Cuban Revolution Flashcards
Renata Keller
- “A Foreign Policy for Domestic Consumption”
- US was not the primary determinant of Mexico’s Cold War or Mexico’s relations with Cuba, US role was more accommodating than decisive
Jaime Pensado
- government official and conservative political elites funded private parties, acts of vandalism, and other extralegal activities that distracted students and delegitimised their politics
Daivd Garza (1964)
described the situation of the Mexican Left as “one of deep-seated division both in theoretical and tactical approaches”
Jurgen Burchenau
- spectres of Soviet influence and US intervention helped shape political discourses that legitimised brutal repression of dissent and delegitimised popular protest movements
- anti-interventionist rhetoric of the Mexican government served to legitimise its pro-US position in the Cold War
US Embassy on PRI (Aug 1960)
“PRI leadership for the most part has lost its revolutionary fervour”
US Embassy on impact of Cuban Revolution (Aug 1961)
“The Cuban Revolution offered the pretext for the stepping up of leftist agitation and propaganda”
US telegram on Mexican-Cuban-US relations (Sept 1968)
“informal understanding”
“[Mexico should] maintain relations with Cuba so one OAS country can have a foot in the door which might sometime be helpful”
“Students have found that
they are able to exert some degree of influence on the affairs of the nation and make themselves heard” (Sept 1968)
Lopez Mateos on Mexican CW position (Dec 1961)
“In an epoch in which the world is separated into two blocs, my government has made every effort to keep Mexico free from this world controversy”
Significance of Cuban Revolution in Mexico
(1) destabilising force: Castro’s dedication to many of the same nationalist and populist causes that Mexican revolutionaries had originally pursued in the early 20th century called attention to the fact that the government had abandoned those promises
(2) decision of Mexican leaders to maintain relations with Cuba was a consequence of the central tension of Mexican politics that Castro and his revolutionaries exposed: that between the country’s revolutionary past and its conservative present
When was López Mateos president?
1958-64
López Mateos assertions regarding his administration?
“on the extreme left within the Constitution”
K S Karol’s description of Cárdenas
“Joan of Arc and Robespierre of Mexico”
“Cárdenas represents a force of great weight in Mexican politics … If he sends out a new call to the people … the entire nation will follow”
When was the Latin American Peace Conference?
March 1961
significance of Latin Am Peace Conference?
(1) important international efforts to harness the momentum of the Cuban Revolution
(2) attempt to extend perceived achievements of Cuban Rev throughout Latin America”
When was the MLN established?
July 1961
What was the programme of the MLN?
(1) revitalisation of revolutionary measures
(2) full application of the 1917 Constitution
(3) total agrarian reform
(4) trade union and ejidal autonomy and democracy
(5) solidarity with Cuba
(6) opposition to US imperialism
Mexican officials try to bribe MLN typist…
Oct 1962: Ricardo Martínez Tapia approached by officials, offered to pay twice his monthly wage in exchange for information
When was the CCI established?
Jan 1963
What does the CCI stand for?
Central Campesina Independiente
CCI slogan
“Campesino: if the organisation to which you belong to does not defend your interests, abandon it”
Estrada Doctrine (1930)
(1) foreign governments should not judge positively or negatively the governments or changes in governments of other states, as to do so would imply a breach of sovereignty
(2) based on the principles of national self-determination, non-intervention, and peaceful resolution of disputes
Mexican policy on the Guatemalan Revolution
(1) invoked the policy of non-intervention and abstain from voting in the OAS meeting
(2) abstract defence of the national self-determination served to mask its own anti-communist policies
(3) Ruiz Cortínez later approved requests of refugees for asylum, including Jacobo Árbenz
Pater Smith
“pre-empted any move on the radical wing of the PRI and isolated the anti-establishment left”
Triangular Relationsip
(1) tolerated semi-underground network between Cuba and Mexico; functioned as important passage for people, money and contraband trade
(2) US and Mexican intelligence agencies carried out intensive cooperation: monitored Castro and his affiliates, Mexico actively cooperated with US attempts to weaken Castro regime
Representations of Dirty War by media and government
guerrillas action presented as expressions of social deviance or organised criminality
increasing political frustration 1960s
(1) 1967: PAN won municipality near Monterrey but PRI reimposed own mayor
(2) 1967: PAN won Hermosillo but PRI insisted on triumph of own candidate
(3) 1968: elections in Baja California annulled due to irregularities, PRI claimed victory
PAX PRIísta
period full of contentions and challenges to state, however dissent movements were never nationwide and PRI effectively maintained hegemony
student demands / greivances
(1) police brutality
(2) release of arrested students
(3) recognition of university autonomy
(3) dismissal of Chief of Police and Mayor Mexico City
