Flag of the United States of Venezuela

Ministry of Foreign Affairs

15 April, 1936

Minister Esteban Gil Borges has travelled to Berlin by boat, appearing rather suddenly after Black Monday. He comes with a dossier of economic news, entirely written in Spanish. In it, he has today's speaking schedules with some of the major/important talking points for the duo's discussion within.

• Black Monday

Black Monday surely has hit us all, but we fear that our continued previous agreements may have to be altered to better suit both nations. Firstly, we cannot maintain any exclusive trade deals with any nation moving forward without immense domestic support, more to follow below, but we would like some guarantees from Germany that they are working dutifully to secure the situation domestically. Our two nation's are so closely tied at this time economically, we are interested in maintaining our relations but would like to move to become more independent.

• Domestic Support

If any trade deal is to become exclusive, major changes are required within Venezuela. We are interested in growing our navy as well as air force but more so beyond that, we are interested in expanding domestic arms production. If Germany does want lucrative deals, to put it plainly...

• If Germany wishes for a lucrative opportunity, we require the following
  • Domestic Arms Manufacturing (Not only industrial help but also blueprints, preferably modern)
  • Assisting with a standing Air Force and Navy (Ships, trainers and helping us build our own manufacturing)
  • Artillery, Vehicular and General Military Manufacturing (We would greatly appreciate this so that we may better defend ourselves, our assets as well as your assets)

These are by no means demands, simply requirements if these opportunities were to be pushed out.

• The Matter of Oil

The oil in Venezuela is exploited, refined and shipped almost entirely by German Companies. We would like to negotiate enabling these workers to remain within Venezuela and the ownership to shift to the United States of Venezuela.

We're more than willing to work with Germany on how this transpires, but we do insist the control be shifted to Venezuela. In exchange for this, we're willing to house and have whatever workers Germany needs to come to Venezuela, gain their experience and return. We'd simply like a time-table however for Venezuelans to shadow and apprentice over Germans for the next 2-3 years before taking their positions. By 1938, we hope that all lower-workers will be joint Venezuelan and German while the upper-echelons of these sites will be watched by Venezuelans.

Oil will still flow to Germany, of course. It's only a question of how much.