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One Ponce critic who did not flee to the Mexican Embassy was Alejandro Cordova, bald little Congressman and publisher of El Imparcial. One day Publisher Cordova was murdered by assassins. Last week Ponce held a closely supervised election to name, among others, a successor for Deputy Cordova. People shouting "Viva Arevalo!" were clapped in jail. Then the revolution broke out. Before he left for Mexico, General Ponce occupied Arevalo's former suite in the Mexican Embassy.
At the airport, new Government officials confiscated $16,000 from Ponce's luggage. The General, who had entered the Presidency penniless, wept unrestrainedly.
The revolutionary mood spread to neighboring El Salvador, where two opposing factions both battled Government troops in an attempt to move their candidates into the President's office. President Andres Ignacio Menéndez resigned promptly "for health reasons" and was replaced by Colonel Osmin Aguirre y Salinas, who represented a third faction. Also from El Salvador came word that revolution had broken out in Honduras.