Cuban Revolution

Question 1

Renata Keller

Answer 1

1. “A Foreign Policy for Domestic Consumption”
2. US was not the primary determinant of Mexico’s Cold War or Mexico’s relations with Cuba, US role was more accommodating than decisive

Question 2

Jaime Pensado

Answer 2

1. government official and conservative political elites funded private parties, acts of vandalism, and other extralegal activities that distracted students and delegitimised their politics

Question 3

Daivd Garza (1964)

Answer 3

described the situation of the Mexican Left as “one of deep-seated division both in theoretical and tactical approaches”

Question 4

Jurgen Burchenau

Answer 4

1. spectres of Soviet influence and US intervention helped shape political discourses that legitimised brutal repression of dissent and delegitimised popular protest movements
2. anti-interventionist rhetoric of the Mexican government served to legitimise its pro-US position in the Cold War

Question 5

US Embassy on PRI (Aug 1960)

Answer 5

“PRI leadership for the most part has lost its revolutionary fervour”

Question 6

US Embassy on impact of Cuban Revolution (Aug 1961)

Answer 6

“The Cuban Revolution offered the pretext for the stepping up of leftist agitation and propaganda”

Question 7

US telegram on Mexican-Cuban-US relations (Sept 1968)

Answer 7

“informal understanding”

“[Mexico should] maintain relations with Cuba so one OAS country can have a foot in the door which might sometime be helpful”

Question 8

“Students have found that

Answer 8

they are able to exert some degree of influence on the affairs of the nation and make themselves heard” (Sept 1968)

Question 9

Lopez Mateos on Mexican CW position (Dec 1961)

Answer 9

“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”

Question 10

Significance of Cuban Revolution in Mexico

Answer 10

(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

Question 11

When was López Mateos president?

Answer 11

1958-64

Question 12

López Mateos assertions regarding his administration?

Answer 12

“on the extreme left within the Constitution”

Question 13

K S Karol’s description of Cárdenas

Answer 13

“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”

Question 14

When was the Latin American Peace Conference?

Answer 14

March 1961

Question 15

significance of Latin Am Peace Conference?

Answer 15

(1) important international efforts to harness the momentum of the Cuban Revolution
(2) attempt to extend perceived achievements of Cuban Rev throughout Latin America”

Question 16

When was the MLN established?

Answer 16

July 1961

Question 17

What was the programme of the MLN?

Answer 17

(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

Question 18

Mexican officials try to bribe MLN typist…

Answer 18

Oct 1962: Ricardo Martínez Tapia approached by officials, offered to pay twice his monthly wage in exchange for information

Question 19

When was the CCI established?

Answer 19

Jan 1963

Question 20

What does the CCI stand for?

Answer 20

Central Campesina Independiente

Question 21

CCI slogan

Answer 21

“Campesino: if the organisation to which you belong to does not defend your interests, abandon it”

Question 22

Estrada Doctrine (1930)

Answer 22

(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

Question 23

Mexican policy on the Guatemalan Revolution

Answer 23

(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

Question 24

Pater Smith

Answer 24

“pre-empted any move on the radical wing of the PRI and isolated the anti-establishment left”

Question 25

Triangular Relationsip

Answer 25

(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

Question 26

Representations of Dirty War by media and government

Answer 26

guerrillas action presented as expressions of social deviance or organised criminality

Question 27

increasing political frustration 1960s

Answer 27

(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

Question 28

PAX PRIísta

Answer 28

period full of contentions and challenges to state, however dissent movements were never nationwide and PRI effectively maintained hegemony

Question 29

student demands / greivances

Answer 29

(1) police brutality
(2) release of arrested students
(3) recognition of university autonomy
(3) dismissal of Chief of Police and Mayor Mexico City