417.00/336: Telegram
The Chargé in Nicaragua (Hanna) to the Secretary of State
[Received 8:18 p.m.]
188. Department’s 95, July 2, 11 a.m. The proposed decree establishing the Provisional Commission was transmitted to the Department in today’s air mail.90 If the decree is satisfactory, the Nicaraguan Government will appreciate the early arrival here of the American member of the Commission.
Doctor Cuadra Pasos told me this morning that the provisions of article 12 of the decree are satisfactory to the directing board of the Conservative Party and that it will select five candidates for the Conservative member early next week who will be representative of the party. I believe however that existing dissensions in the party will play an important role in making the selections and that consequently the responsibility of President Moncada for the ultimate choice will be increased.
The existing directing board is the same as when created as a compromise in the last presidential campaign and its character and composition are known to the Department. The Chamorro influence is probably somewhat stronger than that of the other faction. Diaz and Cuadra Pasos are thoroughly dissatisfied with the unrepresentative character of the board, even of their own partisans on it, and they are laboring for a favorable opportunity to bring about a reorganization which ordinarily would not occur until the next presidential campaign.
The party itself is rent by dissension and I cannot see that the Chamorro influence is on the wane. I am reliably informed that the [Page 687] board will announce in a few days that the party will not participate officially in the municipal elections of this year, assigning lack of confidence in the impartiality of Dr. Roman y Reyes (see my telegram 178 of June 29, 10 a.m.)91 as the reason for the action. The real reasons however of the Cuadra Pasos faction, as stated to me, are:
- (1)
- To avoid stirring up additional factional fights in the party at this time; and,
- (2)
- To establish the necessity for American supervision next year and in 1932.
I may add that the Liberal Party is also in danger of a complete split between the eastern element led by the President and Dr. Carlos Morales and the western faction whose principal leaders are Leonardo Arguello and Dr. Sacasa. President Moncada seems fixed in his determination not to be dominated by the latter faction and there appears to be but little disposition to compromise. Already there is subdued talk of a possible realignment of political elements by a union temporarily at least of the older Liberals and the Cuadra Pasos Conservatives.