history Archives - Page 2 of 107

Signed at Chapultepec

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).

The Arrangements of 1929

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).

Conciliation and Arbitration Boards

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.

The Arbiter of Social Life

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.

No Waiting Rooms

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).

The Policy of Conciliation

Under Porfirio Díaz, the government’s approach to the Catholic Church became known as a política de conciliación, a policy of conciliation. A study by the historian David Carbajal López, published by UNAM, says that it “dejó sin vigencia efectiva las leyes de Reforma” (left the Reform Laws without effective force).

Relations with Cuba

In July 1964, at a meeting of foreign ministers of the Organization of American States in Washington, the OAS resolved that its members should break diplomatic relations with Cuba. Mexico voted against. Bolivia, Chile and Uruguay also voted against, but they later complied.

Mexico kept its relations with Cuba. The historian Nora Pérez Rayón, in a study of the Mexican press in 1964, puts it plainly: “México fue el único país que ignoró la resolución” (Mexico was the only country that ignored the resolution).

The Shepherd from Guelatao

Benito Juárez “nació el 21 de marzo de 1806 en un poblado de indígenas zapotecos, San Pablo Guelatao” (was born on March 21, 1806, in a village of Zapotec Indians, San Pablo Guelatao). This is how a biography by INEHRM, the federal institute for historical studies, begins.

His parents died when he was small. He worked in the fields and as a shepherd. At 12 he went to the city of Oaxaca, to the house where his sister worked as a cook. He learned Spanish only at about that age. After his law studies, he was the first graduate of the Institute of Sciences and Arts of Oaxaca.