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134 Mr. Zavala: Sir, the commission to draw up this judgment has found itself in major conflict because it dealt with a new question of public law, because it saw the gentlemen deputies of Guatemala divided, and because the resolution of this matter is of great importance .1 It was not about a nation that was going, like Spanish America, to throw off the yoke for the first time after three hundred years of oppression ; nor was it about American colonies established by commercial companies formed in different ways, which had carried on a terrible war. It is about a province or provinces that were joined to Mexico, we do not know whether by force of arms employed by General Iturbide or voluntarily.When this question was presented last year in Congress, the majority of the gentlemen deputies expressed a desire that the provinces of Guatemala establish a separate government, and many of the gentlemen who expressed this opinion now have changed from it, perhaps because the government changed; but I do not believe it is honorable for Congress to change its principles. The commission, I repeat, has found itself in the greatest difficulty because it had to deliberate about a matter of such importance. I will begin by replying to some objections that Original title: “Sesión del día 18 de octubre de 1823. Intervención de Zavala sobre la independencia de Guatemala.” Source: Águila Mexicana, vol. 2, nos. 189 and 190, Monday, October 20; and Tuesday, October 21, 1823. 1. The Capitanía de Guatemala (then encompassing the present republics of Honduras , Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Costa Rica) declared its independence from Spain on September 15, 1821, a day before Agustín de Iturbide issued the declaration of independence in Mexico. In January 1822 Guatemala voted to become part of the Mexican empire of Iturbide. However, when the emperor was toppled, in 1823,Guatemala peacefully decided to separate from Mexico and form a federal republic of its own: the Provincias Unidas de Centro América. The issue of separation was debated in the Mexican Congress , and Zavala, as a member of the congressional commission overseeing this issue, took an active part in that process. (Editor’s note) 3 Intervention Regarding the Independence of the Province of Guatemala intervention reGardinG the independenCe of Guatemala : 135 the gentleman minister has raised, and then I will pass to the gentlemen Terán and López Plata. The first bases what he says on the fact that the commission should not have begun judgment because it could have left this question for the coming Congress, this one being just about to close its sessions. The second reason, which has seemed stronger, is that if Congress declares that the province of Guatemala has a right to constitute itself into a free province, the government of Mexico forsakes those individuals who have shown themselves devoted to the union. Neither the one nor the other seems to me to have force. Not the first because this Congress, having expressed and even declared that the provinces of Guatemala had the right to constitute themselves, it was necessary that, having named a commission for this and presented its judgment, this matter is resolved; but if the reasons your honor has given regarding the effects on the government of Mexico have some force, Spain could say the same to America. Spain had manydevoted people, and even has them still, and that was the pretext they gave for not absolutely abandoning America, because they said: We have there a large number of partisans that the new government will persecute everywhere. Vain subterfuge against the justice of our cause, but much less with respect to Guatemala because it has never belonged to the Mexican nation, and the right that Mexico has believed itself to have over Guatemala has been completely ephemeral and doubtful, as shown by the conduct of Congress and the government, which have given orders appropriate for the assembly of the Congress of Guatemala; and the government has ordered General Filisola to withdraw. So, then, what does the commission have to do? It could simply say: “The deputies who are here can withdraw.” Thus we have seen monstrously in the heart of this sovereign congress an individual who has the title of agent and deputy of Guatemala, something not found in any of the representative bodies. Consequently, the commission has believed it was the only road offered. Neither did it say that the independence of Guatemala be...

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