MOB RUNS AMOK.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 190, 14 August 1933, Page 7

MOB RUNS AMOK.

HAVANA RIOTING.

Hysterical Lawlessness After President Resigns. MURDER AND VANDALISM. . i (United P.A.—Electric Telegraph—Copyright) HAVANA, August 13. "Cuban mobs, madly celebrating the downfall of General Machado, turned the streets of the capital into scenes of hysterical lawlessness 'yesterday. The elimination of the dictatorial executive settled many problems only to produce others perhaps more dangerous.

General Machado was able to make his escape by aeroplane, but many of his followers were not so fortunate and were obliged to remain to face the vengeance of .the aroused masses.

The army, which had so dramatically engineered the coup d'etat, apparently took only nominal measures to preserve order.

A wave of murder, vandalism and looting swept the city. Tragedy was blended with comedy as the population paraded the streets apparently determined to obliterate everything associated in the public mind with the deposed President.

After storming the Presidential palace, looting the furnishings, food and provisions and mutilating the decorations, students facetiously put "for rent" signs on tho gates of tho palace. They carried a piano to tho office of an Opposition newspaper close by, broke it into pieces and distributed these aa souvenirs in a gala celebration.

Others stormed and wrecked the offices of the pro-Machado journal, "Heraldo de Cuba," belonging to the deposed Secretary of State, General Herrera, destroyed the machinery and set the fine new building on fire.

Tho vengeance of tho mob was directed principally against known Machado partisans and the secret police, who, during recent years, arc reputed to have murdered hundreds of members of the Opposition. Atrocities Reported. That organisation's leader, Colonel Antonio Jiminez; was shot down in one of the streets and his body was mutilated and paraded through tho city on top of a motor car. Finally it was thrown in front of the hospital, where 40 bullet wounds were found in it. Other secret police also were killed.

It is estimated that 21 persons were killed and more than 200 wounded in the demonstrations yesterday. Torrential rain, accompanied by an intense electrical storm, lato in the day, temporarily cleared the streets of the mob, which had looted and burned the homes of adherents of the deposed President.

Colonel Jiminez is said to have been shot by soldiers after ho had wounded an unidentified man who was celebrating the end of the Machado administration. After wounding this demonstrator Colonel Jiminez turned his gun on a group of soldiers who immediately shot him.

, Soldiers also shot down Jose Magrina whom* Communists and students accused of having killed Julio Antonio Mella, a Cuban student Communist, in Mexico on January 10, 1929.

When tho weather cleared the rioting started again with renewed vigour. It is reported that a group of secret police barricaded themselves in General Machado's private home, equipped with machine-guns and prepared to sell their lives dearly. Prolonged Rioting Feared. Students attempted to storm the building, but were repulsed and several were injured. This, it is feared, will further infuriate the mob and prolong tho rioting. The impulses of the crowds seemed to carry thorn to fantastic lengths to destroy anything connected with the former President. A theatre belonging to his barber was raided and tho fixtures, costumes and properties were destroyed.

All shops alleged to belong to friends of General Maehado were treated similarly. The homes of Cabinet Ministers throughout the suburbs were looted, as were the homes of General Machado's political supporters.

Tho fear that intervention by the United States may still be necessary unless order is restored is expressed in American business circles.

One American commercial representative reported that tho anger of some sections of the crowd was turned against tho United States. The American commercial aeroplane in which General Herrera made his escape was fired upon. It was pierced by bullets but no one was injured.