701.2111/289
The Colombian Minister ( López Pumarejo ) to the Secretary of State
[Received April 4, 1936.]
Mr. Secretary: Yesterday afternoon [or evening]1 three Federal police officers (Federal Bureau of Investigation), without previous notice or consultation, entered this Legation without warning and arrested, in one of the rooms assigned to the servants, Mr. … a citizen of the United States, whom I occasionally employ as chauffeur of the Legation.
Without any intention of claiming diplomatic immunity for the said employee, and still less desiring to intervene in the matters which Mr. … may have pending before the courts, if such should be the case, I feel constrained to advise Your Excellency at once of this unfortunate case, on account of the unusual manner in which it was handled, and with the desire to learn, as a precedent for the future the way in which Your Excellency’s illustrious Government believes the offices of foreign Legations should be respected, and the steps that may be taken to avoid a repetition of so clear a case of forcible entry of domicile as the present. These are the circumstances which prompt me to advise your Department immediately of this matter.
I avail myself [etc.]
- Brackets appear in the file translation.↩