572. Memorandum of a Conversation Between the Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs (Holland) and the Venezuelan Ambassador (Gonzalez), Washington, June 7, 19561

SUBJECT

  • Venezuelan Matters

The Ambassador said that shortly his Government would probably call in the United States Ambassador and state that it would be impossible for President Perez Jimenez to attend the conference in Panama.2 The grounds given would be that it would be essential for him to be in Caracas on account of military celebrations. The Ambassador said that the real reason was that the military group around the President felt that somehow it would diminish his prestige if, being the President in Venezuela he were to go to Panama where he would be only one among many presidents. The Ambassador said that he felt this was a sad mistake; that he had done everything that he could to oppose it, but he feared the decision might go against him.

We talked about other matters; then he brought up again his feeling that his Government was making a mistake regarding Panama. I said that I agreed with him and went on to tell him why.

I pointed out that Venezuela has a greater interest than any other Latin American country in the preservation of the U.S. policy of protecting the existing access of Latin American products to our markets. While some Latin American countries come under fire in the Congress every few years, Venezuela can count on the fact that every time Congress assembles the danger will exist that legislation could be passed restricting the access of her petroleum to the U.S. market. The persons in the Executive Branch whose opinion weighs most on this issue are, of course, the President and, probably, the Secretary of State. I said that no decision had been made as to whether Secretary Dulles would attend the meeting, but I said that this was a possibility. I pointed out that Dr. Milton Eisenhower would be present and recalled to the Ambassador his interest in Latin American affairs. I said that, under all of these circumstances, in my judgment, few things would be as important to Venezuela as to establish a personal relationship between their President and the persons whom I had mentioned, particularly since it appeared that [Page 1133] President Eisenhower might well be our President for an additional four years. Thus, it seemed to me, that for President Perez Jimenez not to attend the meeting was, indeed, an error from the Venezuelan point of view.

The Ambassador expressed strong agreement with me and said that he was going to renew his efforts to persuade President Perez Jimenez to attend the meeting.

  1. Source: Department of State, Holland Files: Lot 57 D 295, Venezuela. Confidential.
  2. Reference is to the Meeting of the Presidents of the American Republics, July 22–24; see vol. VI, Documents 109 ff.