The jefe, Molina, was an honest man and an able jurist. He loved Los Altos, and considered it a necessary organization for the greater lustre of the Central American republic; but he had little knowledge of human nature, and was easily deceived. The government of Guatemala pursued toward him, since April 13, 1839, a machiavelian policy, and led him into the fatal belief that it really desired the prosperity and happiness of the new state, which had become the residence of the liberals who had left Guatemala, fleeing from Carrera,[VIII-53] and constantly published severe strictures against Carrera and the aristocratic clique which surrounded him. Molina had been persuaded that the Guatemalan authorities were friendly toward the state of Los Altos, though requiring that it should discourage the attacks of the exiled liberals. However, Molina, abiding by the constitutional clauses declaring freedom of the press to be inviolable, answered that the government of Guatemala had the right of prosecuting the writers before the courts of Los Altos for libel. This ill feeling was all that Pavon, the Guatemalan machiavelian minister, desired for future hostile proceedings. The opportunity was not wanting, and the state of Los Altos was destroyed by Carrera on the 29th of January, 1840, and reincorporated with Guatemala.[VIII-54] Molina, though credulous and vacillating, at the last moment showed himself to be possessed of a brave heart. He well knew that his administration had been a just one, that all charges against his government, on the part of Guatemala, by Pavon and his fellow-aristocrats, were false. He did not forsake his post. Carrera grossly insulted him, and sent him as a prisoner to Guatemala. General Guzman was reviled, forced to wear rags, beaten, and his hair and beard pulled out. Other citizens were shamefully treated, and their homes plundered.[VIII-55] [Sidenote: RIVERA PAZ AS JEFE.] Affairs in Guatemala had undergone a great change since the removal of Galvez from the position of jefe. His successor, Valenzuela, was deposed July 22, 1838, by a popular movement, and Mariano Rivera Paz placed at the head of affairs.[VIII-56] His first official act was one deserving of special commendation, as it exhibited a conciliatory spirit which, unfortunately, had been a stranger in the country during many years past. Three days after being installed, at his special suggestion the state assembly nullified all acts of proscription, and decreed a general amnesty for all persons implicated in political offences since September 1821.[VIII-57]