ATTEMPT TO ASSASSINATE

Taranaki Daily News, 7 February 1930, Page 9

ATTEMPT TO ASSASSINATE

MEXICAN PRESIDENT SHOT

WOUNDED ON INAUGURAL DAY WIDESPREAD PLOT FEARED ► By Telegraph—Press Assn.—Copyright. Rec. 6 p.m. Mexico City, Feb. 5. Pcseual Ortiz Rubio was wounded in the jaw by a would-be assassin, who fired on him a few hours after he was sworn in to-day as President of Mexico. The bullet was extracted and President Rubio’s condition is not serious. Six shots were fired. The President’s wife was grazed and his little niece, Opelia Ortega, was slightly wounded. A bystander and a military aide were also struck by bullets. The would-be assassin was arrested. Mexican authorities believe the attempt is part of a widespread plot. On orders from the Department of the Interior seven additional persons have been arrested on suspicion for conspiracy to assassinate. Their identity has not been revealed.

The assailant was a youth, presumably a partisan of Vasconcellos, clothed in black. He fired six shots into the President’s automobile before the National Palace. He stubbornly refused to talk and was placed under a heavy guard. The accomplices, one of whom was a woman, attempted to escape. The policeman who caught the youth, who wore Catholic insignia to escape detection.

An indescribable impression of regret is visible everywhere among the citizens, who earlier in the day were in the best of humour at the peaceful and orderly manner in which President Rubio assumed office. Representatives of all political factions expressed disgust at the cold-blooded attempt to murder. In his inauguration address the President pledged the Government to five years’ hard work for the common people, terming the workers and peasants “the hope of Mexico.” The restoration of conservative or even moderate men and systems was impossible, because the country’s heart and soul was intent on the radical work of restoring to the race its T heritage. The Government would be “entirely revolutionary.” SENSATIONAL PLOT CONFESSED. PLAN TO MURDER MINISTERS. Rec. 8.20 p.m. Mexico City, Feb. 6. It was authoritatively reported to-day that the would-be assassin admitted to the War’ Secretary that he was Miguel Florcs, aged 22, a student follower of Vasconcellos, the defeated anti-re-elec-tionist Presidential candidate. He states that Vasconccllo’s followers hatched a plot to kill President Rubio and his entire Cabinet and ex-Presidcnt Portes Gil, produce general chaos and sieze control. The police arc watching closely for farther trouble, the exact seriousness of which they are unable to ascertain as yet. Close censorship was established immediately after the shooting.