[Editor’s note: This is a lengthy document reporting on all Embassy activities and expenditures in 1977. The immigration of “approximately 1000 Americans” was only one of its challenges. It is also the only section relevant to Peoples Temple. While the PDF is complete, then, and the text at the URL above is also complete, this document excerpts only the paragraph which discusses the Peoples Temple agricultural project. It is not known if the reference at the end of the paragraph to “one arrest case” refers to a member of Peoples Temple.
[The text for this document was released in 2014 by the now-defunct Wikileaks website at https://wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/1978GEORGE00562_d.html. This URL may be available through the Wayback Machine.]
UNCLASSIFIED
PAGE 01 GEORGE 00562 01 OF 07 161535Z
ACTION CA-01
INFO OCT-01 ARA-14 ISO-00 SCS-06 PPTE-00 VOE-00 A-01 MMO-04 SY-05 ABF-01 PER-05 SS-15 NSC-05 /058 W
——————044641 161841Z /42
R 161330Z FEB 78
FM AMEMBASSY GEORGETOWN
TO SECSTATE WASHDC 6240
UNCLAS SECTION 1 OF 7 GEORGETOWN 0562
FOR ARA/MGT/M/MO AND CA/EX
E.O. 11652: N/A
TAGS: CGEN, APER, ABUD
SUBJECT: FY 1980 CONSULAR PACKAGE
REF: STATE 019521
…
Since August, 1977 an American quasi religious organization has brought approximately 1,000 Americans to Guyana to settle in an agricultural community carved out of the jungle in Guyana’s remote Northwest District. This movement has created a heavy influx of welfare/whereabouts inquiries, numerous requests for information, several child custody disputes including one very lengthy child custody case (still unresolved) with heavy Congressional interest, and a substantial increase in the number of Treasury checks and requests for action by the Social Security Administration. Embassy officers have had to visit this remote community three times in recent months. Henceforth, unless required by emergencies to visit the community more often, a consular officer is required to visit it at least quarterly to perform statutory consular services and respond to inquiries from relatives in the United States for information about the health and well being of members of the community. The presence of this group will also increase the number of reports of birth and death. Approximately 200 senior citizens ranging in age from 60 to 106 years are at the community. Finally, we have had one arrest case which initially required several man days of work during the early stages of arrest and trial and of course still requires one visit per month which normally occupies an officer for half a man day.