Monday, Nov. 19, 1923

Obregon's Vacation

A telegram, signed by more than 100 congressmen and sent to President Obregon, who was vacationing at a little fishing village on Lake Chapala, alleged that General Arnulfo Gomez, chief of the Mexico City garrison, had commissioned one Captain Viscarra, at the head of 200 men, to assassinate certain members of Congress, in particular one Jorge Prieto Laurens, Governor of the State of San Luis Potosi.

The same telegram alleged that Captain Viscarra and his men, wearing red silk badges, would occupy seats in the gallery in Congress and when the session started would lead cheers for General Calles (Presidential candidate), and that, as soon as the Huertistas answered by cheers for Candidate de la Huerta, they would be shot.

General Gomez denied all these charges.

A second message signed by 131 congressmen, most of whom signed the first telegram, was also despatched to President Obregon. In it the congressmen declared that they could no longer expect the guarantee of personal safety due to them as Members of Congress and as citizens of Mexico.

The message continued: "It grieves us to consider General Alvaro Obregon, undisputed revolutionist and constructive President for the past three years, has begun to lose his identity and is on the point of falling into the eternal errors in which all the leaders of Mexico have destroyed their prestige."