ABSTRACT
This chapter explains Mexican Policy and discusses the origins and nature of Mexico's Cuban policy. In an effort to defend the measures from external attack, Mexican policymakers sought refuge in principles of international law stressing nonintervention and respect for national sovereignty. The principles of nonintervention, respect for national sovereignty, and the right of each nation to determine its own affairs have come to assume an almost sacrosanct character in Mexican foreign policy. Observers of Mexican politics have noted a certain hardening of the arteries on the part of the dominant Institutional Revolutionary Party. Throughout 1959-1960, the Mexican left expressed strong support for Castro. Mexican private investors were already demanding concrete action to allay American concerns. The Mexican government drew immediate domestic benefits from its repudiation of the Organization of American States Cuban stand. It was able to demonstrate that despite pressure from the United States, Mexican foreign policy was not formulated in Washington.
