In January 1983, the foreign ministers of Colombia, Mexico, Panama and Venezuela met on the island of Contadora, in Panama, to promote peace in Central America. The four countries became known as the Contadora Group.
Mexico also hosted bilateral talks between the United States and Nicaragua, “auspiciadas por nuestro país” (sponsored by our country), in the words of Mexico’s foreign ministry journal. Sources give different days for the first meeting on Contadora, from January 7 to January 9.
On January 16, 1992, the peace accords for El Salvador were signed at Chapultepec Castle in Mexico City. Mexico was one of four countries, with Colombia, Spain and Venezuela, in the group of friends of the United Nations Secretary-General that supported the negotiation.
A text published in the journal of Mexico’s foreign ministry describes Mexico as a country “que en muchas ocasiones ha albergado y ha proporcionado otras formas inestimables de apoyo a la negociación” (that has hosted the negotiation on many occasions and given it other invaluable support). “Las partes decidieron proceder a la firma formal de este acuerdo de paz en México” (The parties decided to sign this peace agreement formally in Mexico).
On June 21, 1929, the Mexican government and the Catholic bishops reached the agreements that ended the Cristero War. They are known as los arreglos, the arrangements. The chief broker was the United States ambassador, Dwight Morrow. His main ally was a priest, Father John J. Burke of the National Catholic Welfare Conference.
The laws that had led to the suspension of public worship stayed in force. According to Bishop Pascual Díaz, one of the negotiators, the government committed to apply them “con una interpretación benévola” (with a benevolent interpretation).
On January 10, 1994, after the Zapatista uprising in Chiapas, President Carlos Salinas de Gortari named Manuel Camacho Solís “comisionado para la Paz y Reconciliación en Chiapas” (commissioner for peace and reconciliation in Chiapas).
The weekly ZETA describes an earlier role of Camacho’s as a “posición desde la cual sirvió de operador político al Presidente Salinas” (position from which he served as political operator to President Salinas).
On March 11, 1995, Mexico published the Law for Dialogue, Conciliation and a Dignified Peace in Chiapas. It created the Comisión de Concordia y Pacificación, known as COCOPA. Its members are federal legislators, joined by one representative of the executive and one of the legislature of Chiapas.
The commission’s tasks include to “coadyuvar a fijar las bases para el diálogo y la negociación” (help set the bases for dialogue and negotiation) and to “facilitar el diálogo y la negociación” (facilitate dialogue and negotiation). The law adds that it “coordinará sus acciones con la instancia de mediación reconocida por los negociadores” (will coordinate its actions with the mediating body recognized by the negotiators).
On February 14, 2024, in Chilpancingo, the Catholic bishops of Guerrero said that they had met with leaders of criminal groups to seek peace. They were the bishops of Chilpancingo-Chilapa, Ciudad Altamirano, Tlapa and Acapulco. The bishop of Chilpancingo-Chilapa said of the effort: “no se logró” (it did not succeed).
The next day, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador backed the talks. “Lo veo muy bien” (I think it is very good), he said. “Nada más que nada de acuerdos que signifiquen conceder impunidad, privilegios, licencias para robar” (Only no agreements that mean granting impunity, privileges, licenses to steal).
In the same days, a priest, José Filiberto Velázquez, mediated a truce between two armed groups fighting over Chilpancingo, Los Tlacos and Los Ardillos.
On June 2, 2025, Interior Secretary Rosa Icela Rodríguez led a meeting with the teachers’ union CNTE at the headquarters of the Secretaría de Gobernación. The union was on strike in Mexico City. The secretary of education, Mario Delgado, and the head of the state workers’ social security institute ISSSTE, Martí Batres, also took part.
After almost four hours of dialogue, there was no agreement. The union kept its strike and said that the talks would continue.
Article 123 of the Constitution of 1917, fraction XX: “Las diferencias o los conflictos entre el capital y el trabajo se sujetarán a la decisión de una Junta de Conciliación y Arbitraje” (Differences or conflicts between capital and labor shall be submitted to the decision of a Conciliation and Arbitration Board). The board was formed by an equal number of representatives of workers and of employers, and one of the government.
Workers and employers have the same number of seats. The one remaining seat belongs to the government.
In February 1936, a conflict between employers and workers broke out in Monterrey. President Lázaro Cárdenas traveled to the city. In front of the industrialists, he set out fourteen points on his government’s labor policy.
One point defined the role of the state. Sources give it in slightly different words, among them “el gobierno es el único árbitro y regulador de la vida social” (the government is the only arbiter and regulator of social life). The last point told employers who felt “fatigados por la lucha social” (tired of the social struggle) that they could hand their industries to the workers or to the government.
In January 1935, President Lázaro Cárdenas visited Morelos. The newspaper El Nacional wrote that people there had found “un medio todavía más eficaz y más rápido que el telégrafo para la formulación de sus quejas” (a means even more effective and faster than the telegraph for making their complaints). “Ni antesalas, ni trámites, ni oficinas” (No waiting rooms, no paperwork, no offices).
At the end of the month, the paper printed a box titled “¡Cómo ver al Presidente!” (How to see the President!) for the thousands who wanted to bring him their complaints. The historian Jacqueline Covo concludes that the box showed “que más vale pasar por los intermediarios” (that it is better to go through the intermediaries).