Latin America and the U.S. National Interest: A Basis for U.S. Foreign Policy by Margaret Daly Hayes

Author:Margaret Daly Hayes [Hayes, Margaret Daly]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Political Science, General
ISBN: 9780865314627
Google: LiyNDwAAQBAJ
Goodreads: 4455974
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 1984-04-19T00:00:00+00:00

Mexican Foreign Policy and Hemispheric Security

Growing political instability in Central America and the Caribbean have encouraged suggestions from various quarters that Mexico should assume a larger role in monitoring hemispheric security than it has in the past. It is argued that, as an emerging regional power, Mexico has a vested interest in assuring that Central American countries such as Nicaragua, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras are not engulfed in anarchy, violence, and civil war, or taken over by “leftist extremists” supported by Cuba and the USSR. As a petroleum-exporting country, Mexico in theory has the economic and diplomatic tools needed to perform such a moderating role in the region.

This section reviews briefly the past and present foreign relations of Mexico in order to assess the likelihood that Mexico will assume an expanded role in the Central American and Caribbean regions during the 1980s. Special attention is paid to the changes introduced into Mexican foreign policy by the Echeverria administration (1970–1976), and the Lopez Portillo administration, the term of which ended in 1982, and to the themes that can be expected to prevail during the administration of Miguel de la Madrid (1982–1986).

Mexico historically maintained a posture of minimal participation in international affairs. In the first 25 years following World War II, the main aim of Mexican foreign policy was to strengthen its “special” bilateral relationship with the United States. In Central America and the Caribbean, where, because of geographical proximity, Mexico might have been expected to establish a regional sphere of influence, its presence remained quite limited. Among the reasons for Mexico’s low-profile foreign policy were these:

As a relatively poor and backward country, Mexico was more concerned with its own internal development problems than with foreign affairs.

With more than two-thirds of all Mexico’s trade occurring with the United States, there was relatively little interchange or complementarity between Mexico and other Latin American countries.

Because Mexico has lived in the shadow of the American defense umbrella and in this century was not faced with any significant external threat, it never developed a military capability that would permit it to assume a major military role in the region. The Mexican military has focused its attention almost entirely on questions of internal security and political order (Ronfeldt, 1978).

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