817.00/3354: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Minister in Nicaragua (Eberhardt)
114. Should President Solorzano resign, the Government of the United States would accord recognition to any successor who had been elected or appointed by constitutional means. However, the Government of the United States would not extend recognition to any government which had come into power by violent or unconstitutional means. To make a declaration at this late date and under existing circumstances that the last elections were null and void would be a course of very doubtful legality, and one which the Department could not approve.
The policy of this Government with respect to the recognition of new Central American governments has been stated frequently and publicly. It is a policy in harmony with the expressed policy of these nations themselves based on the General Treaty of Peace and Amity which was signed at Washington, February 7, 1923.
This Department is strongly of the opinion that the continued and firm application of this policy on the part of all the nations of Central America as well as on the part of the United States—which ought to set an example for them—is necessary to promote orderly political growth in Central America and to discourage that tendency to resolve domestic political questions by unconstitutional measures and force, which has brought about such deplorable results.
The Department, therefore, cannot consistently act other than in accordance with the General Treaty of Peace and Amity. Nor can it deviate from the clear course which this policy may compel it to take.
It is the Department’s desire that you should make plain its views to any political leaders who may appear to be under any misapprehension regarding them and to take special pains to make certain that its attitude is thoroughly understood before the opening of Nicaraguan Congress.