817.00/6555: Telegram
The Acting Secretary of State to the Chargé in Nicaragua (Beaulac)
29. Your 32, March 13, 5 p.m. and 35 [33], March 14, 11 a.m. While the question of the amendment of the constitution is one to be determined by the proper Nicaraguan authorities you will please say informally to President Moncada that this Government always deprecates the adoption of constitutional amendments which extend the term of officials at the time in office. It feels that such amendments are contrary to the spirit of republican institutions and they usually react disastrously in the long run on the administration for whose benefit they are enacted. The adoption of such an amendment in Nicaragua at the present time would be especially unwelcome to the Government of the United States, because of its supervision of the recent presidential election and because of the assistance which it has been rendering to President Moncada in the maintenance of order in Nicaragua. It feels that this assistance justifies it in expressing its views in a friendly and informal manner to the President, and that it would in fact be lacking in candor if it did not do so.