VENEZUELA.

Otago Witness, Issue 2859, 30 December 1908, Page 23

VENEZUELA.

CASTRO'S DOWNFALL. LONDO&, December 21.' The Standard states that President Castro has ordered 50,000 Mausers at Berlin, and that he has approached Krupps for some artillery and also shipbuilders for prices. " ' BERLIN, -December 24. Eighty leading Venezuelans have cabled to President Castro stating that Ms powe? is destroyed and his property confiscated, and that he will be arrested if he attempts to return and indicted on grave cisargea. Some accounts Teport that President Castro is furious, and determined to return, and overthrow his opponents, but others state that he is indifferent, believing the conspiracy l to b§ a Dutch, invention. , It is reported thai President Castro possesses a fortune oi from £3,000,000 to £29,000,000, which, ie lodged in European banks. He is .living in a Berlin hotel at the rat© oi £1500 per week. NEW YORK, December 24. Acting President Gomez asks for a settlement of the disputes with the United States, and 'has invited an American warship to visit Laguaira. This is interpreted at Washington as a precaution to prevent disorders. Mr Buchanan has been appointed special commissioner, and is prooeedinjg to Venezuela aboard the cruiser North Carolina. Holland has suspended her proposed naval demonstration. CARACAS, December 22. Acting President Gomez has eliminated all President Castro's adherents from the Cabinet. President Castro has ordered at Berlin 50,000 Mausers, and is negotiating with German shipyards for several warships, a3so with Krupp's regarding guns. December 23. The frustration of a plot to assassinate Acting President Gomez has completed President Castro's downfall. The conspirators intended to seize the administration, and, with the army, overawe the population. The prisoners include President Castro's brother. ' A document filed in the High Federal Court proposes to impeach President Castro on a charge of complicity. His money supplies have been stopped. Acting President Gomez has issued a proclamation promising a decorous and pacific solution of the international dis-

The deci v ee whereof Holland complained has been revoked.

Acting President G*>mez^d:scovered that Cardenas, Castro's private, secretary, had =been entrusted to excite assassination and conspiracy with the help of a mutinous regiment commanded by Castro's brother. The Acting President boldty and "personally arrested .Colonel Castro; and acodscd Cardenas, p;$X) .defiantly denied the plot. j Gomez then pionioned him, to prevent him' using his revolver, and had him imprisoned, thus breaking the back of the plot.. , . Dr . Paul, ei-Foreign Minister, has started for Europe to tisy to settle Venezuela's outstanding international disputes. December 27. General Gomez's revolution was completed without the shedding^-of blood. rtermer revolutionaries are being -a*iged to return, and all political prisoners have been liberated. The boundary dispute with Colombia has been amicably settled. December 28. It is reported in Venezuela that Castro tslegraphed to the ringleader of the conspiracy to kill the serpent, crush its head, and terrorise Caracas. .

The "cablegram is likely to form the basis of aya v - criminal impeachment • and an attempt to secure the '"extradition of Castro* '\ , * . I \ %>"-