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In late March, Gonzalo de la Parra, the editor of El Sol, published an article entitled “El privilegio de las Aguilas” in which he accused the army of refusal to obey orders or to abide by law, and which he closed by charging that the army was responsible for ninety percent of the crimes in Mexico. Palavicini, who had recently founded El Universal and who was then editor of that daily, republished the article on the following day. That night General Benjamin Hill, one of the old Sonora revolutionaries, accused Luis Cabrera of writing the article, roundly upbraiding Cabrera for the insult to the military forces. A moment later, according to rumors rampant at the time (but which Palavicini does not mention) Hill engaged in a heated discussion with Palavicini, finally striking the editor in the face. On March 29, de la Parra and Palavicini were both arrested by the army, and at the time Murillo wrote this letter Palavicini was being held at the military headquarters. Two days later, Palavicini was accused of treason under a law of 1862. During the entire affair it was perfectly clear that Carranza’s sympathies were with Palavicini; he had little use for the army point of view, and his attitude may well have been the stimulus for de la Parra’s article. In spite of his sympathies, however, Carranza apparently felt that he could do nothing overt in Palavicini’s behalf; the editor finally resolved the quandary by escaping from the military and going into hiding.
