448. Memorandum of a Conversation, Department of State, Washington, March 30, 19561

SUBJECT

  • Religious Problems in Colombia2

PARTICIPANTS

  • Colombian Ambassador Dr. Francisco Urrutia Holguin
  • Assistant Secretary Holland
  • OSA—Mr. Bernbaum
  • OSA—Mr. Gerberich

Mr. Holland handed the Ambassador an aide-mémoire3 on the religious problem, and outlined the main points with him. He emphasized that we are concerned because things improved so greatly for a year or so after the Rojas Government took over in 1953 and now seem to have deteriorated again. He hoped the Ambassador would find the aide-mémoire helpful in his discussions of this question with the President and other officials of the Colombian Government. He urged that the utmost be done to find a solution to this question that will guarantee U.S. Protestants the enjoyment of their fundamental rights, and said he was pressing the Ambassador to do the utmost, not in a spirit of rancor, but in an earnest desire to eliminate what is possibly the most troublesome problem in Colombian-American relations.

The Ambassador said he understood Mr. Holland’s viewpoint perfectly. He said he had to admit that in the outlying districts of the country the clergy practically rule the actions of the people, and the clergy are ignorant. Most of the country priests have no better education than a fifth-grade pupil in the United States. The average Colombian priest has had no more than three years’ seminary training. They can get the peasants and police in their parishes to testify to almost anything they say, and they may have done this in the deGruyter case and other cases.

Nevertheless, he had a feeling that the situation had improved in the last month or two. He asked Mr. Gerberich if he had heard of any incidents in that time. Mr. Gerberich said he knew of but one, [Page 898] when an attempt was made to set fire to a Protestant Church at La Cumbre in Valle and the Catholic inhabitants of the village had seen it and themselves put out the flames. The Ambassador said that reminded him of an incident not far away, at La Tejada, where he has a ranch, and where many of the laboring people are Protestants. He said in this case some of the Catholic laborers actually blew up the small parish church because the priest refused burial in consecrated ground to a man who had not lived in wedlock with his wife.

He said he would do what he could to improve the situation and intended to make a special effort in the deGruyter case, in which he hopes to interview the witnesses himself. He said the Protestants would help their own lot considerably if they would agree not to operate in “mission territory”. In any case, he thought the situation would certainly improve within a few more months.

  1. Source: Department of State, Central Files, 821.413/3–3056. Confidential. Drafted by Gerberich.
  2. In a memorandum dated March 27 William Belton informed Holland that attacks on Protestants in Colombia continued despite U.S. Government protests and that President Rojas and the Minister of Government, Lucio Pabon Nuñez, had “fanned the flames of religious hatred by public statements linking Protestants with Communists and subversives.” Belton recommended that Holland call in the Colombian Ambassador to discuss the situation. (Ibid., 821.413/3–2756)
  3. Not found in Department of State files.