CO–28. Memorandum of Conversation, by the Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs (Rubottom)1
SUBJECT
- Secretary’s Call on President Lleras Camargo of Colombia
PARTICIPANTS
- President Lleras Camargo of Colombia
- The Secretary
- Ambassador Carlos Sanz de Santamaria
- Ambassador Dempster McIntosh
- Assistant Secretary Rubottom
The Secretary asked the President whether it would be worthwhile from his standpoint for a joint communiqué to be issued at the end of his stay in Washington. The President thanked the Secretary and expressed approval of the idea. It was agreed that the Department would work with Ambassador Sanz de Santamaria on a draft which could be presented to the two Presidents for consideration. (Later President Lleras expressed the hope that the draft could be ready by Thursday afternoon.)2
The Secretary expressed concern about the deteriorating situation in Cuba. Mr. Rubottom referred to the direction that the Cuban revolution was taking, offering only a short term, emotional panacea to the problems of the people rather than constructive sound solutions which would give a firm foundation to the Cuban economy. He also stressed the interventionist role of Cuba throughout the Hemisphere, citing incitation to revolution by Prensa Latina, the role of some of the Cuban Embassies where a number of officials have been declared persona non grata in various countries, and of certain Cuban “tourists”.
[Typeset Page 363]President Lleras said that he had been disturbed by the apparent renunciation of the Rio Treaty3 by Fidel Castro.4 The Secretary said that we also had been shocked at this turn. He added that we were not sure whether Castro had meant the Rio Treaty or the Caracas Resolution,5 although the principal was the same. He recalled that the Cuban revolutionary government [Facsimile Page 2] had announced its intension to carry out country’s obligations to such treaties prior to recognition by the United States and other countries of the Hemisphere last year.
President Lleras said that he had sent an instruction to all of the Colombian Embassies asking the Ambassadors to consult with the host governments on the question of the Castro statement regarding the Rio Treaty, but there had not been time to hear from the Embassies prior to his departure for the United States. He said that it would be appropriate to have this question raised in the OAS, thus focusing attention on the political and juridical problem represented by an irresponsible Cuba, rather than on her disregard for property rights and other similar problems bearing down most heavily on her relations with the United States, even though these subjects would have to be treated eventually.
The Secretary expressed complete agreement with this approach through the OAS.
At this point the group left the President’s Guest House for the White house.
- Source: Department of State, Central Files, 721.11/4–660. Confidential. Approved by the offices of the Secretary of State on April 13.↩
- Statements by Presidents Eisenhower and Lleras were issued following their discussions on April 8; for text, see Department of State Bulletin, May 2, 1960, pp. 699–705.↩
- Reference is to the Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance, opened for signature at Rio de Janeiro, September 2, 1947, and entered into force for the United States, December 3, 1948; for text, see 62 State 1681.↩
- Reference is to a statement by Castro in a televised speech in Cuba on April 5.↩
- Apparent reference to Resolution 93, “Declaration of Solidarity for the Preservation of the Political Integrity on the American States Against the Intervention of International Communism,” adopted at the Tenth Inter-American Conference, held in Carcas, Venezuela, March 1–28, 1954; for text of the resolution, see Tenth Inter-American Conference, Caracas, Venezuela, March 1–28, 1954: Report of the Delegation of the United States of America with Related Documents (Department of State Publications 5692, Washington, 1955), pp. 156–157.↩