817.00/7–744: Telegram

The Ambassador in Nicaragua (Stewart) to the Secretary of State

429. The Embassy learned yesterday afternoon that Colonel Lindberg7 as President of the Junta de Control de Precios y de Comercio had signed and circulated an order as [to] the proprietors of all business houses in Managua stating that if any citizen closed the doors of his establishment the Government would appoint an interventor to assume charge of it for the purpose of selling off the stock at cost and he would be denied the right again to engage in business. If a foreigner closed the doors of his place of business he would be subject to expulsion from the country.

Colonel Lindberg is criticized for his action in this morning’s La Prensa not only because constitutional guarantees, notably article 60 it is argued, have been infringed but because an alien has intervened in the internal affairs of Nicaragua.

Colonel Lindberg has informed me that he signed the order at the request of President Somoza.

Stewart
  1. Col. Irving A. Lindberg, Collector General of Customs and High Commissioner in Nicaragua; an American citizen.