Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961–1963, Volume XII, American Republics

165. Memorandum Prepared in the Department of State¹

Washington, undated.

SUBJECT

• Implementation of Agreements Reached at San Jose

The initial report of March 25 indicated that a meeting of Ministers of Government would take place at Managua, Nicaragua, on April 3 to draw up security measures against subversion in the Isthmian countries. Deputy Attorney General Katzenbach headed the United States Delegation to this meeting and results were considered most successful.

The most significant of the resolutions promulgated at the end of the meeting April 4² were the following:

1. To recommend to their governments that they adopt, within the limitations of their respective constitutional provisions, measures to be put into effect immediately to prohibit, restrict and discourage the movement of their nationals to and from Cuba. To this end, the Meeting proposes the adoption of the following measures:

a. Provide, as a general rule, that every passport or other travel document which may be issued carry a stamp which indicates that said passport is not valid for travel to Cuba.

b. Declare officially that nationals who are permitted to travel to Cuba should have the permission duly inscribed in their official travel document.

c. Promulgate regulations restricting the granting of visas to foreigners who have travelled to Cuba within a stipulated period of time.

2. To recommend that their governments take action to impede the clandestine movement of arms into the Isthmian countries, including specific instructions to border control forces to intensify port, airfield and border inspection of incoming and outgoing cargo in order to prevent contraband shipment of arms; establish strict security and accountability with respect to arms and ammunition issued to their armed forces and law enforcement agencies.

3. To recommend to their governments the adoption as soon as possible and to go into effect immediately, of effective measures to prevent activities for subversive purposes that may be instigated by Castro-Communist propaganda or agents in each of the Central American countries.

4. To recommend to the Governments of Central America and Panama the establishment, as soon as possible, of an organization in each state, with the sole purpose of counteracting Communist subversion in the Central America-Panama area. These organizations will be primarily responsible for:

a. Detecting, controlling and counteracting actions and objectives of the members, organizations, sympathizers and collaborators of the Communist Party.

b. Lending mutual support to each other and continually exchanging information regarding movements of persons or groups, propaganda, funds and arms for Communist subversive purposes.

These resolutions do not represent commitments on the part of governments but only recommendations to governments. In order to assist the Central American Governments to put these recommendations into effect and in order to find out what technical or material assistance the United States should offer, a team with Immigration Service, AID, Joint Chiefs of Staff, CINCARIB, USIS, CIA and State representation will visit each of the Central American countries starting from Panama around

April 23 and ending in Guatemala. The report of this team³ will be used to persuade the Central American Governments to put more recommendations into effect and also as a basic paper for the United States Delegation to the next regular meeting of Ministers of Government of Central America which, at Managua, was set for 90 days hence, i.e., July 5.

[Here follows discussion of the implementation of decisions on economic matters.]

1. Source: Department of State, Central Files, POL 7 COSTA RICA. Confidential. Drafted by Collins and O.L. Sause of AID. Filed as an attachment to an April 22 memorandum from Brubeck to Bundy, which stated that it was a further response to the President’s March 22 written inquiry to Martin. Kennedy’s March 22 memorandum to Martin asked Martin to let him know that steps he was taking to implement “the testament of San Jose.” A copy is filed with a March 25 memorandum from Brubeck to Bundy enclosing an initial report. (Ibid.)
2. The resolutions are printed in Department of State Bulletin, May 6, 1963, pp. 719-721.
3. The report of the Interdepartmental Team on Counter Subversive Measures in Central America and Panama, which visited Central America and Panama April 23-May 11, is in the Kennedy Library, National Security Files, Regional Security Series, Latin America.