Honduras breaks off relations with Germany

On 17 May 1917 the President of Honduras, Francisco Bertrand, issued a decree announcing that the country was joining the United States and breaking off diplomatic relations with the German government. A second decree, issued “for public safety”, placed the republic under a state of siege. The American minister, John Ewing, cabled the news from Tegucigalpa that same afternoon. The foreign minister, Mariano Vásquez, wrote the same day to the Secretary of State, Robert Lansing, that Honduras, guided by its friendship with the United States, common interests and “a feeling of American solidarity”, had decided to join the cause the Americans were defending. He offered them “decided co-operation” in every possible way and readiness to conclude a convention on the matter if Washington thought one necessary.

Tegucigalpa went down this road cautiously. When in February the United States broke off relations with Germany, the Honduran minister assured Ewing of his sympathy for the step and announced that his government would respond together with the other Central American states. The American minister warned Washington, however, that German influence in Honduras was strong, because the Germans controlled the port of Amapala on the Gulf of Fonseca and had substantial investments in the country. He asked whether he could promise Honduras American protection in case of future aggression, but Lansing replied that the United States could give no such guarantee. The Germans had no minister of their own in Tegucigalpa. Their minister Curt Lehmann, accredited to several governments of the region, resided in Guatemala and was handed his passports when Guatemala broke off relations with Germany at the end of April.

At the beginning of May Bertrand was still hesitating. In a conversation with Ewing on 5 May he promised co-operation “in every possible way”, but without violating the Washington treaty of 1907. That agreement, concluded by the Central American republics under the auspices of the United States and Mexico, proclaimed the neutrality of Honduras in conflicts between its neighbours, and in Tegucigalpa it was held to oblige the country to be the last in the region to become a belligerent. The president added that Honduras had concluded no alliance and would conclude one only with the United States. On 9 May Argentina invited the Latin American states to a conference on a common policy towards the war, and Honduras accepted the invitation, stipulating that the aim was joint support for the Americans. Lansing then instructed Ewing to point out discreetly that Cuba, Panama, Guatemala, Brazil and Bolivia had already defined their policy, so such a conference would not express the feeling of Latin America, and to add that Washington was following Honduras’s attitude “with the greatest attention”. Five days later Bertrand issued the decree.

The Honduran economy at that time depended on the United States more than on anyone else. On the Caribbean coast, around ports such as La Ceiba (PL) and Puerto Cortés (PL), American banana companies operated, including the United Fruit Company, building railways and controlling a large part of exports. The break with Germany had no military significance, but it confirmed that Central America stood on Washington’s side. On 20 June Lansing accepted the Honduran offer as proof of friendship and of the will to defend the principles on which the free democratic governments of America rest. Honduras declared war on Germany only on 19 July 1918.