Gomez and Serrano—hoping, no doubt, that the affair would blow over, but ready to seize upon any overt treason with a severity that has, as events have turned out, gained him the sobriquet of Mexico’s man of iron.