814.00/7–744: Telegram

The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Guatemala ( Long )

392. The following circular telegram has been sent to the Missions in the other American Republics except Argentina as a result of your telephone conversation with Mr. Cabot.10

“The Embassy in Guatemala City has been officially informed of the election of General Federico Ponce as Provisional President of Guatemala. In as much as this change of administration has been carried out without violence and appears to be accepted in Guatemala as in legal form, the Department is instructing our Ambassador to continue normal diplomatic relations with the Guatemalan Government. The Department believes that in doing so it is acting in accordance with the precedent established in the similar case which recently arose in El Salvador in which it was eventually the unanimous view of the American Republics that no consultation was required under resolution no. 22 of the Committee of Political Defense.”11

You are authorized to continue normal diplomatic relations with the Guatemalan Government.12

Hull
  1. John M. Cabot, Chief, Division of Caribbean and Central American Affairs.
  2. For text of Resolution XXII, see Emergency Advisory Committee for Political Defense, Second Annual Report, July 15, 1943–October 15, 1944 (Montevideo, 1944), p. 79.
  3. On July 8 Ambassador Long officially informed President Ponce and Foreign Minister Salazar of U.S. continuance of relations with the Guatemalan Government.