CASTRO BACK HOME AGAIN.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1176, 11 July 1911, Page 5

CASTRO BACK HOME AGAIN.

VENEZUELAN FIREBRAND. LANDS WITH AN ARMED FORCE OF 2,000 HEN. A MILLION IN THE BANK. By Telcerapli—Press Association—CopyriEit (Rec. July 10, 10.15 p.m.) Caracas, July 10. General Cipriano Castro, tho ex-Presi-dent of Venezuela, who has been living abroad for some years, has reappeared, and is now ensconced with 2000 partisans in the mountainous regions bordering the Gulf of Maracaibo. The force is armed with modern Titles, and the landing alone resulted in a general panic in the district. It is believed that Castro has .£1,400,000 in a Paris Bank. General Gomez, tho President's brother, has sent two battalions to Maracaibo to conduct reconnaisaaces. AN INTERNATIONAL NUISANCE. CASTRO'S AMAZING CAREER, Castro has been residing in Europe since December, 1908, when General Gomez became President of Venezuela by a coup d'etat during his absence abroad. In 1897 Castro wne a small cattlerancher on the Colombian frontier, and a member of the Federal Senate. Having helped to lift General Andrade into the Presidency, ho was cut by that distinguished officer, whereupon he followed the example of antiquity, and publicly prophesied that one day he would be great. "To-day," he said, "I go home; yet before twelve months have gone I will return, but as President of Venezuela." And he did. The Venezuelan ranchmen on the border in those days used to evade the tax-gatherer by the simple method of driving their herds over the Colombian border, and when the Colombian tax-gatherer came, the Colombians used to return tho call. But in 1897 t'he two tax-gatherers conceived tho brilliant idea of arriving on the same day, and there was trouble. Castro suffered confiscation and general injury, and determined to strike a blow in revenge. His mountain friends joined him, and the force marched on Caracas, unseated Andrante, aud put Castro in his place. Then followed one of the most amazing exhibitions of impudent, despotism in modern times. . "From time to time Castro has subdued rebellion- with every circumstance of severity," said a London paper during the latter part of his regime. He has annulled all the concessions granted to foreigners from which he drew no profit. He has granted monopolies, forced sales, and imposed the most grinding taxation. At this moment, tho Republic owes its foreign creditors some .£5,000,000 sterling in borrowed money, and another .£3,000,000 in defaulted interests.

An illustrious predecessor eloped to Paris with the contents of the Treasury, and it is pretty certain, that Castro'accttm Mated a tidy fortune in his years of op. pression and defiance.

. It is impossible," said "The Times" in 190S, "not to admire his very real ability and courage, or not to laVh at his amazing arrogance. The messages in which he belauds himself and his'swav and assures the world With nil the extravagance of Spanish-American rhetoric, that he has made Venezuela great glorious, and free are masterpieces of impudent mendacity. But tho man is not only a ruthless and grcedv. tyrant at home. He has long been an international -nuisance, and sooner or later, bv ono w?V*i y ,""?'!"!!'' I),at ""is""™ will have to be abated.