I will not fail to keep the Department advised of developments in this
important matter.
[Enclosure]
The Secretary of
State to the President of Nicaragua (
Moncada
)
In conjunction with the Secretary of the Navy and other Navy
officials I have most carefully considered the present situation in
Nicaragua with a view to doing anything possible to be of help in
the two acute situations now confronting Your Excellency’s
Government namely, the disturbances and brigandage in the border
departments and the financial and economic difficulties.
You will I feel sure readily agree with me that the primary duty of
any Government is to maintain law and order. Unless this is done no
Government can stand. The situation in Nueva Segovia, Jinotega and
Estelí is the big problem now facing the Nicaraguan Government. This
situation must be met by the Nicaraguan Government and all possible
resources of the Government devoted to its solution. This is the
first and paramount duty and obligation of the Government.
Nicaragua’s present economic and financial problem is fully
appreciated by us. The whole world is passing through a period of
great depression and practically all governments are suffering from
a shrinkage of income. The question before Nicaragua is how can the
duty [Page 676] of suppressing
banditry and the maintenance of order elsewhere in the Republic be
met by Nicaragua’s resources.
After very careful consideration and deliberation on our part I feel
that the best suggestion that can be made at this time and which
indicates the utmost that my Government can do in the matter is as
follows.
While all estimates indicate that the preservation of law and order
under existing conditions requires an effective and efficient
Guardia of a minimum strength of 2,000 at an annual cost of
$1,000,000 exclusive of maintenance of penal establishments, my
Government would nevertheless be willing in view of the present
financial depression to consent to continue to cooperate in the
Guardia at a less strength if and after an auxiliary force of the
nature of a local police hereinafter mentioned has been created and
has proved effective. In this connection I beg to refer to the
penultimate paragraph of your letter of October 3, 1930, to General
McDougal in which you promise to introduce into the next Congress a
measure providing for contribution by the municipalities to the cost
of maintenance of municipal police. Such a measure would appear to
be fair and reasonable and would in itself, if it proved effective
in operation, materially decrease the cost of the Guardia to the
National Government.
I am sure that as a military man you will appreciate fully, Mr.
President, how essential it is that funds be provided regularly and
promptly for the maintenance of the Guardia. If troops are not
regularly paid there is a possibility of mutiny and other disorders
and this Government cannot assume the responsibility for exposing
its officers to such danger more especially in the exposed and
isolated sections of the disturbed departments. I feel that Your
Excellency having those considerations in mind will readily agree
with me that I am making a perfectly reasonable request when I ask
you to give explicit and irrevocable instructions to the Collector
General of Customs to segregate during each month as a first charge
on the customs revenues after paying the expenses of the
collectorship and the service of the debt sufficient funds so that
he can pay directly to the Chief of the Guardia on the first of each
month the full amount necessary for the expenses during the ensuing
month of the Guardia at a strength of 2,000 men. This amount to be
reduced as and when the two Governments consent to a reduction in
the strength of the Guardia.
I contemplate that the reductions in the Guardia will be made from
detachments stationed in the peaceful districts so that not only
will there be no reduction in the Guardia forces operating in the
bandit infested area but even if possible that those forces may be
augmented by a greater concentration there of the Guardia forces.
This would in a certain measure leave certain municipalities and
areas without police protection and I contemplate that this
deficiency should be [Page 677]
supplied by the municipalities themselves through the establishment
of local police which will be a branch of the Guardia Nacional to be
known as the Guardia Municipal or some other appropriate title
indicating that it constitutes an integral part of the Guardia
Nacional.
Your Excellency will recall that at Tipitapa we agreed that one of
the outstanding needs of Nicaragua was a nonpartisan police force or
Guardia to be trained up by the United States Marines and which
would be the sole military and police force in the country. I feel
confident that you will concur with me that our view then was sound
and is still sound as regards the requirements of Nicaragua, both
for military protection and for the preservation of law and order.
The Guardia Municipal would be under Nicaraguan officers to carry on
police duties in each locality; its officers and enlisted personnel
would be recruited by the Guardia Nacional and it would have the
same relationship to the Guardia Nacional as has the local police
recently created in Managua which is an integral part of the Guardia
Nacional but is paid for from municipal funds.
What I have outlined above covers merely the day to day hand to mouth
necessity of preventing the spread of banditry in Nicaragua. It does
not cure the cancer. To bring about a permanent betterment in
conditions not only in the bandit infested area but throughout the
Republic as a whole I feel very strongly, Mr. President, that you
should divert all possible funds from other public works for road
building in the affected area. I would suggest that $50,000 per
month or as much thereof as may possibly be provided be set aside
for this work. I realize that to do this may mean cutting down the
public works in other localities and that this in itself may create
in such localities a problem of law and order preservation for the
Guardia. I feel that the retrenchment of public works should first
be done in areas where there is the least likelihood of
disturbances. The building of roads in the affected area will, by
providing work for the inhabitants of these bandit ridden provinces,
tend to stabilize men who might otherwise be tempted or driven into
banditry. At the same time it will provide means for opening up this
very sparsely settled area, making it possible to establish farms
and other productive enterprises which will add to the general
economic prosperity of the country and it will provide the means of
communication necessary to patrol the country and hence keep it in a
permanent state of law and order. This now seems to me to be the
best and surest way of solving definitely the problem which has been
acute in Nicaragua for three years and which is no nearer solution
now than it was when you and I met at Tipitapa. This proposal I
think opens the way for a definite solution of the problem and if
you will carry it out will be one of the most statesmanlike acts of
your administration and one for [Page 678] which I feel you will receive the gratitude
and recognition of your country in years to come. I am not
minimizing the necessity of development in the more densely settled
portions of Nicaragua but this is something which I feel must be
postponed until more prosperous times in order that the threat of
banditry which is now upsetting the whole structure in Nicaragua may
be removed.
I know it will be difficult to find funds for this work but the
suggestion that occurs to me is that the profits from the operation
of the Pacific Railway might very appropriately be used to this end.
The construction of these roads will open up new territory and will
act as feeders for the railroad; furthermore, the revenue from the
railroad is a comparatively new source of revenue to the Government
as most of the profits in the past when the railroad was
hypothecated to the bankers as security for their advances was used
in paying interest and amortization charges on these advances. Now
that the railroad has reverted to the Government the profits from
the railroad could most profitably be used in further productive
enterprises. This Government will be glad to loan the services of
its officers and engineers in supervising the road construction work
and any Marine equipment such as trucks, et cetera, that may be
available.
I have gone into this matter at great length with Your Excellency
because after mature deliberation the above offers the best chance I
see for meeting the situation the seriousness of which is fully
appreciated and in no wise minimized by me. Your Excellency will
appreciate, however, that the preservation of law and order is as I
have said the first obligation of a country. This Government would
hesitate to continue to cooperate with the Guardia unless its
expenses are met and even so it would feel that the work, money and
effort expended would be wasted unless the fundamental problem of
banditry is solved. I therefore feel that this Government is going
as far as it can in a helpful attitude to Nicaragua in saying that
it is willing to continue to cooperate with the Guardia eventually
reduced as set forth above if first the arrangement as above
outlined is made for the prompt and regular payment of the Guardia
and secondly, if funds for road building in the disturbed sections
are provided in order to solve this basic problem.
Orderly procedure requires that the reduction of the Guardia be made
as indicated above and I sincerely hope that after considering this
matter you will agree with me that the reduction cannot be made
drastically by November 15th as contemplated in your recent letter
to General McDougal. I therefore earnestly request you, Mr.
President, to agree to modify that order in the manner outlined
above or at least to hold it in abeyance pending the final solution
of the present problem.
