T mIE PRESERVATION of peace and stability and the protection of the Panama Canal approaches were the principal goals of United States diplomacy in the Caribbean during the administration of President Theodore Roosevelt. One of the most serious impediments to the realization of these goals was the diplomatic conduct pursued by Venezuela and its capricious ruler, Cipriano Castro. The failure of the Caracas government to honor faithfully its financial obligations had provoked a stormy diplomatic episode in 1902-1903 when Germany, Italy, and Great Britain threatened forceful intervention in Venezuela to secure satisfaction. Such hostility brought forth the decisive hand of President Roosevelt to ensure a prompt and orderly settlement. The so-called Venezuelan claims controversy of 1902-1903 has interested students and scholars alike, who have recounted the episode in numerous publications.1 Less attention, however, has been directed toward the events following 1903 when Venezuela's behavior failed to improve, and another diplomatic controversy erupted causing the United States again to focus attention upon the turbulent Castro regime. This second Venezuelan controversy posed a diplomatic conundrum to President Roosevelt and his Secretaries of State, John Hay and later Elihu Root, as they labored toward a satisfactory solution. In January 1904, Venezuela appeared secure and peaceful when Herbert W. Bowen, United States minister to Caracas, returned to his diplomatic post. The minister expected that Venezuela's relations with foreign countries would take a more acceptable course now that the claims controversy was nearing a final settlement. Following his return, Bowen held an interview with President Castro during which Castro a ssrance that claims would be honored and that * The author is Assistant Professor of History at Sa.n Jose State College. 1 Howard K. Beale, Theodore Roosevelt and the Rise of America to World Power (Baltimore, 1956), 339-370; Chester L. Jones, The Caribbean Since 1900 (New York, 1936), 208-262; Dana G. Munro, Intervention and Dollar Diplomacy in the Caribbean (Princeton, 1964), 65-77. For exploits of Castro see Mariano Pic6n-Salas, Los dias de Cipriano Castro (Caracas, 1953).