711.14/6–1449

The Acting Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Guatemala (Patterson)

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No. 80

Sir: Reference is had to conversations held between you and officers of the Department during your recent visit to Washington on the subject of relations between the United States and Guatemala and proposed measures to improve them. It was noted in those conversations that for some time, and increasingly during the past six months, certain actions of the Guatemalan Government have reflected a lack of concern for traditional good relations between Guatemala and the United States. Some of these actions have involved the rendering of cooperation and assistance to pro-Communist elements in Guatemalan national life. Others have demonstrated a disregard of the rights of legitimate American interests established in the country and of the right of American citizens to reside there in accordance with Guatemalan law. It was agreed that measures should be taken by this Government to protect its interests and to place relations between the two countries on a sounder and more even footing.

The Department contemplates, with your agreement, that as a first step in this direction you will call on President Arévalo1 and in a personal conversation express to him your concern with the impression which has been created within this Government by the attitudes adopted and the measures taken by the Guatemalan Government in disparagement of American rights, of good relations between Guatemala and the United States, and of the all-important effort to preserve and strengthen the values of the democratic culture common to both countries.

There is enclosed as of possible assistance to you in your conversation with the President a memorandum setting forth some recent developments in Guatemala that have been of particular concern to this Government. The memorandum is not intended to be a communication from this Government or from you personally to the President. It is intended solely as a statement, which may be of aid to you in your conversation, of troublesome developments in Guatemalan-American relations. You may add to it if developments later than those it covers warrant—for instance, should the bill for raising duties on cotton [Page 651] yams and cloths be enacted into law despite the US-Guatemalan trade agreement.2

If you deem it desirable, you may speak to the President again of the contributions that American private capital is making to the Guatemalan economy and of the role it could play in the further development of the country were a favorable climate created for its entry through the impartial administration of just and non-discriminatory laws. You may refer not only to the material benefits received by Guatemala as a result of present official and private relations with the United States but of the contributions made in fields such as education and sanitation by both private and official American operations. It is the sincere hope of this Government that it will be possible for American public and private capital to continue to make a contribution to economic and social development of Guatemala.

In your conversation with the President you should carefully refrain in any way from conveying the impression that this Government is assuming, or intends to assume, a threatening posture toward Guatemala, which is not the case. However, the Department feels, and you may so state to the President, that it cannot continue to conduct its relations with the Guatemalan Government in that cordial and cooperative spirit that has inspired it in the past unless there is a reciprocal desire on the part of the Guatemalan Government to contribute likewise to mutual understanding, fair treatment, and friendly cooperation.

Very truly yours,

For the Acting Secretary of State:

Paul C. Daniels

Director American Republic Affairs
[Enclosure]

Memorandum

(1)
Carlos Manuel Pellecer, who is known by both governments to be an active communist supporter and who gained notoriety in Paris as Guatemalan Chargé by his efforts on behalf of the communist cause was recently appointed head of the Cultural Travelling Missions of the Guatemalan Government. In this position he will control the education and indoctrination of large numbers of the country’s population.
(2)

The two Guatemalan delegates to the so-called World Peace Congress recently held at Paris by the communists as part of their systematic campaign to destroy Western democracy travelled on diplomatic passports. It is not known that the passports were issued for any purpose other than travel to the Congress. Hence, these delegates may be considered to have been present there under the sponsorship of the Guatemalan Government. Upon his return to Guatemala one delegate has engaged in parroting the usual anti-democratic, pro-communist propaganda. The other delegate, rumor in Guatemala has it, is now beyond the Iron Curtain, which may be crossed with facility only by agents of, or outstanding sympathizers with, communism.

To grant diplomatic or official passports to delegates attending communist congresses appears very much against the spirit and the letter of Resolution XXXII of the Bogota Conference.3 It is to be hoped that the Guatemalan delegates, if any, to the forthcoming Milan Congress of the WFTU (the which organization has been denounced as communist by the democratic trade unions of the West which have left its ranks) and to the communist-inspired “Peace” Congress of Mexico City will not travel with official passports.

(3)
Guatemalan labor appears to be subjected to the influence of nationals and foreigners connected with the international communist movement. Relations between the labor movement of Guatemala and the government are close and obviously the two cooperate in meeting the country’s problems. Accordingly, it is lamentable that the government, given its working relations with the labor movement, does not seek to rectify the apparent inspiration of its leaders in the totalitarian East, where labor is regimented and exploited and its voice brutally suppressed by the communist state. Rather, by its acquiescence in this state of labor affairs, the government appears to foster this inspiration. Equality and democracy are the traditional ideal and goal of the West. It is there, where the labor movement has militated long and successfully for the improvement of the living standards of the people, rather than in the false propaganda and the slave labor movements of the East, that a sound labor movement may find inspiration in the world of the present.
(4)
The recently adopted attitude of the Minister of Agriculture4 toward the agricultural research program in which the United States and Guatemala cooperate has aroused the apprehensions of the Embassy and the Department. It is not for a minute contended that this program should be placed above criticism, but the manner in which the Minister announced his intention of, and set about, investigating [Page 653] it was not helpful. Rather it appears to betray a basic animus against the program, which cannot but be alarming.
(5)
An anti-US attitude was noticeable in the preparations for the inauguration of the Hospital Roosevelt Nurses’ Home. Happily, speakers at the ceremony did not share this attitude. But officials with influence in preparing the program did. They attempted to eliminate prominent recognition in it of US cooperation in the hospital project.
(6)

The experience of American enterprises participating, or attempting to participate, in the economic development of Guatemala has been discouraging. The unpleasant episode in which the United Fruit Company figured in the early part of the present year5 was aggravated by the evident animus of certain Guatemalan officials against the American company. Not content to let the law run its course, these officials aroused public feeling against the company and attempted to sway, and swayed, competent authorities against the company. Thus the Minister of Labor6 published a book against the company, representing it as defying the nation. He attacked the company’s lawyers as traitors to Guatemala. The Government radio carried other attacks against the company.

The Company was obliged to submit for settlement of the difficulty to procedures of dubious legality. The International Railways of Central America are now in negotiations with their workers. It is to be hoped that in this case the law will be permitted to run its course without interference.

(7)
There have occurred within the last few months four cases of the issuance of expulsion orders against American citizens settled in Guatemala in the employ of established American companies. While it may be that on purely legal grounds the issuance of these orders is defensible, it is impossible to avoid the suspicion that again the anti-American animus of certain officials has played a part. The cases appear to have been justiciable under the labor law, but extraordinary procedures were availed of to move against the American citizens summarily.
(8)
American lumber companies in the Peten area have had to terminate their operations as a result of an embargo placed by the Guatemalan Government on the regular routes of transport for their product. After having entered Guatemala under contract with the Government, these companies have thus been caused serious financial loss.
(9)
The unsympathetic attitude of officials of the Guatemalan Government has led to the curtailment of the operations of a number of American companies which were engaged in activities of greatest importance to the Guatemalan economy. Pan American Airways has closed its flight control station and its flight kitchen in Guatemala City, detracting from the city’s potentialities as an important international communications center. The United Fruit Company has virtually decided to abandon Bananera plantations, rather than invest under present conditions from $5,000,000 to $10,000,000 in their rehabilitation.

Three American oil companies have made preparations to cease their exploratory work in Guatemala. They had amply demonstrated their sympathy with the government’s efforts to elaborate a petroleum code which would safeguard the national interest in an important natural resource. They were promised reasonable terms under the law for continued operations in Guatemala. It was only when the practical requisites for production had been ignored in the revision of the petroleum code that they finally took steps to end their activities. The circumstances surrounding this revision manifest an anti-American attitude as well as lack of technical knowledge of petroleum matters on the part of certain officials. It is not the question of whether or not Guatemala desires to have her petroleum resources developed by private American capital that is of primary concern; it is the attitude that was assumed toward that capital after it was invited to enter Guatemala which is adverted to here.

  1. Juan José Arévalo Bermejo, President of Guatemala.
  2. Dated April 24, 1936; text in Department of State Executive Agreement Series No. 92, and 49 Stat. (pt. 2) 3989. Airgram 262, September 30, from Guatemala (not printed), reported that in early September President Arévalo had vetoed the decree authorizing an increase in the import duties on cotton yarns and textiles, partly on the grounds that it would violate the United States-Guatemala Trade Agreement (814.50/9–3049).
  3. For text of Resolution XXXII and related documentation, see Foreign Relations, 1948, vol. ix, pp. 193 ff.
  4. Jorgé Matheu.
  5. Despatch No. 130, March 11, 1949 from Guatemala (not printed), reported on the successful termination of a protracted labor-management controversy involving the United Fruit Company (814.504/3–1149). Further material is in Department of State files 814.5043 and 814.5045.
  6. Alfonso Bauer Paiz.