831.6363/1301½
The President of Venezuela (Medina) to President Roosevelt
Excellency: This letter is for the purpose of introducing to Your Excellency Dr. Gustavo Manrique Pacanins, Attorney General of Venezuela, who in addition to his regular functions, comes before the kind attention of Your Excellency to carry out an important confidential mission that I have believed wise to entrust to his patriotism and qualifications.
The mission which I have entrusted to Dr. Manrique Pacanins, and for the happy conclusion of which I count on the generous reception that Your Excellency will give to him, concerns a revision of the petroleum policy followed by Venezuela, a revision which the Government over which I have the honor to preside, is now initiating.
Dr. Manrique Pacanins will explain to you, if your Excellency will permit him, the solid basis of justice supporting this plan of my Government, a plan which is shared by the entire Venezuelan nation, and by which, recognizing and respecting at all times the rights legitimately acquired within the scope of our laws, it is proposed to rectify illegitimate, illicit or distressing conditions in order that Venezuela may receive a truly just share in the exploitation of the riches of its sub-soil.
It is not the sole purpose of this revision to seek an increase in our petroleum royalties although necessarily this will be one of its consequences: the Government seeks a more stable position for the industry, since the companies having concessions, holding fast to what they defend as their rights—many of which the Government believes are not such—have continued systematically to oppose the Government through passive resistance. The Government has wanted to make them realize that for their own good, a better legal basis should be found for certain situations, by no means clear, that Venezuela is anxious to clarify. This is the revision the Government over [Page 747] which I preside is disposed to bring to a conclusion with the greatest firmness, and although this will be undertaken under the laws of Venezuela and under the general principles of justice and equity, I have not wished to initiate it without first informing Your Excellency, as head of the Government of the great nation whose friendship Venezuela esteems so highly, a friendship which is intensified more every day by the international events uniting us at this moment and making us realize keenly that the future of both of our nations is intimately tied together.
In expressing to Your Excellency my personal gratitude for the reception which you may have the kindness to show my confidential envoy, I am particularly pleased to reiterate to you the sincere sentiments of my most cordial friendship and admiration.