The release of Rivera.

N° 82

AHSRE L-E-921 F. 176

St. Louis Globe Democrat, St. Louis, Missouri

3 de diciembre de 1906.

The release of Rivera.

The release of Librado Rivera, the editor of the Mexican papers in St. Louis which recently suspended, was an act of justice. Rivera is a member of the Mexican junta in the United States, which has its headquarters in St. Louis.

His paper, Regeneracion, has been urging an insurrection against President Diaz, and has been making some trouble for the Mexican government. On the complait of the Mexican authorities Rivera was arrested recently, and his paper was compelled to suspend publication. An attempt was made to get the United States government to hand Rivera over to the Mexican officials at the border, but as political offenders are not extraditable, a charge of technical murder and robbery was brought against him.

It is evident that the criminal charges which were brought against Rivera by the Mexican government were for the purpose of influencing our authorities to surrender him, and after he came into the Mexicans´ hands these charges would be dropped and he would be tried for political offenses. In that tried for political offenses. In that case Rivera´s outlook would be dark. United States Commissioner Gray, however, before whom the matter came, believed that the criminal charge was a subterfuge of the Mexican authorities and liberted Rivera. This act will be applauded by the American people. The commissioner´s duty, in the absence of evidence on which to hold the accused, was plain, and he performed it promptly.

The United States will carry out its treaty obligations to Mexico and to all the other nations with which we have compacts. But political offenses are not inclused in any of our extradition agreements, and it is safe to predict, never will be. The ordinary sort of anarchist crimes do not come under the head of political offenses. Therefore the assassins of Carnot, Canovas and the other European potentates who have been killed in recent years would have been given up if they had been apprehended in the United States. But Rivera and his associates were not anarchists. They did not urge assassination. Althougt their hands were against Diaz´s government, they aimed to replace it by a regime which they believed would be more in accord with the liberal sentiments of Mexico and of the world. The majority of the American people believe Diaz to be a wiser ruler than anybody who would be likely to succeed him through revolution and they cheerfully carry out all their treaty and social obligations to Mexico, but political offenders from Mexico, as from other nations, so long as they do not violate the criminal laws of their countries, must continue to be safe from molestation here.