DYNAMITE UNDER MEXICO
The
49
Nazis began to build fascism in Mexico right after Hitler
got into power. In 1933 Schwinn called a meeting in Mexicali
of several Nazi agents operating out of Los Angeles, including
General Rodriguez, and several members of a veterans organi
zation. It
was
at this
meeting that the Mexican Gold
shirts
were
the direction of Rodriguez and his right-hand
organized.
men (Antonio F. Escobar was one of them) the fascist organi
zation drilled and paraded, but little official attention was paid
Under
,
Five years ago few people realized the intensity and
The only ones
possibilities of Nazi propaganda and organization.
in Mexico who watched the growth of the fascist military body
to them.
were the trade-unionists and the Communists. They remembered
and
Italy and Germany when the Black Shirts
what happened in
Brown
were permitted to grow strong.
20, 1935, Rodriguez and his organization
a military demonstration in Mexico City, and marched
staged
the
Shirts
On November
and Com
palace. Trade-unionists, liberals
munists barred their way. When the pitched battle was over, five
upon
the President
s
were dead, some sixty persons wounded, and Rod
riguez himself had been stabbed by a woman worker, on her
lips the furious cry, "Down with fascism!"
When the Gold Shirt leader was discharged from the hospital,
he found that his organization had been made illegal, and he
Gold
Shirts
Rodriguez went to El Paso, Texas, and im
mediately, working through Escobar, set about establishing the
"Confederation of the Middle Class" to take over now the illegal
himself exiled.
Gold
Shirt
groups.
Its
work and consolidate the various Mexican
headquarters was established
at
40
fascist
Passo de la
Reforma.
Rodriguez kept in touch with Schwinn through Henry Allen,
a native American of San Diego, who acts as liaison man. It was
on orders from Schwinn, who
Guaymas Ramon F. Iturbe, a member
Allen,
last
year secretl