Cold War Effect on Mexico

The Cold War Effect on Mexico
The reasons for the Cold War-related influences in Mexico in 1968 were multiple, but foremost of all was the fact that communism occupied a prominent position in the struggle between Mexican youth and their government. A local understanding of communism won out over the global characterization advanced by the United States. In addition, US anti-communist influence failed to have the desired effect in Mexico, and pro-communist positions resided throughout Latin America for reasons that had little to do with the Cold War and much to do with regional issues. Communists might ally themselves with all manner of other leftists to achieve a much larger goal within a particular country, but an alliance was never a case of agreement. But the communists in Mexico were neither political outcasts, or the socialist that they sometimes were in the United States.
The Cuban Revolution in 1959 and Fidel Castro’s conversion to communism brought issues to the forefront of Mexican politics. The Cuban Revolution put the Mexican government between the proverbial rock and a hard place. The rock was the United States, whose determined, public opposition to the Cuban Revolution and Castro government helped shape a decade of United States - Latin American relations. The hard place was Mexican public opinion that saw in the Cuban events something akin to the Mexican Revolution of 1910-1917, and thus something positive and worthy of support. After Castro allied himself with the Soviet Union, the United States attempted to isolate Cuba from the community of nations. Mexico refused to sever ties with Cuba despite much pressure from and repeated efforts by the United States to expel Cuba from the Organization of American States. A 1964 vote imposed sanctions against Cuba and required all member states to comply. Mexico’s ruling party, seeking to avoid confrontation, refused.
Communist and socialist political parties operated relatively openly in Mexico and had an influence in labor unions, on university campuses, and in intellectual and artistic circles. Secondly, even United States embassy and intelligence-gathering personnel did not accept Diaz Ordaz’s claims of communist control. This skeptical assessment from American officials, reveals the danger in crying communist. Diaz Ordaz sought to use communist conspiracy allegations to gain political legitimacy for his repressive handling of the student movement, but instead only undermined his image among American officials.
During the Cold War in Latin America, the most routine elements of national life like newspaper editorials, and labor negotiations were dominated by the sense of bipolarity. When the Cold War came to Latin America, filtering of all aspects of national life through North American and Soviet Cold War began. Certainly the 1968 student movement was not the most significant event, but it was a popular movement. Further it was part of a growing crowd of popular movements, including almost annual student strikes throughout the 1960s as well as protest movements launched by railroad workers, teachers, doctors, and others. The student movement was definitely undertaken by everyday people, tens of thousands of them who took to the streets to protest, hundreds of them who went to prison for their participation, and an additional undetermined amount that died as a result of that participation. An explanation of the convergence of revolutionary nationalism and the Cold War lies in the long history of Mexican relations with the United States. Looking at diplomacy, politicians on both sides of the U.S.-Mexican border had long since recognized the importance of the relationship between the two nations. With a shared colonial past the doctrine of pan-Americanism had found many adherents in the late 19th and early 20th centuries in both countries. However, as the nature of Mexico’s dependent status relative to the United States became clear, and as Mexico became embroiled in a revolution in which that dependence would be a key issue, the relationship between the two neighbors became more complex. Relations with the United States became a political liability for Mexican officials at home but a virtual necessity. Militarily, the United States dominated Mexico, the United States was Mexico’s most important trading partner, and a long history of cross-border migration left the populations and interests of the two nations intertwined.