Cedillo Squeeze

Up into the rugged Huasteca hills of the central Mexican State of San Luis Potosi one day last week thundered Federal cavalry forces of President Lazaro Cardenas. At the town of Rio Verde they found belligerent bands of agrarian soldiers, members of the private army of San Luis Potosi's General Saturnine Cedillo. Soon 22 agrarians lay dead, 15 wounded and 80 more were being rounded up as prisoners. But defiantly, 75 miles away, a lone Cedillista pilot dropped down out of the bright Mexican sky in one of the General's fast fighting planes, zoomed over the Potosi airfield where President Cardenas had established his headquarters at Vista Hermosa, dumped four ineffective 25-lb. bombs and high-tailed it back to his secret air station in the hills.

These detonations signaled the attempt last week by President Cardenas to put the final squeeze on his old friend, Saturnine Cedillo.

Ox-shouldered, multichinned General Cedillo, onetime Mexican bandit who rode with famed Pancho Villa, has been Strong-man in San Luis Potosi for some 20 years. His private agrarian army, which he maintains on his extensive Potosi landholdings, helped boost Senor Cardenas into the Presidency in 1934 and Senor Cedillo became Minister of Agriculture. The General, however, opposed the land expropriation Cardenas program. Nine months ago he resigned in a huff. With cries of "Fascist" from Mexican Laborites and left-wingers ringing in his ears, the old "Bull of Potosi" waddled off to his great Las Palomas hacienda. From there he continued to block organization drives of the Leftist CTM labor union in his State, permitted Catholic schools to continue, defiantly hung on to his huge land holdings and held up Government agrarian engineers in their efforts to slice up Potosi estates into communal ejidos.

Rightists both in Mexico and the U. S. hailed General Cedillo's defiance as a potential threat to overthrow the Cardenas regime. Mexico's troubles over the oil expropriations and the resulting business collapse made this threat a likely possibility. So the President two months ago made an attempt to get General Cedillo away from his stronghold. He ordered the General to take over command of the military zone in Michoacan, Cardenas' home state. General Cedillo, pleading illness, asked for a 45-day respite. Last week, his leave expired, the old General sent in his resignation from the army, announced that he would stay in Potosi, "quietly dedicated to agriculture."

At that point President Cardenas increased the number of Federal troops in Potosi to 10,000, sent a squadron of observation planes ahead and himself boarded the million-dollar Presidential special "Olive Train" to investigate matters at first hand in the city of San Luis Potosi. There he publicly accused the Bull of Potosi of playing ball with the foreign oil companies, and announced the Government was ordering him to disband his private army.

The General was not on hand to hear the speech. At week's end it was not known definitely whether or not he had taken to the hills with some of his followers. As Federal troops continued to mop up the scattered rebel bands and killed, according to a Defense Ministry announcement, the General's nephew Hipolito Cedillo and eleven more agrarians, observers agreed that Boss Cedillo may have waited too long to be able to put on a large-scale revolt. But the Boss was still hoping for the support of five unnamed Governors to help him put over a national Rightist revolt. Late last week his wife, his four daughters and his brother-in-law motored to the U. S., temporarily settled in Texas.

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