Office of the Historian

731.00/11–1654

Memorandum of Telephone Conversation, by the Director of the Office of South American Affairs (Atwood)

confidential
[Washington,] November 16, 1954.

Subject:

  • Rómulo Betancourt
  • Participants: Arturo Morales Carrion, Under Secretary of State of Puerto Rico
  • OSA—Rollin S. Atwood

Mr. Morales Carrion had telephoned Mr. Jamison of AR on Friday, November 12, to state that Rómulo Betancourt had consulted with him about his not having received an extension of his visa which technically expired on October 24 and which he thought was being granted. Morales Carrion indicated that Betancourt desires to complete the book he is writing and to attend the wedding of his daughter. Mr. Morales asked if he should approach the Immigration Service in Puerto Rico or whether the State Department wished to take some action on the case. Mr. Morales said that Mr. Holland had recently talked to him in Miami about the case and he believed that Mr. Holland was agreeable to Mr. Betancourt’s staying a little longer.

Mr. Atwood informed Mr. Morales that the period of Betancourt’s Attorney General waiver had expired on October 24 without his having applied for an extension and it was, therefore, impossible at this time for him to receive such an extension. He also explained that no action could be taken on the communist defector application for a visa while Betancourt remains in the U.S. but that it will be necessary for [Page 1674] him to apply outside the U.S. for such a visa. Mr. Atwood stated that Mr. Betancourt appeared to have misunderstood the process for obtaining an extension of stay. However, if Betancourt were to remain for the wedding of his daughter in December and would leave promptly after that event, he did not believe that there would be any difficulty. (The Visa Office had already obtained informal assurance from the Immigration Service that in view of the delicate political character of this case, no action would be taken toward deportation of Betancourt prior to the end of December. Mr. Atwood passed on this information to Mr. Morales.)

Mr. Morales asked whether it would be convenient if he encouraged Betancourt to leave the U.S. “for the south” as promptly as possible after the wedding of his daughter in December and Mr. Atwood told him that this was entirely correct.