817.00/5432: Telegram
The Minister in Nicaragua ( Eberhardt ) to the Secretary of State
[Received 6:30 p.m.]
98. In order to discourage the dissemination of unfounded and harmful stories like that mentioned in the Department’s 41, February 20, 5 p.m.,93 I asked the President to have the authorities at Esteli investigate the reports of murders committed in that department. The jefe politico has now replied that he has no information regarding any murders of Conservatives in the department. The report of the murders of two women is entirely false and that regarding Senator Mejia’s brother is unconfirmed.
During the past 6 months there have been frequent reports of murders and atrocities by both sides. Nearly all of these have proved to be unfounded when investigated by the marines. From now on increasing numbers of such reports will probably be furnished to the [Page 567] Department and the American press by the Conservatives in their attempt to show that a free election cannot be held under present conditions. The secretary of the national directorate of the Conservative Party has recently been giving the Legation long list[s] of Conservatives who have been murdered in Liberal districts. There is reason to believe the greater part of the persons included in the lists were killed during the revolution or just after the Stimson agreement and before the restoration of order.
As a matter of fact the Conservatives are now receiving efficient protection through the guardia in Leon and Chinandega and they cannot reasonably complain of lack of protection in the other departments, where they control both the police and the courts. They frequently use police and courts for partisan purposes, as for example in Nueva Segovia, where one of the judges who has since been removed at the Legation’s request issued orders for the imprisonment of 348 Liberals in order to disfranchise them. Sandino and his followers have terrorized and plundered Conservatives and Liberals alike in certain limited and not very populous areas and his activities in my opinion have not injured one party more than another.
- Not printed.↩