Office of the Historian

No. 31.
Mr. Titus to Mr. Frelinghuysen.

Legation of the United States,
Guatemala, October 25, 1883. (Received November 17.)
No. 19.]

Sir: On the 5th of the present month President Barrios called an extra session of the Assembly for the purpose of considering a proposal for the arrangement of the foreign debt, which had been agreed upon by the Guatemalan minister in London and the English bondholders.

The Assembly refused to approve the plan proposed.

During the session the Government submitted a law authorizing the expulsion by the President, or President and Cabinet, of any foreigner who may be considered “pernicious.”

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I inclose a copy of the decree, and a translation of the same.

As you will observe from the wording of the law, the Executive is, in effect, authorized to expel any foreigner he chooses.

This act is creating considerable unfavorable comment on the part of resident foreigners; not that it will be likely to cause any difference in the practice of the authorities, but as an open declaration of their principles and intentions.

I have, &c.,

FRANK H. TITUS.
[Inclosure in No. 19.—Translation.]

Decree No. 67.

The legislative Assembly of the Republic of Guatemala, considering:

That it is a duty of the state to maintain public order and guard the general interests;

That that order as well as those interests may be affected by foreigners who may abuse the hospitality of the country, and the benefits and protection which our laws concede them;

That it is a right inherent in the sovereignty of nations to not admit into their territory pernicious foreigners or to cause them to leave it, a right recognized in the legislation of civilized countries, decrees:

  • Article I. The President of the Republic may order of his own authority (por si) by a simple governmental proceeding, the expulsion of any foreigner who may compromise the internal tranquility or external security of the Republic, or who may have been condemned in it for grave offenses, or may be pursued for offenses, also grave, committed without the country.
  • Art. II. He may also, in accord with the council of ministers, order the expulsion of the foreigner whose admission or permanence may be judged pernicious.
  • Art. III. The order shall be communicated by means of the jefe politico (governor) of the department in which the foreigner may be found, and to whom he shall designate, according to the circumstances, the time within which it must be fulfilled.
  • Art. IV. In case of the disobedience of the notification of the authority, or that the person expelled from the territory return to it without proper permission, he shaft incur the penalty of one year of imprisonment, which may be commuted for a sum of from $200 to $1,000, without prejudice, after the imposition of the penalty, of the fulfillment of the order causing him to be conducted to the frontier.

Let it pass to the Executive for publication and fulfillment.

Done in the hall of sessions, in Guatemala, the 14th of October, 1883.

  • ANGEL MARIA ARROYO,
    President
  • E. MARTINEZ SOBRAL,
    Secretary.
  • SALVADOR BARRUTIA,
    Secretary
National Palace,
Guatemala, October 14, 1883.

Let it be fulfilled.

  • J. RUFLNO BARRIOS.
  • Fernando. Cruz,
    Secretary of State in the Department of Foreign Relations.