Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, 1922, Volume II

815.00/2375: Telegram

The Secretary of State to the Minister in Nicaragua ( Ramer )¹⁴

Washington , July 19, 1922—7 p.m.

24. Department informed by Legation Tegucigalpa¹⁵ that Martinez Funes with 200 men took possession of El Paraiso near Nicaraguan territory on the 16th instant, and that 7 Honduranean officers and 12 men were killed. Honduranean Legation here adds Honduranean and Chinese commercial houses in El Paraiso were pillaged, and that the Honduranean Government is planning to break off diplomatic relations with Nicaragua.

You will inform President Chamorro that this Government has been very much disturbed by the repeated reports regarding the activities of Funes along the border between Nicaragua and Honduras. It appears that this leader has made repeated invasions of Honduras, raiding towns, and, in this last case, causing considerable loss of life. In each case he returns to Nicaraguan territory where he has been allowed to organize new forces and prepare for new attacks against Honduras. The Department fully realizes the difficulty of controlling the situation along the frontier between the two countries, but it feels that the repeated invasion of the territory of Honduras, and the resulting danger of the peace of Central America call for very much more energetic action than the Government of Nicaragua has as yet taken. It, therefore, expects the Nicaraguan Government will intern Funes and his followers, and take such other steps as may be necessary to put a definite end to the operations of Honduranean revolutionists on Nicaraguan territory. The Department is constrained to add that a failure to take these steps must be regarded as an indication that the Government of Nicaragua is either unwilling or unable to perform the obligation resting upon any civilized Government.

You may informally point out to the President, in this connection, that the Treaties of 1907¹⁶ provided that revolutionists of one country would not be permitted to live in the provinces of the other countries bordering on their country of origin.

Hughes

14. Repeated on the same date as telegram no. 22 to the Minister in Honduras.
15. In telegram no. 54, July 17; not printed.
16. Foreign Relations, 1907, pt. 2, pp. 692–711.