Consul Olivares to the Secretary of State.1
Managua, August 24, 1910.
Refers to his telegram August 21, and states the commission named in the Estrada decree, accompanied by the consuls of Great Britain, Italy, and Spain, last Sunday went to Grenada for the purpose of negotiating peace with the leaders of the revolution; that the commission returned this morning, reporting inability to communicate with Gen. Juan Estrada and the failure to negotiate terms with Gen. Emiliano Chamorro, who insists upon the immediate surrender of all armed forces of the opposing faction; that Jose [Page 761] Estrada refuses to do this and insists upon surrendering his power to Juan Estrada in person. Mr. Olivares says these circumstances render the situation very critical. Mr. Olivares says he has received from Gen. Chamorro, at Granada, a telegram notifying him that the attitude of the opposing faction neutralizes his [Chamorro’s] operating against Managua, Masaya, and Granada, and declining all responsibility for damage which might result to American interests in those places. Mr. Olivares has replied by telegraph to Chamorro that the Government of the United States will hold both factions strictly responsible for the protection of American life and property in Nicaragua. When, at the request of Jose Estrada this afternoon, Mr. Olivares called upon him, Estrada stated that he had spared no efforts to end the war peaceably, and now that his endeavors appeared to be unavailing he declined the responsibility of anything which might happen. When Mr. Olivares informed Estrada of his responsibility for the protection of American life and property, he replied that if attacked by the revolutionary forces he would be obliged to resist. Mr. Olivares says that the principal representatives of both factions in Managua to-day desired him to use his good offices to prevent continued hostilities, and that he endeavored to make them realize that it is the duty of the partisans of both sides to employ all their reason and energies to prevent further bloodshed. Mr. Olivares adds that if it is desirable that he use his good offices in any way to instruct him. Gen. Estrada should reach Granada by Friday.
- Transmitted through the American Legation at Tegucigalpa.↩