824.01/426g: Circular telegram
The Secretary of State to the Diplomatic Representatives in the American Republics
The following statement has just been given to the press:
“This Government has been aware that subversive groups hostile to the Allied cause have been plotting disturbances against the American Governments cooperating in defense of the Hemisphere against Axis aggression.
On December 20, 1943 the Bolivian Government was overthrown by force under circumstances linking this action with the subversive groups above mentioned.
The most important and urgent question arising from this development in Bolivia is the fact that this is but one act committed by a general subversive movement having for its purpose steadily expanding activities on the continent. These developments, viewed in the light of the information the American Republics have been exchanging among themselves, dispose negatively of the matter of this Government’s recognizing the present revolutionary Junta at La Paz.
The inter-American system built up over the past 10 years has had for one of its purposes the defending of the sovereign Republics of the Hemisphere against aggression or intervention in their domestic affairs by influences operating outside the hemisphere and outside their individual frontiers. This Government is confident that the [Page 441] freedom-loving people of the American Republics, including those of Bolivia, who have the good will of the Government and people of the United States, will understand that this decision is taken in furtherance of the aforesaid purpose.”