There
was an old scoundrel Zalaya,
Quite
noted for being a slaya;
But now that he’s got
Uncle
Sam on the trot
He’s
not very much of a staya.
c.
Dec. 3, ‘09
José Santos Zelaya López (1 November 1853 Managua –
17 May 1919 New York City) was the President of Nicaragua from
25 July 1893 to 21 December 1909.
José Zelaya had ambitions of reuniting the Federal
Republic of Central America, with, he hoped, himself as national president.
With this aim in mind, he gave aid to liberal federalist factions in other
Central American nations. This threatened to create a full scale Central
American war which would endanger the United States Panamanian canal and give
European nations, such as Germany, an excuse to intervene to protect the
collection of their bank's payments in the region or if failing that then
demand a land concession.
The Zelaya administration had growing friction
with the United States government, for example while the French government had
inquired to the U.S. whether a loan to Nicaragua would be deemed unfriendly,
the U.S. secretary of state required the loan to be conditional on U.S.
relations. After the loan was pending on the Paris stock exchange, the U.S.
further isolated Nicaragua by claiming any money Zelaya would receive
"would be without doubt spent to purchase munitions to oppress his
neighbors" and in "hostility to peace and progress in Central
America." The US State Department also demanded that all investments in
Central America would also need be approved by the U.S. as a means to protect
U.S. interests and to overthrow president Zelaya according to a French
minister.
The U.S. started giving aid to his Conservative
and Liberal opponents in Nicaragua who broke out in open rebellion in October
1909, led by Liberal General Juan J. Estrada. Nicaragua sent its forces into Costa
Rica to suppress Estrada's pro U.S. destabilizing forces, but U.S.
officials deemed the incursion as an affront to Estrada's aims and attempted to
coerce Costa Rica into acting first against Nicaragua, but Foreign Minister
Ricardo Fernández Guardia assured Calvo that Costa Rica was determined
"not to enter such dangerous actions as those proposed by
Washington." It "considered the joint action proposed contrary to the
Washington treaty and desired to maintain a neutral attitude." Costa
Rican officials considered the United States a more serious threat to Central
American peace and harmony than Zelaya's Nicaragua. Costa Rica Foreign Minister
Fernández Guardia insisted, "We do not understand here what interests can
the Washington government have that Costa Rica assumes a resolutely aggressive
position against Nicaragua, with the danger of compromising the observation of
the...conventions of December 20, 1907.... It is in Central America's interest
that U.S. action with respect to Nicaragua should assume the character of an
international conflict and in no sense the character of an intervention
tolerated and even less solicited or supported by the other signatory republics
of the Washington Treaty.
Officers of Zelaya's government executed some
captured rebels; two United States mercenaries were among them, and the U.S.
government declared their execution grounds for a diplomatic break between the
countries which later led to formal intervention. At the start of December, United
States Marines landed in Nicaragua's Bluefields port, supposedly
to create a neutral zone to protect foreign lives and property but which also
acted as a base of operations for the anti-Zelayan rebels. On 17 December 1909,
Zelaya turned over power to José Madriz and fled to Spain. Madriz
called for continued struggle against the mercenaries, but in August 1910
diplomat Thomas Dawson obtained the withdrawal of Madriz. Thereafter the U.S.
called for a constituent assembly to write a constitution for Nicaragua and the
vacant presidency was filled by a series of Conservative politicians including Adolfo
Diaz. During this time, through free trade and loans, the U.S.
exercised strong control over the country.
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