The treaty remained effective from its signing on 7 February 1923 until it was denounced by the Central American Court of Justice in 1934.

[2] The five nations of Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua agreed to draft a new treaty with a similar function and were invited by United States President Warren G. Harding on 4 December 1922 to draft and sign the treaty in Washington D.C.[4][5] The treaty outlined that no signatory nation would recognize any government which arose in any other signatory nation which rose to power via a revolution or a coup d'état.

[5] The United States did not sign the treaty, but did follow its terms as displayed when the it refused to recognize the change of government in El Salvador when General Maximiliano Hernández Martínez overthrew the democratically elected President, Arturo Araujo, on 2 December 1931.

[2][4] In 1934, the Central American Court of Justice denounced the treaty, effectively ending its legality in all five nations.

[4]Desiring to make secure in the Republics of Central America the benefits which are derived from the maintenance of free institutions and to contribute at the same time toward strengthening their stability and the prestige with which they should be surrounded, they declare that every act, disposition or measure which alters the constitutional organization in any of them is to be deemed a menace to the peace of said Republics, whether it proceeded from any public power of from the private citizens.