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The Casualties of War: The Central American Upheavals of 1944

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Becoming a Good Neighbor among Dictators

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Abstract

As U.S. diplomats and Central American dictators moved closer to each other during the war, the growing Central American middle classes became dissatisfied with the local regimes. In 1944, the regimes of Martínez and Ubico were toppled by middle class, urban revolts and the regime of Carías was rocked by similar unrest in Tegucigalpa and San Pedro Sula. In part inspired by U.S. wartime propaganda, Central American oppositionists attempted in various ways to connect their local fight against dictatorship to the larger fight against European and Asian dictatorships. This chapter shows how local regimes, oppositionists, and the U.S. Foreign Service struggled to determine what the ideology of the war would mean in the Central American context. The inability of U.S. diplomats to anticipate this struggle, or to construct a meaningful response to it that went beyond mere rhetorical adherence to non-intervention, would cause disappointment on all sides.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Julian L. Nugent (U.S. Vice Consul to Puerto Cortes) to Thurston, Report 52, August 25, 1943, PRHO, CF, box 12, class 800.

  2. 2.

    On Barahona period, see: Dodd, Carías, 43–44 and Argueta, Carías, 56–66.

  3. 3.

    Erwin to Department, May 13, 1943, PRHO, CF, box 11, class 800.

  4. 4.

    RSC to Des Portes, Memorandum for the Minister, August 28, 1942, PRGU, box 60, class 820.02; Des Portes to Department, September 3, 1942, PRGU, box 60, class 820.02.

  5. 5.

    Hull to Des Portes, January 3, 1941, PRGU, box 43, class 840.06; Cabot to Department, January 4, 1941, PRGU, box 43, class 840.06; Hull to Cabot, January 8, 1941, PRGU, box 43, class 840.06; Cabot to Department, January 17, 1941, PRGU, box 43, class 840.06; Cabot to Guy W. Ray, January 18, 1941, PRGU, box 43, class 840.06; Cabot to Department, March 11, 1941, PRGU, box 43, class 840.06; Des Portes to Department, March 19, 1941, PRGU, box 43, class 840.06.

  6. 6.

    Erwin to Department, September 28, 1942, PRHO, box 84, class 820.02.

  7. 7.

    I will use the term “propaganda” to refer to attempts by the U.S. government to influence the opinions of foreign audiences. For the sake of variety, I will occasionally use terms such as “public diplomacy” or “information programs” to refer to the same phenomenon. I choose to use the term propaganda most often, because it links up to the language that U.S. diplomats and Central Americans used at the time. It does not imply a value judgement or adherence to a particular theoretical framework.

  8. 8.

    Bulmer-Thomas, Political Economy, 101; Parkman, Nonviolent Insurrection, 32–33; Leslie Bethell and Ian Roxborough, “The Postwar Conjuncture in Latin America: Democracy, Labor, and the Left”, in idem eds., Latin America between the Second World War and the Cold War, 1944–1948 (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1992), 1–32, there 6–7; David Rock, “War and Postwar Intersections: Latin America and the United States”, in idem ed., Latin America in the 1940s: War and Postwar Transitions (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1994), 15–40, there 19–21; Thomas M. Leonard, “The OIAA in Central America: The Coordinating Committees at Work”, in Gisela Cramer and Ursula Prutsch eds., ¡Américas Unidas! Nelson A. Rockefeller’s Office of Inter-American Affairs (1940–1946) (Madrid: Iberoamericana Vervuert, 2012), 283–312, there 288.

    Kornell Chang studies the reception of allied propaganda in Mexico and concludes that general interest in the war among the Mexican population was low and the penetration of propaganda shallow: Kornell Chang, “Muted Reception: U.S. Propaganda and the Construction of Mexican Popular Opinion during the Second World War”, Diplomatic History 38:3 (June 2014), 569–598. On the other hand, Monica Rankin shows how propaganda for the allied cause could be employed by local actors to promote domestic goals (an argument similar to the one presented here, even if the context is very different). She shows that such propaganda was used by the Mexican government in part to legitimize an aggressive push for industrialization: Monica Rankin, ¡México, la patria! Propaganda and Production during World War II (Lincoln, NA and London: University of Nebraska Press, 2009), chapter 6.

  9. 9.

    Uwe Lübken, “Playing the Cultural Game: The United States and Nazi Threat to Latin America”, in Cramer and Prutsch eds., ¡Américas Unidas!, 53–76.

  10. 10.

    The discussion of the OCIAA in El Salvador is based on: Leonard, “The OIAA in Central America”. The quotation of the U.S. ambassador is from: Ambassador Walter Thurston to Department, December 30, 1943, PRES, box 82, class 800.

  11. 11.

    Bulmer-Thomas, Political Economy, 100–104, quote on 101; Parkman, Nonviolent Insurrection, 30–45, quote on 32–33. Victor Hugo Acuña Ortega adds an important caveat to these findings, showing that some middle class groups had a vested interest in the continuation of the authoritarian state: Victor Hugo Acuña Ortega, “The Formation of the Urban Middle Sectors in El Salvador, 1910–1944”, in Lauria-Santiago and Binford eds., Landscapes of Struggle, 39–49.

  12. 12.

    Parts of the section dealing with El Salvador also appear in: Jorrit van den Berk, “The Promise of Democracy for the Americas: U.S. Diplomacy and the Meaning(s) of World War II in El Salvador, 1941–1945”, in Hans Bak et al. eds., Politics and Cultures of Liberation. Media, Memory, and Projections of Democracy (Leiden: Brill, forthcoming 2018).

  13. 13.

    Frazer, Memorandum on Grupo de Escritores Anti-Fascista, May 18, 1942, PRES, box 58, class 500; Frazer to Department, May 26, 1942, PRES, box 58, class 500; Maleady, Memorandum on Salvadoran Censorship of Newspapers and Radio Stations, July 20, 1942, PRES, box 75, class 891; Frazer to Department, February 26, 1942, PRES, CF, box 6, class 800; Maleady, Memorandum on Detention of Honduran Political Exiles, March 4, 1942, PRES, CF, box 6, class 800; Frazer to Department, March 11, 1942, PRES, CF, box 6, class 800.

  14. 14.

    Henderson ADST interview: “Walter Thurston, former envoy to the Americas, is dead at 79”, NYT (March 27, 1974), 46; “Walter Thurston, ex-envoy to Mexico”, TWP (March 27, 1974), C4.

  15. 15.

    “Career diplomat named ambassador to Mexico”, NYT (April 12, 1946), 8; “Barcelona’s fierce resistance to Franco”, The Manchester Guardian (January 24, 1939), 11; “Americans run bomb gantlet out of Barcelona”, TWP (January 26, 1939), 1; “U.S. aides quit Moscow”, NYT (July 19, 1941), 5; “Thurston now minister”, NYT (November 23, 1941), 28; “Walter Thurston, ex-envoy to Mexico”, TWP (March 27, 1974), C4.

  16. 16.

    Thurston to Department, January 14, 1943, PRES, box 76, class 123.

  17. 17.

    Ching, Authoritarian El Salvador, chapter 7, section 7, paragraphs 1 and 18.

  18. 18.

    Thurston to Department, March 23, 1943, PRES, box 82, class 802.1; Thurston to Department, April 6, 1943, PRES, box 82, class 802.1; Thurston to Department, April 8, 1943, PRES, box 82, class 802.1; Thurston to Department, February 19, 1943, PRES, box 82, class 803.

  19. 19.

    Ellis to Thurston, September 9, 1943, PRES, CF, box 8, volume I, class 800.

  20. 20.

    Gerhard Gade (U.S. Chargé d’Affaires to El Salvador), untitled memorandum, July 19, 1943, PRES, box 82, class 800; Thurston to Department, July 19, 1943, PRES, box 82, class 800; Thurston to Mauricio Callardo (Chief of Protocol of El Salvador), July 24, 1943, PRES, CF, box 8, volume I, class 800; Thurston to Department, July 28, 1943, PRES, CF, box 8, volume I, class 800.

  21. 21.

    Thurston to Department, June 26, 1943, PRES, CF, box 8, volume I, class 711.3; Acheson to Thurston, July 27, 1943, PRES, CF, box 8, volume I, class 711.3; Thurston to Department, November 16, 1943, PRES, CF, box 8, volume I, class 711.3; Thurston to Department, December 16, 1943, PRES, CF, box 8, volume I, class 711.3; Thurston to Department, December 29, 1943, PRES, CF, box 8, volume I, class 711.3.

  22. 22.

    J. Cipriano Castro to Thurston, June 20, 1943, PRES, box 82, class 800 (translation from Spanish by the author). The 1943 files contain many opposition letters and embassy reports on opposition activity. For a non-exhaustive sample covering the month of September, see: “El Pueblo Salvadoreño” to Thurston, September 4, 1943, PRES, box 82, class 800; Asociacion Nacional Democratica to Thurston, September 21, 1943, PRES, box 82, class 800; Frente Magisterial Democratico to Thurston, September 28, 1943, PRES, box 82, class 800.

  23. 23.

    Rafael Eguizábal h. et al. to Thurston, December 4, 1943, PRES, box 82, class 800; “Discurso pronunciado ante la estatua de la Libertad por el Sr. Rafael Eguizábal h., a nombre del Frente Democratico Universitario, con occasion del homenaje a los Estados Unidos de América, el 11 de diciembre de 1943”, PRES, box 82, class 800 (translations from Spanish by the author).

  24. 24.

    Thurston to Department, June 4, 1943, PRES, box 82, class 800; Thurston to Callardo, July 24, 1943, PRES, CF, box 8, volume 1, class 800; Thurston to Department, July 28, 1943, PRES, CF, box 8, volume 1, class 800.

  25. 25.

    Thurston, untitled memorandum, June 21, 1943, PRES, CF, box 8, volume 1, class 800; DVR, Memorandum on Projected Reform of the Salvadoran Constitution, June 29, 1943, PRES, CF, box 8, volume 1, class 800.

  26. 26.

    Maleady to Department, July 20, 1943, PRES, CF, box 8, volume II, class 824; Maj. C.P. Baldwin (U.S. Military Attaché to El Salvador) to Thurston, July 23, 1943, PRES, CF, box 8, volume II, class 824; Lt. R.W. Rastetter (U.S. Assistant Naval Attaché to El Salvador) to Thurston, August 26, 1943, PRES, CF, box 8, volume II, class 824.

  27. 27.

    Thurston to Department, December 13, 1943, PRES, box 82, class 800.

  28. 28.

    For example: Thurston, untitled memorandum, September 8, 1943, PRES, box 82, class 800; Thurston to Department, despatch 955, November 12, 1943, PRES, box 82, class 800.

  29. 29.

    Thurston to Eguizábal, December 4, 1943, PRES, box 82, class 800; Eguizábal to Thurston, December 6, 1943, PRES, box 82, class 800; Thurston, untitled memorandum, December 11, 1943, PRES, box 82, class 800; Eguizábal to Thurston, December 13, 1943, PRES, box 82, class 800; Thurston to Department, December 13, 1943, PRES, box 82, class 800; G.B. Massey (U.S. Acting Military Attaché to El Salvador) to Thurston, December 14, 1943, PRES, box 82, class 800.

  30. 30.

    On the Dalton family, see: Lindo-Fuentes et al., Remembering, 84 and Parkman, Nonviolent Insurrection, 36 and especially Roger Atwood, “Gringo Iracundo: Roque Dalton and His Father”, Latin American Research Review 46:1 (2011), 126–149, there 130–139.

  31. 31.

    Winnall A. Dalton to Thurston, December 28, 1943, PRES, box 82, class 800.

  32. 32.

    Thurston to Department, December 30, 1943, PRES, box 82, class 800; Thurston to Department, January 8, 1944, PRES, box 98, volume XIII, class 800; R.T.S., confidential memorandum, March 10, 1944, PRES, box 98, volume XIII, class 800.

  33. 33.

    Thurston to Department, December 30, 1943, PRES, box 82, class 800.

  34. 34.

    Thurston to Department, January 8, 1944, PRES, box 98, volume XIII, class 800. Vargas and Trujillo were the presidents of Brazil and the Dominican Republic respectively.

  35. 35.

    Thurston to Department, June 12, 1944, PRES, box 93, class 124.

  36. 36.

    Des Portes to Department, May 8, 1940, PRGU, CF, box 3, class 800.1.

  37. 37.

    Des Portes to Department, August 14, 1941, PRGU, CF, box 4, class 800.1; Dudley Dwyre (U.S. Secretary of Legation to Guatemala), Memorandum for the Files, December 4, 1941, PRGU, CF, box 4, class 800.

  38. 38.

    June to Navy Intelligence Division, January 19, 1943, PRGU, box 69, class 121.

  39. 39.

    Drew, Memorandum on Subjects discussed by the American Ambassador, Mr. Boaz Long, with his Excellency, Licenciado don Carlos Salazar, July 16, 1943, PRGU, box 79, class 800.2; Long, Memorandum of Conversation with Carlos Salazar, July 16, 1943, PRGU, CF, box 6, class 800; Justin Tobias to Navy Intelligence, March 16, 1943, PRGU, CF, box 6, class 800; Unsigned memorandum on Carlos Mirón, March 19, 1943, PRGU, CF, box 6, class 800. Note that box 6 is part of the 1942 files. Apparently, these documents have been filed under the wrong year. Friedman seems to discuss the same event as the result of two embassy officials having leaked information about Guatemalan–German collaboration to the U.S. press: Friedman, Nazis and Good Neighbors, 185. As several other diplomatic representatives were also involved, it appears that Ubico was trying to eliminate all his critics in the diplomatic corps.

  40. 40.

    Drew to Des Portes, February 17, 1943, PRGU, CF, box 7, class 123.

  41. 41.

    Diary entries of October 31 and November 1, 1943, Long Papers, box 66, file 333: Diaries.

  42. 42.

    Long to Department, June 22, 1943, PRGU (SFC), box 9, class 820.02: Espionage and Propaganda; Long to Stewart, November 12, 1943, PRGU, CF, box 8, class 800.

  43. 43.

    In his study the 1945 constitutional convention of Guatemala, which gathered after the fall of Ubico and Ponce, Gómez Díez shows that its ideas were in part influenced by the language of pro-Allied propaganda. Francisco Javier Gómez Díez, “La Política Guatemalteca en los Orígenes de la ‘Década Revolucionaria’: La Asamblea Constituyente de 1945”, Revista de Indias 55:203 (January–April, 1995), 127–148, passim, especially 138.

  44. 44.

    Oscar de León Aragón, Caída de un Régimen. Jorge Ubico – Frederico Ponce, 20 de Octubre de 1944 (Guatemala: FLASCO, 1995), 151 and 173–174.

  45. 45.

    Gerald A. Drew (U.S. Chargé d’Affaires to Guatemala) to Department, February 22, 1944, PRGU, CF, box 10, class 800. This report also contains an interesting account on how the embassy deals with the regime and the opposition in light of the non-intervention principle.

  46. 46.

    Drew to Department, March 11, 1943, PRGU, box 79, class 803.

  47. 47.

    Diary entry of November 20, 1943, Long Papers, box 66, file 333: Diaries.

  48. 48.

    Diary entry of April 9, 1944, Long Papers, box 66, file 334: Guatemalan Diary, 1944.

  49. 49.

    Drew to Department, January 4, 1944, PRGU, box 106, class 800.

  50. 50.

    Dodd, Carías, 183–209 and Argueta, Carías, 268–326.

  51. 51.

    Ibid.

  52. 52.

    Cousins to Maj. J.H. March (U.S. Military Attaché to Honduras), December 30, 1940, PRHO; Unsigned (Erwin) to Philip W. Bonsal (Acting Chief of the Division of American Republic Affairs), March 11, 1942, PRHO, box 82, class 800. Also see: Leonard and Bratzel, Latin America, 12 and 36–39; Dodd, Carías, 81–82.

  53. 53.

    Dodd, Carías, 183–209 and Argueta, Carías, 268–326.

  54. 54.

    “Amenazas de muerte al Presidente y la incomoda posición de Zuñiga Huete ante la diplomacia de Los Estados Unidos”, in Inestroza, Documentos Clasificados, 69–70 and “El Jefe de Protocolo de la Casa de Gobierno mal informa al Presidente con el Embajador de Estados Unidos”, in ibid., 185–186.

  55. 55.

    See Chap. 8, section “A Bull for Every China Shop?”.

  56. 56.

    Erwin to Department, May 31, 1940, PRHO, CF, box 2, class 879.6; Division of Commercial Affairs to Cousins, October 2, 1941, PRHO, box 70, class 820.02; Department to Erwin, February 4, 1941, PRHO, CF, box 3, volume 1, class 800: Exiles and Revolutionaries; R.D. Gatewood (U.S. Secretary of Legation to Honduras) to Department, May 7, 1941, PRHO, CF, box 3, volume 2, class 820.02.

  57. 57.

    Nugent to Department, October 2, 1941, PRHO, CF, box 3, volume 2, class 820.02; Erwin to W.L. Taillon (United Fruit Company), January 23, 1941, PRHO, box 70, class 820.02.

  58. 58.

    Erwin to Department, September 18, 1942, PRHO, CF, box 7, volume 6, class 800; Wymberly DeR. Coerr (U.S. Vice Consul to La Ceiba) to Erwin, October 15, 1942, PRHO, CF, box 7, volume 6, class 800; Nugent to Erwin, September 22, 1942, PRHO, CF, box 7, volume 6, class 800.

  59. 59.

    Paraphrase of telegram 257 of November 21, 1943, PRHO, CF, box 11, class 800; Erwin to Department, November 26, 1943, PRHO, CF, box 11, class 800; Lee M. Hunsacker (U.S. Vice Consul to Puerto Cortes), Memorandum on Rumors Circulating in San Pedro Sula Concerning the Attempt on President Carias’ Life, December 4, 1943, PRHO, CF, box 11, class 800.

  60. 60.

    Berle to Erwin, December 29, 1943, PRHO, CF, box 11, class 800.

  61. 61.

    Erwin to Department, May 13, 1943, PRHO, CF, box 11, class 800.

  62. 62.

    Erwin to Department, August 21, 1944, PRHO, CF, box 19, volume 7, class 800.

  63. 63.

    E.R. Stettinius, Jr. to the U.S. Embassies in Latin America, February 2, 1944, PRGU, box 106, class 800.

  64. 64.

    Thurston to Department, February 29, 1944, PRES, box 93, class 124; Thurston to Department, March 25, 1944, PRES, box 93, class 124.

  65. 65.

    Thurston to Department, March 2, 1944, PRES, CF, box 10, class 800; Gade to Department, January 4, 1945, PRES, box 118, volume XVI, class 800.

  66. 66.

    Thurston to Department, June 21, 1944, PRES, CF, box 10, class 824; Berle to the U.S. Embassies and Legations in Latin America, March 23, 1944, PRES, CF, box 10, class 824; Thurston to Department, April 14, 1944, PRES, CF, box 10, class 824; Thurston to Department, April 26, 1944, PRES, CF, box 10, class 800.

  67. 67.

    Thurston to Department, May 5, 1944, PRES, box 99, volume XIV, class 800; Thurston to Department, May 7, 1944, PRES, box 99, volume XIV, class 800; Thurston to Department, May 7, 1944, PRES, box 99, volume XIV, class 800; Thurston, untitled memorandum, May 8, 1944, PRES, box 99, volume XIV, class 800; Thurston to Department, May 8, 1944, PRES, box 99, volume XIV, class 800; Thurston to Department, May 8, 1944, PRES, box 99, volume XIV, class 800; Thurston to Department, May 9, 1944, PRES, box 99, volume XIV, class 800; AFM, Memorandum on Political Situation, May 10, 1944, PRES, box 99, volume XIV, class 800; B. Dreyfus (U.S. Secretary of Legation to El Salvador), untitled memorandum, May 10, 1944, PRES, box 99, volume XIV, class 800; Thurston to Long, May 11, 1944, PRES, box 99, volume XIV, class 800; Thurston to Department, May 11, 1944, PRES, box 99, volume XIV, class 800: El Salvador; Thurston to Department, May 12, 1944, PRES, box 99, volume XIV, class 800; Thurston to Department, May 12, 1944, PRES, box 99, volume XIV, class 800. The single best study on this period is: Parkman, Nonviolent Insurrection, especially 62–79.

  68. 68.

    Drew, Memorandum for the Files, May 27, 1944, PRGU, box 106, class 800. De León Aragón, Caída de un Régimen, 175, notes the impression that the fall of Martínez made among oppositionists.

  69. 69.

    Long to Department, May 30, 1944, PRGU, box 106, class 800; Long to Department, June 16, 1944, PRGU, box 106, class 800.

  70. 70.

    Long to Department, June 22, 1944, PRGU, box 106, class 800; [SC], Memorandum for the Ambassador, June 22, 1944, PRGU, box 106, class 800; Maj. Victor R. Rose (U.S. Assistant Military Attaché) to the Military Intelligence Division, June 23, 1944, PRGU, box 106, class 800. De León Aragón offers an insiders account of the demonstrations: De León Aragón, Caída de un Régimen, 189–192.

  71. 71.

    Long to Department, June 23, 1944, PRGU, box 106, class 800.

  72. 72.

    Long to Department, June 25, 1944, PRGU, box 106, class 800; Rose to Military Intelligence Division, June 26, 1944, PRGU, box 106, class 800; Long to Department, June 26, 1944, PRGU, box 106, class 800; Hull to Long, June 27, 1944, PRGU, box 106, class 800; Long to Department, June 27, 1944, PRGU, box 106, class 800; Long to Department, June 24, 1944, PRGU, box 106, class 800; Long to Department, June 27, 1944, PRGU, box 106, class 800.

  73. 73.

    Long to Department, June 30, 1944, PRGU, box 106, class 800; Long to Department, June 30, 1944, PRGU, box 106, class 800; Long to Department, July 1, 1944, PRGU, box 106, class 800; Long to Laurence Duggan (Director of the Office of American Republic Affairs), July 4, 1944, PRGU, box 106, class 800.

  74. 74.

    Piero Gleijeses, Shattered Hope: The Guatemalan Revolution and the United States, 1944–1945 (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1991), 26.

  75. 75.

    Long to Laurence Duggan (Director of the Office of American Republic Affairs), July 4, 1944, PRGU, box 106, class 800; Long to Department, July 5, 1944, PRGU, box 106, class 800; Long to Department, July 14, 1944, PRGU, box 106, class 800; Long to Department, July 14, 1944, PRGU, box 106, class 800; Long to Department, August 15, 1944, PRGU, box 106, class 800; Long to Department, September 25, 1944, PRGU, box 107, class 800.

  76. 76.

    Long to Department, October 3, 1944, PRGU, box 107, class 800; Maj. Victor R. Rose (U.S. Assistant Military Attaché to Guatemala) to the Military Intelligence Division, Report 1324–1344, October 3, 1944, PRGU, box 107, class 800.

  77. 77.

    Cabot to Long, August 8, 1944, PRGU, box 98, class 123D; [Howland Shaw] to Long, February 19, 1944, PRGU, box 98, class 123D; Norman Armour (Acting Director of the Division of American Republic Affairs), October 10, 1944, PRGU, box 98, class 123D; Long to Armour, October 14, 1944, PRGU, box 98, class 123D.

  78. 78.

    William C. Affeld (U.S. Chargé d’Affaires to Guatemala), Memorandum starting with “Was awakened by gunfire…”, n.d. (October 1944), PRGU, box 107, class 800; Colonel Fred T. Cruse (U.S. Military Attaché to Guatemala), Memorandum, October 20, 1944, PRGU, box 107, class 800; Affeld, Memorandum starting with “The representatives of the Government…”, n.d. (October 1944), PRGU, box 107, class 800; Affeld, Memorandum starting with “At 10:30 A.M. J.H. Wilson, Jr.…”, n.d. (October 1944), PRGU, box 107, class 800; Affeld to Department, October 23, 1944, PRGU, box 107, class 800; Affeld to Gerald A. Drew (U.S. Embassy, Paris), November 1, 1944, PRGU, box 107, class 800; Unsigned letter (Department of State) to Affeld, November 17, 1944, PRGU, box 98, class 123D.

  79. 79.

    For overviews of the Somoza and Carías regimes in the postwar years, consult: Argueta, Carías, 312–328; Dodd, Carías, 210–224; Clark, The United States and Somoza; Walter, The Regime, 129–164.

  80. 80.

    Thurston to Department, June 12, 1944, PRHO, CF, box 19, volume 8, class 800; Thurston to Department, June 15, 1944, PRHO, CF, box 19, volume 8, class 800; Thurston to Department, June 16, 1944, PRHO, CF, box 19, volume 8, class 800; Thurston to Department, June 17, 1944, PRHO, CF, box 19, volume 8, class 800; Gade to Department, June 20, 1944, PRHO, CF, box 19, volume 8, class 800; Thurston to Department, July 24, 1944, PRHO, CF, box 19, volume 8, class 800; Norman Armour, Memorandum of Conversation with the Honduran Ambassador, December 13, 1944, PRHO, CF, box 19, volume 7, class 800.

  81. 81.

    An excellent study on San Pedro Sula’s role in Honduran socio-economic development is: Euraque, Reinterpreting, 1–60.

  82. 82.

    Erwin, Memorandum for the Files, December 13, 1944, PRHO, CF, box 21, volume 12, class 824.

  83. 83.

    Erwin to Department, December 26, 1944, PRHO, CF, box 19, volume 7, class 800.

  84. 84.

    Erwin to Department, July 7, 1944, PRHO, CF, box 19, volume 7, class 800. Descriptions of the purported goals of the protests, as well as the public responses of Carías and Erwin, can be found in Alexis Argentina González de Oliva, Gobernantes Hondureños. Siglos XIX y XX. Tomo I (Editorial Universitaria, 1996), 318–319.

  85. 85.

    Higgins to Department, November 3, 1933, PRHO, CF, volume 218.

  86. 86.

    Lee M. Hunsaker (U.S. Vice Consul to Puerto Cortes) to Erwin, July 15, 1944, PRHO, CF, box 19, volume 7, class 800. According to the Honduran historian Darío Euraque, the circumstances of the shooting remain unclear, but Liberal writers claim that Gálvez ordered the massacre. Euraque, Reinterpreting, 170, note 61.

  87. 87.

    Euraque, Reinterpreting, 39.

  88. 88.

    Hunsaker to Erwin, July 15, 1944, PRHO, CF, box 19, volume 7, class 800.

  89. 89.

    Erwin to Department, July 26, 1944, PRHO, CF, box 19, volume 7, class 800.

  90. 90.

    Cabot to Rockefeller, Memorandum on Certain Unfavorable Factors in our inter-American Relations, December 13, 1944, Lot Files, General Memoranda, box 9, folder marked November to December, 1944.

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    Jorrit van den Berk

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van den Berk, J. (2018). The Casualties of War: The Central American Upheavals of 1944. In: Becoming a Good Neighbor among Dictators. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-69986-8_7

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