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Obregon, Alvaro (d. 1928)
Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 1928 Jul 18 p. 1
Birth date:
text of obituary:
Death of Mexican President Elect may Mean Revolution.
The whole American continent was shocked at the news of the assassination of President-elect General Alvaro Obregon while attending a banquet given in his honor by some close political friends in the village of San Angel (12 miles from Mexico City) on Tuesday July 17 at 2:20 P. M. Serious trouble is brewing in Mexico and Mennonites living in several parts of Mexico will certainly be affected if Calies should find himself unable to suppress the revolutionary elements scattered all over the land.
The assassination is considered to be only a part of a well laid plan to assassinate several of the most powerful political and high military leaders of Mexico as revealed by notes found on the person of the assassin. The assassin was a cartoonist who was making sketches of several of the notables present as they sat around the banquet table. A band was playing and all guests, including Obregon, who sat at the head of the table, were busy in conversation. Suddenly the cartoonist rose and approached General Saenz asking permission to show his cartoon to the guest of honor. He turned to Obregon, pretended to show him the cartoons and then with a gun which he had concealed under the papers, fired directly into the president-elect's body.
The newspaper account goes on to report that the horror stricken guests jumped to their feet as the president slumped back in his chair moaning. Next their was a rush to tear the slayer to pieces with weapons that were at hand but the chief of police interposed and saved the assassin for further investigation. These in brief are the facts of Obregon's tragic death. Mexico has suffered much from revolution and many a president has died at the hand of a bloody assassin. Progress and the staple industries of the land have been retarded by repeated periods of bloodshed. Farming becomes a tremendous hazard when contending factions alternately infest the land and help themselves to foodstuffs for military purposes.
Obregon was a sincere friend of the Mennonites and helped make their settlement in Mexico possible. Mennonites all over the World regret his shameful death at the hands of the assassin.