816.01/355: Telegram
The Acting Secretary of State to the Chargé in Guatemala (Lawton)6
1. President Sacasa has undertaken as of his own initiative to suggest that he and the Presidents of Honduras and Guatemala reach an agreement substantially as follows:
“In view of the fact that the General Treaty of Peace and Amity is in full force with respect to Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua and that having been denounced by El Salvador and Costa Rica has ceased to be in effect with respect to relations between the first three and the last two, and it being of the greatest importance for the peace of Central America that the Treaty be revised, the following is agreed upon to be published:
- 1.
- The Governments of Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua shall immediately recognize the Government of El Salvador over which General Martínez presides.
- 2.
- The Governments of Central America shall accredit representatives to the conference which will take place for the purpose indicated.”
Announcement of this agreement would be followed immediately by the recognition of the present Government of El Salvador by the three Central American Governments and by the United States acting independently. The proposed agreement also contemplates the calling at an early date of a conference of the Central American States to consider matters of common interest.
President Sacasa intends sending as his representative his cousin, Senator Crisanto Sacasa Saturday morning by airplane to Guatemala, Tegucigalpa, and San Salvador. He has been authorized through the American Minister in Managua to permit his representative to advise the other interested Governments, orally and confidentially, that his proposal meets with the approval of this Government and that the United States is prepared to recognize the present Government of Salvador as soon as recognition is accorded by Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. You may confirm this understanding if you are approached by the President or Minister of Foreign Affairs in the matter.
In the opinion of President Sacasa, since Costa Rica has recognized Salvador and has since officially confirmed a letter of December 23, 1933, from her Minister of Foreign Affairs to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Nicaragua, that it favored the calling of a conference for a revision of the Treaty of 1923, the approval of the Government of Costa Rica would not seem necessary at the outset, although President Sacasa intends to advise the Costa Rican Government later as a matter of courtesy.
- The same telegram was sent, January 12, 5 p.m., to the Minister in Honduras, as telegram No. 1, and to the Minister in Costa Rica, as telegram No. 1.↩