815.00/3676: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Minister in Guatemala ( Geissler )
29. You will present the following note to the Guatemalan Government:
“I am instructed to inform Your Excellency that the Government of the United States is gravely concerned at the events which have recently occurred along the frontier between Guatemala and Honduras. Although my Government had received repeated reports that the Honduran refugees living in Guatemala were plotting against the constituted authorities in their own country and were receiving aid and encouragement in their activities from persons in Guatemala, it had not considered it necessary to make formal representations to Your Excellency’s Government because it was confident that the Government of Guatemala would do everything within its power, not only to fulfill its obligations under the Central American treaties, but to prevent its territory from being used in any way as a base of operations against a neighboring country. The reports which have hitherto been received have been called informally to the attention of Your Excellency’s Government merely as an act of courtesy in order to facilitate such action as the Government of Guatemala might deem advisable.
The recent very serious events which have occurred in Honduras in places close to the Guatemalan frontier, however, and the circumstantial reports regarding the activities of Honduran refugees in such places as Los Quebradas and Los Playitas inevitably give rise to grave doubts whether the authorities of Guatemala in the frontier districts have taken energetic steps to prevent revolutionary activities against Honduras and to prevent the shipment over the frontier of arms and supplies. My Government feels confident that the full and wholehearted cooperation by the Guatemalan authorities with the constitutional government of Honduras would put an end to any serious revolutionary disturbances in the western part of the latter Republic and it feels confident that the President of Guatemala, in view of the recent events along the frontier, will take all necessary steps to bring about such cooperation. It is unnecessary to state that the Government of the United States attributes the greatest importance to the maintenance of peace in Honduras, now gravely jeopardized by the activities along the Guatemalan frontier. It cannot but regard with apprehension the complications which will inevitably arise between the various Central American Governments should, any movement against the peace of Honduras be encouraged or tolerated by the authorities of a neighboring country.”
You will state orally that this Government would be gratified to receive a detailed statement of the measures which the Government of Guatemala has taken and of the measures which it takes after the receipt of the above note to control the situation along the frontier.