721.23/2422: Telegram
The Chargé in Colombia (Washington) to the Secretary of State
[Received 4:08 p.m.]
3. Fabio Lozano was yesterday elected President of the Colombian Senate for the month of January by 29 votes to 26. The majority votes were cast by Liberals Lozano and Peralta and by 27 Conservatives. Conservative Urdaneta cast a blank ballot.
As a result of the above voting liberal leadership is completely demoralized; the inability of President Lopez to control Congress is more definitely a fact; the understanding between Laureano Gomez and the President appears to have been broken; and the future of the Rio de Janeiro pact lies in the hands of the Conservative opposition.
[Page 200]The Secretary of the Foreign Office told me last night that in his opinion an early peaceful solution can be brought about only if the Peruvian Government should voluntarily state that it places the same interpretation upon articles 2 and 7 of the pact as was enunciated in the Senate by Urdaneta, one of its Colombia signers and reported in my telegram 114, December 29, 6 p.m.3