832.796/767: Telegram
The Ambassador in Brazil (Caffery) to the Secretary of State
[Received 8:40 p.m.]
333. For the Under Secretary.78 The Minister for Air79 and General Eduardo Gomes80 have continued to insist that Condor has been reorganized and is now a Brazilian company. General Gomes used a specially chartered Condor plane yesterday to fly to the northeast.
The Porto Velho–Rio Branco service in the Acre territory is about to start again and they expect to put other routes into service at an early date also to get their radio stations operating again.
[Page 768]As you know the feeling here against Panair81 is very high and the Brazilian authorities resent what they believe is an attempt to secure a monopoly in Brazil for Panair. The principal Brazilian officials especially Aranha are determined that Condor shall operate as a Brazilian company; and they assert that it is now Brazilian. They will be asking soon for gasoline as soon as they have used up what they have left.
The local Panair people asked me today if I would object to their buying a Condor plane; I have not yet answered them.
- Sumner Welles.↩
- Joaquim Pedro Salgado Filho.↩
- Commander of the 2d Air Zone and Director General of Airways, Brazilian Ministry of Aeronautics, representing Brazilian interests in the construction of air bases in northeast Brazil by United States interests.↩
- Panair do Brasil, subsidiary of Pan American Airways.↩