Cuba and Panama declare war on Germany

On Saturday 7 April 1917, only a day after the United States declared war on Germany, its two nearest neighbours followed its lead. In Havana both houses of the Cuban Congress resolved unanimously that a state of war existed between the Republic of Cuba and the German Empire. On the same day the president of Panama, Ramón Maximiliano Valdés, issued a proclamation announcing that his country would stand beside the United States against its enemies. These were the first Latin American states to enter the war.

Havana: a unanimous vote

The Cuban government did not wait on events. As early as 4 February, when Washington broke off relations with Germany, President Mario García Menocal assured the American minister, William Gonzales, that everything Cuba possessed, morally and materially, was at the disposal of the United States, and that he would break with Germany at whatever moment the Americans thought fit. Havana answered the German note on unrestricted submarine warfare with a sharp protest. On 5 April, while Congress in Washington was still debating, the Cuban secretary of state, Pablo Desvernine, instructed his minister to tell the Americans that the president had already ordered a message to be drafted asking for authority to declare the republic in a state of war with Germany, and had summoned the presiding officers of both houses and the political leaders to secure prompt approval.

Congress met on 7 April at four in the afternoon. In his message Menocal recalled Germany’s violations of international law and of the rights of neutrals. Cuba, he wrote, could not remain indifferent to such enormous violations, which at any moment might cost the lives and property of its citizens, nor stand apart from the United States, “to which we are bound by sacred ties of gratitude and brotherhood”. Neutrality would force it to treat both sides alike and close its ports to them, and that would run counter to public opinion and to its obligations, “moral rather than legal”, towards the Americans. After thirty minutes the Senate passed the bill unanimously. The House of Representatives passed it at a quarter past six, also unanimously, the deputies voting standing amid cheers. The preamble of the law spoke of the “historic ties and gratitude” that called on Cuba to take up the fight where the United States was fighting for the freedom of the seas, freedom of trade, respect for the rights of neutrals and international justice. The first article declared a state of war from that day and authorised the president to use all the forces and resources of the state. The law came into force that same night, on publication in the official gazette.

Ships in harbour

The most urgent matter was the German merchant ships that had lain interned in Cuban ports since 1914. Menocal wanted to wait for the vote in Congress before seizing them, but at four in the afternoon he was told that the crews intended to scuttle the vessels at the entrance to Havana harbour, and that fires had been lit under the boilers of the steamer Bavaria. The president ordered the ships to be taken over at once. On the Bavaria two boilers had already been wrecked. The officers and seamen were locked up in the fortress of La Cabaña. That same night troops occupied a German-owned hemp twine factory near Matanzas, where some kind of activity was suspected and where a German officer was staying. On Gonzales’s advice the government ordered the registration of all Germans on the island and the arrest of German reserve officers. The minister asked Washington above all for fast motor boats to patrol the coast and the many islets where submarine bases might be hidden.

It was not only ideals that lay behind Havana’s decision. Since gaining independence in 1902 Cuba had been bound to Washington by the Platt Amendment, which gave the Americans the right to intervene on the island. Menocal, re-elected in November 1916 amid charges of fraud, had since February been suppressing a Liberal rising led by the former president José Miguel Gómez, and American support had helped him greatly in this. According to some historians, entering the war was also meant to strengthen his standing in Washington’s eyes. On 5 April Desvernine gave assurances that the rebels were laying down their arms by the hundred and the country would soon be calm. Wilson, in a telegram to Menocal, praised the unanimity with which the Cubans had “without hesitation joined their fortunes” with the nations defending the rights and liberties of all mankind.

Panama: the president’s proclamation

In Panama the decision was taken differently, because the country had even less freedom of action. The United States guaranteed its independence under a treaty of 1903, and through the middle of the country ran the Panama Canal, opened in August 1914 and surrounded by the American Canal Zone. As early as 1914 the two states had signed a protocol on the rules of the canal’s neutrality. Germany had no legation in Panama, only consuls. After 3 February the Zone authorities detained the officers and crews of the German ships lying in the port of Colón and put American guards on board. On 24 February the National Assembly unanimously passed a resolution that Panama could not remain indifferent in any conflict in which the United States became involved, and Law No. 46 of 1917 gave the president full powers in the event of war.

On the evening of 6 April Valdés sent a telegram to Wilson, and the next day he issued his proclamation. The Congress of the United States, he wrote, had recognised the existence of a state of war with Germany, and this imposed on Panama “grave and unavoidable duties”. If any other country had been concerned, Panama would have maintained strict neutrality. But since the conflict involved the state that guaranteed its independence and had built on its soil a work indispensable to the commerce of the whole world, neutrality was impossible. Panama was to be the “natural ally” of the United States, and its citizens should facilitate the operations of American forces on the country’s territory. At the same time the government withdrew the exequaturs of the German consuls, and the decree on the matter, carried out by 9 April, described Panama and Germany as belligerents.

The text of the proclamation spoke of cooperation with the Americans rather than of war outright, so on 9 April Secretary of State Robert Lansing asked the minister, William Jennings Price, whether in Panama it was regarded as a declaration of war on Germany. Price replied the next day that it was, and that the president himself had confirmed this in the presence of the foreign minister. Lansing conveyed to the Panamanians Wilson’s satisfaction at their “spontaneous” step. According to Panamanian sources the Americans detained German nationals in the country and interned them on the island of Taboga, from where they were taken to the United States.

Neighbours of the United States

Cuba and Panama were the only Latin American states to enter the war in the first days after Washington’s decision. Both lay in the zone of strongest American influence, and their economies and security depended on the United States. Most of the continent confined itself to protests against submarine warfare. Brazil broke off relations with Germany on 11 April, after the sinking of its ship Paraná, Bolivia two days later, and Guatemala at the end of April. Argentina, Chile and Mexico remained neutral to the end of the war.

The military significance of the two declarations was slight. Cuba handed the seized German ships over to the Americans, and its most important contribution turned out to be sugar. In the summer of 1917 American marines arrived on the island, officially for training, in practice to protect the sugar-cane plantations from the remnants of the rebels. According to some sources Cuba introduced conscription in 1918 and prepared a contingent for France, but the war ended before it set out. Panama gave the Americans freedom of action in defending the canal. On 10 December 1917 it also declared war on Austria-Hungary, and Cuba did so on 16 December.