817.00/8473: Telegram
The Minister in Nicaragua (Long) to the Secretary of State
[Received 4:50 p.m.]
162. General Somoza just called here and informs me that the Vice President departed this morning for Costa Rica, after resigning, and received before departing 20,000 cordobas and a promise of an introduction [Page 839] of a bill in Congress to grant him 10,000 cordobas to be used in repairing his health.
Congress is expected to meet tomorrow and General Somoza is in doubt as to which is the better course for him to pursue. The General has assured us of his friendly feeling for our country and asserted he desires to conduct an honest government and to use in building roads and other public works certain funds which have eluded the Treasury in recent years. He states that he will require our moral backing and asked if we might not as a friendly act consider the two courses of action open to him and intimate which seemed the more desirable.
Course (a) contemplates having Congress, when it meets tomorrow, to give second reading to the 1926 Executive Decree, to amend the constitution and then to call a constitutional convention whereupon Congress dissolves and the country elects delegates to the constitutional convention to meet December 15, the convention to assume at that time all powers of attorney and to appoint the President, that [and?] the judges of the courts to take office on January 1, 1937. Thereafter the constitutional convention will rewrite the constitution. General Somoza points out that by following this course he will not have to resign, and assumes that enough of the delegates would favor him to insure his selection as President to take office next January 1.
Course (b) contemplates having the Congress pass a law when it convenes tomorrow, postponing the elections from the first Sunday in October until the second Sunday in December, so that the elections will take place 6 months after the departure of ex-President Sacasa. The second Sunday in December is the 13th, and the 15th of December is the date on which Congress must convene to confirm the elections but before that the Consejo Nacional de Elecciones usually scrutinizes the election returns, thus leaving rather limited time to gather returns and effect the scrutiny.
The General adds that he favors course (a) because in that method the people would not have to vote directly for President (and there might be several candidates), whereas in electing delegates to the constitutional convention the vote would be indirect, the latter course being far less expensive and more peaceful, without again agitating the public at this time over electoral matters.
I reminded him that our policy was definitely known as one of noninterference and we could not possibly express an opinion upon a purely internal matter but because of his insistence and because this is the first request of what may eventually be called the Somoza administration I venture to transmit the substance of his remarks.