Under the administration of Harrison, Mizner was appointed in 1889 Minister to Central America, in essence the ambassador to Guatemala, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua. He was fluent in Spanish. When he traveled to Guatemala to take up his duties he was accompanied by his sons, the future architect Addison Mizner and future playwright Wilson Mizner. He lasted in the position just over a year. Mizner's first rebuke, from an Acting Secretary of State, was for calling for a union of the five Central American republics for protection from the more powerful Mexico to the north and Colombia to the south. There was a complicated incident in which American arms were being shipped to El Salvador, and Guatemala, under martial law, objected. In July, 1890, exiled Guatemalan General Juan Martín Barrundia was on an American ship scheduled to stop at Guatemalan ports. Mizner, unable to communicate with Washington, agreed to the Guatemalan government's request he be seized. Resisting arrest, Barrundia was killed on this American ship by a bullet from one of the Guatemalan policemen who boarded the American ship. This was too much for Washington, and he was terminated in November, 1890, by Secretary of State James G. Blaine. President William Henry Harrison justified Mizner's firing in his 1890 Annual Message. http://www.let.rug.nl/usa/presidents/benjamin-harrison/state-of-the-union-1890.php State Department papers also detail the incident. https://books.google.com/books?id=a1C3IVbrWDgC&pg=PA30&dq=a+daughter+of+general+barrundia&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiR4vbszcvbAhWCtlkKHTBACpIQ6AEIJzAA Barrundia left a widow and several daughters, one of whom visited Mizner's office before his removal and shot at him. https://books.google.com/books?id=a1C3IVbrWDgC&pg=PA30&dq=a+daughter+of+general+barrundia&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiR4vbszcvbAhWCtlkKHTBACpIQ6AEIJzAA Barrundia's widow Transito Hurtarte appealed to the State Department for damages. The government declined.
Family
He built a house and kept a small farm on what is now East L St. near First St.. He installed the first flush toilet in Benicia, which the children would show off to their friends. His wife was Ella Watson Mizner. He had seven children, one daughter Minnie, married to Horace Blanchard Chase, who later would found Stag's Leap Winery, and six boys: William, Lansing, Edgar, the architect Addison, Harvey, and Wilson. He died aged 68, of heart disease, at the residence of his daughter, at Yountville, in Napa County.
