In December, 1907, a Central American Peace Conference was
held at Washington, between delegates representing the five
Central American republics--Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras,
Nicaragua, and Salvador. Mexico and the United States were
invited to participate in a friendly capacity and accepted
the invitation. The conference grew out of the initiative
taken during the previous summer by the presidents of the
United States and Mexico, in an endeavor to secure an
adjustment of then pending disputes between several of these
republics, in some form that would secure permanent peace
among them and foster their development. The conference was
called together by the following note of the Secretary of
State, addressed to the delegates:
DEPARTMENT OF STATE,
WASHINGTON, November 11, 1907.
EXCELLENCIES: The plenipotentiaries of the five
Central American republics of Costa Rica, Guatemala,
Honduras, Nicaragua, and Salvador, appointed by their
respective Governments in pursuance of the protocol
signed in Washington on September 17, 1907, having
arrived in the city of Washington for the purposes
of the conference contemplated in the said protocol, I
have the honor to request that the said plenipotentiaries,
together with the representatives of the United Mexican
States and of the United States of America, appointed
pursuant to the second article of said protocol, convene
in the building of the Bureau of American Republics in
the city of Washington, on the fourteenth day of
November, instant, at half past two in the afternoon.
I avail myself of this opportunity to offer to Your
Excellencies the assurances of my highest consideration.