Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 19, Number 48, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 February 1898 — BARRIOS IS SLAIN. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

BARRIOS IS SLAIN.

President of the Republic of Guatemala Slaughtered. President Barrios of Guatemala has been assassinated. La jo Arriaga, the Guatemalan minister to the United States, Wednesday afternoon received an official cablegram from the minister of foreign affairs of Guatemala announcing the assassination of President Barrios and the succession to the presidency of First Vice-President Manuel Estrada Cabrera. No details whatever were given. The dispatch came

from Guatemala City, the capital, where President Barrios has lived and the Government departments arc carried on. It added that entire calm prevails. President Barrios was a man of wide attainments and marked executive ability. He was comparatively young, being only 42 years old. The six years’ term of service for which he was elected terminated March 15 next, but the national congressional assembly already had extended this term for a further four years. The new president, Mr. Cabrera, is a man of prominence in Guatemala, and is one of two chosen by the congress to fill the presidency in case of a vacancy. The system of the country is different from that in the United States, there being no vice-president elected with the president. The duty of filling the executive chair devolves an the congressional branch, and accordingly two vice-presidents, first and second, were designated some time ago. They are eligible in the order of their choice. When the excitement of the tragedy has passed a presidential election may be held. The assassination of President Barrios probably is due to the revolutionary feeling which has been growing in Guatemala ever since he declared himself dictator last Juno. One of the first acts of the rebels was the assassination of the president’s brother in San Jose, and the murder of the wife of the jefe politico of Quezaltennngo. Following closely on these two crimes came the capture of Plaza San Marcos by the revolutionists. To the dissatisfaction since President Barrios proclaimed himself dictator the bad financial esndition of the country under his rule has added fuel to the flames of discontent. The dead dictator had been straining every effort to restore peace and harmony, but had been thwarted by an assassin.

PRESIDENT JOSE R. BARRIOS.