814.01/10–3144: Circular telegram
The Acting Secretary of State to the Diplomatic Representatives in the American Republics Except Argentina, Guatemala, and El Salvador 44
You are requested to convey the following comments to the Foreign Minister of the country to which you are accredited. You should also express appropriate appreciation for any comments which he may have made to you regarding the question of recognizing the new regimes in Guatemala and El Salvador.
[Here follow three paragraphs concerning the recognition of the new regime in Guatemala, printed on pages 1147–1148.]
With regard to El Salvador, the Department’s information is that the situation is still obscure. A general strike, the importance of which it is impossible at the present moment to gauge, is reported to be in progress. The Supreme Court is reported to have declared the accession to power of the present régime to be illegal. Not wishing in any way to pre-judge the issue, it is this Government’s belief that the question of recognizing the de facto régime in El Salvador should be held in suspense until the trend of events may be more clearly discerned. In the meantime, this Government would be pleased to receive any further information regarding the situation in El Salvador which the Government to which you are accredited may be good enough to give you, and will transmit to you for communication to it such further information as it may independently receive. In conveying the above information to the Foreign Minister, you should be careful not to convey the impression that this Government contemplates a prolonged period of non-recognition with respect to the régime now in power in El Salvador.
The Embassies in Nicaragua and Honduras need take no action under the preceding paragraph in view of the recognition of the new Salvadoran regime by those two Governments.
- The instruction to the Ambassador in Uruguay requested that the contents be made known to William Sanders of the Emergency Advisory Committee for Political Defense.↩