[Editor’s note: This document was released both as a State Department cable as part of its 1981 FOIA release, and as Serial 210 of the FBI’s RYMUR release.
[The original State Department release withheld all but the first three lines of text from this cable under the national security exemption. The deleted text is denoted in red type.
[The text for this document was released in 2014 by the now-defunct Wikileaks website at https://wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/1978CARACA11070_d.html.]
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CARACA 11070 230008Z
ACTION ARA-15
INFO OCT-01 ISO-00 SCS-06 CA-01 FBIE-00 JUSE-00 L-03
CIAE-00 INR-10 NSAE-00 SY-05 MCT-02 H-01 SSO-00
INRE-00 /044 W
——————026137 230012Z /23
O 222350Z NOV 78
FM AMEMBASSY CARACAS
TO SECSTATE WASHDC NIACT IMMEDIATE 4739
C O N F I D E N T I A L CARACAS 11070
E.O. 11652: GDS
TAGS: CASC, OREP, GY
SUBJECT: GUYANA SITUATION: POSSIBLE ENTRY INTO VENEZUELA OF U.S. CITIZENS
REF: STATE 295993
1. AFTER READING IN THE PAPER THIS MORNING THAT THE MINISTER OF INTERIOR HAD ALERTED BORDER PATROLS TO LOOK OUT FOR REFUGEES FROM THE JONESTOWN COMMUNITY, I TALKED TO INTERIOR MINISTER [MANUEL] MANTILLA. MANTILLA SAID HE HAD GIVEN INSTRUCTIONS ALONG THE BORDER TO KEEP A CLOSE LOOKOUT FOR ANY PERSONS ENTERING VENEZUELA FROM GUYANA. HE SAID THE NATIONAL GUARD, WHICH COVERS THE BORDER, WILL MAKE A SPECIAL EFFORT. I TOLD HIM THAT WE HAD BEEN IN TOUCH WITH THE MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS ON THIS MATTER (CARACAS 11013) AND THAT I WAS DESIROUS OF KEEPING IN TOUCH. I ASKED MANTILLA WHAT INSTRUCTIONS HAD BEEN GIVEN FOR HANDLING U.S. CITIZENS. HE SAID THEY WOULD BE TAKEN INTO PROTECTIVE CUSTODY AND HE ASSURED ME THAT HE WOULD KEEP IN TOUCH WITH ME DIRECTLY SHOULD ANY CITIZENS BE FOUND ACROSS THE BORDER.
2. COMMENT. I THINK THE VENEZUELANS ARE LIKELY TO BE VERY COOPERATIVE SHOULD ANY U.S. CITIZENS CROSS THE BORDER. MANTILLA IS AN OLD FRIEND WHO WILL, I AM SURE, INFORM ME IMMEDIATELY.
LUERS [William Luers, American Ambassador to Venezuela]
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