[Editor’s note: This document was released both as a State Department cable as part of its 1981 FOIA release, and as Serial 53 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/1978CARACA11013_d.html. This URL may be available through the Wayback Machine.]
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CARACA 11013 221332Z
ACTION ARA-15
INFO OCT-01 ISO-00 SY-05 SYE-00 USSS-00 MCT-02 FBIE-00
SCS-06 CA-01 JUSE-00 TRSE-00 SSO-00 NSCE-00
INRE-00 ICAE-00 CIAE-00 DODE-00 PM-05 H-01 INR-10
L-03 NSAE-00 NSC-05 PA-01 SP-02 SS-15 /072 W
——————011488 221337Z /53
O 221200Z NOV 78
FM AMEMBASSY CARACAS
TO SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 4723
INFO AMEMBASSY GEORGETOWN IMMEDIATE
C O N F I D E N T I A L CARACAS 11013
E.O. 11652: GDS
TAGS: CASC, OREP, GY
SUBJECT: GUYANA SITUATION
REF: STATE 294162
1. Polcouns briefed FON Ministry Director of International Policy, Ambassador Ponce, (Assistant Secretary Level) about the situation in Jonesville [Jonestown] and about the actions which USG [U.S. Government] has taken and intends to take.
2. Polcouns gave map to Ambassador Ponce showing the location of Jonesville, pointing out that this was very close to the Venezuelan border and that many rivers and streams flow from this area into Venezuela, ultimately into the Orinoco delta. Polcouns stated that several hundred of the AMCIT [American citizens] population of Jonesville had fled into the jungle and were still unaccounted for. He said that it was possible that some of these people might enter Venezuelan territory, most probably
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CARACA 11013 221332Z
by boat. He asked Ambassador Ponce to alert the appropriate Venezuelan authorities to this possibility and ask that they inform the Embassy if any such Americans appear.
3. Ponce said he was grateful for the briefing and said that he would immediately inform the ministries of interior and defense so that they could alert their representatives along the Guyanese border.
4. We did not rpt not ask Venezuelans to detain or arrest any Americans who wander across the border from Guyana.
5. Action requested; please furnish further guidance concerning what the Embassy should request the Venezuelan government to do if any Americans from Jonesville turn up in Venezuelan territory.
Luers [William Luers, American Ambassador to Venezuela]
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