817.1051/257
The Minister in Nicaragua (Eberhardt) to the Secretary of State
[Received February 9.]
Sir: With reference to my telegrams No. 27 of January 23rd (1 p.m.) and No. 31 of January 26th (3 p.m.), I have the honor to report that shortly after the opening of the present Congress the Acting Minister of Foreign Affairs submitted to the Chamber of Deputies for its consideration the agreement between the United States and Nicaragua for the establishment of the Guardia Nacional. It will be recalled that at the last session of Congress this agreement was approved without any changes by the Nicaraguan Senate on January 10, 1928.
The agreement was referred by the Chamber to committee. It was also submitted to the Supreme Court for its opinion, and that body replied that the agreement should be either accepted or rejected in its entirety by Congress but that it should not be amended or changed in any way, since it was an international convention. The committee submitted a favorable report in the sense that it should be approved without modifications.
Discussion of the agreement on the floor of the Chamber of Deputies began on January 15th. In spite of the favorable reports of both the Supreme Court and the House Committee, very marked opposition to the agreement immediately manifested itself from both Liberal and Conservative deputies. Numerous amendments were proposed, and a number of them were passed after rather heated debates.
In the midst of the discussions a motion was passed to invite the Acting Minister of Foreign Affairs to appear before the Chamber to explain what the attitude of the Executive would be regarding changes or modifications in the agreement. The fear was expressed by certain Deputies that in view of international arrangements entered into, obviously referring to the Tipitapa Agreement,47 the Executive might later on consider itself obligated to give its approval to and promulgate the unamended convention by decree, as was done in the case of the Electoral Law, thus injuring the prestige of the Congress.
The Acting Minister of Foreign Affairs on January 18th appeared before the Chamber of Deputies and his remarks were in substance the following. He stated that one of the provisions of the Tipitapa agreements was the establishment of a Guardia Nacional which would [Page 611] exercise the military and police control in Nicaragua; that the Tipitapa agreements, entered into for the purpose of putting an end to a disastrous and bloody revolution, created a special extraconstitutional status of law in the Republic; and that while the agreement had not been approved by Congress, the Guardia Nacional as a vital necessity for the country had existed up to the present time by virtue of that special status of law. He then expressed the opinion that the special status had been terminated by the carrying out of a free and fair election; that consequently the Congress obviously had the right and the obligation to study the agreement and decide whether it conformed to the Constitution and laws of the country; and that he knew of no commitments of the Nicaraguan Government beyond those expressed in the letter of the agreement itself. He added that the agreement responded to a vital national necessity and that the Executive believed that the Guardia Nacional, as it is planned in the convention, is the only means of preserving peace and order in Nicaragua. He also defended the Guardia against the numerous attacks which had recently been appearing in the press against it, and said that the necessities of the electoral period, the maintenance of peace and the brief time allowed to organize it did not permit those in charge to put into practice as careful a selection of its members as was desired nor to give the organization the necessary preliminary training.
This expression of the opinion of the Executive that Congress had the right and duty to decide whether the convention conformed to the Constitution and laws of Nicaragua undoubtedly encouraged the Deputies to persist in their intention of materially modifying the agreement.
During the discussion of the agreement by Congress I called several times on President Moncada to urge him to use his influence with Congress to bring about the enactment of the law without amendments because of its vital importance for the welfare and future peace and prosperity of Nicaragua. On each occasion he expressed his desire to cooperate in every way with the Department and he assured me of his belief that the Chamber of Deputies would pass the law without changes in spite of the fact that all sorts of amendments were being proposed by certain Deputies. He finally informed me that he would have had the bill approved at once by the House if he had the power to do so, but that this was not possible because there was a Conservative majority in the Chamber and the same element which had prevented its passage last January under Chamorro’s leadership were opposing it at the present time, still influenced in this attitude by Chamorro. It is true that the loudest denunciations of the agreement have emanated from a few hothead Conservative deputies who were formerly and probably still are [Page 612] followers of Chamorro, but it is also well known that a number of Liberal members strongly opposed it.
All the newspapers of Managua, Leon and Granada, both Liberal and Conservative, with the sole exception of the Independent Conservative Diario Nicaraguense of Granada, have recently been violently attacking the Guardia agreement chiefly on legal and constitutional grounds and have been publishing exaggerated reports of improper conduct by enlisted members and some junior officers of the Guardia. In view of the splendid work of this organization under the administration of President Diaz, which has been almost universally recognized, it can only be assumed that this unjust and unfavorable comment has been principally inspired by leaders of both parties who, it is generally believed, are at heart opposed to a constabulary with such broad powers, and it is felt that either side would defeat the bill if in so doing it could successfully place the blame on the other party.
As the Department was informed in my telegram No. 31 of January 26th (3 p.m.), the bill was passed on first reading by the Chamber of Deputies with various amendments, and a copy of the modified agreement in Spanish is transmitted herewith.48 When President Moncada supplied me with the text of the amended agreement, he stated that he considered the changes as clarifications rather than amendments and that he was desirous of obtaining the Department’s consideration and, if possible, its approval of the modified convention. I have made it plain to him that in my opinion the changes did not merely clarify the meaning of the language as he stated, but that they changed the agreement so radically as to virtually destroy the purpose for which it was originally intended.
The bill must now be resubmitted to the Senate. In compliance with the request contained in the Department’s telegram 16 of January 28th (12 m.), I have been assured that further action will be postponed on the Guardia agreement until the Department has had an opportunity to study the proposed amendments.
I have [etc.]
- i. e., the agreement between Colonel Stimson and General Moncada, confirmed by Colonel Stimson’s note to General Moncada, dated at Tipitapa, May 11, 1927, Foreign Relations, 1927, vol. iii, p. 345.↩
- Not printed.↩