[Editor’s note: This document was released both as a State Department cable as part of its 1981 FOIA release, and as Serial 692 of the FBI’s RYMUR release.
[The text for this document was released in 2014 by the now-defunct Wikileaks website at https://wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/1978GEORGE04001_d.html.]
LIMITED OFFICIAL USE
PAGE 01
GEORGE 04001 300401Z
ACTION ARA-15
INFO OCT-01 ISO-00 SCS-06 H-01 CA-01 CIAE-00 INR-10 NSAE-00 FBIE-00 JUSE-00 /034 W
——————016950 010146Z /21
R 292005Z NOV 78
FM AMEMBASSY GEORGETOWN
TO SECSTATE WASHDC 8264
LIMITED OFFICIAL USE GEORGETOWN 4001
FOR ARA DEP. ASST. SEC. BUSHNELL
E.O. 11652: N/A
TAGS: CASC, OREP (RYAN) GY
SUBJECT: LETTERS OF REFERENCE ON BEHALF OF REVEREND JIM JONES AND PEOPLE TEMPLE.
During a meeting morning 29th with Formin [Foreign Minister] Rashleigh Jackson I referred to the letters of reference from prominent Americans which Minister [of State Christopher] Nascimento, in his New York press statement, claimed had provided at least a partial basis for GOG’s [Government of Guyana] original decision to permit Jones and the Peoples Temple to locate in Guyana. I asked the foreign minister if he might make available to the embassy copies of these letters of reference. Jackson replied that the letters were not in the files of the Foreign Office; however, he would refer request to the Ministry of Information and promised that the GOG would make copies available, assuming that they could be readily located.
Burke [John Burke, U.S. Ambassador to Guyana]
LIMITED OFFICIAL USE