For further information
contact: Kate Doyle
In Mexico – 5255 5574 7897
In Washington – 202 994 7000
kadoyle@gwu.edu

The Cuban revolution was a shock to the Mexican political system, prompting a revitalization of the Mexican left for the first time since the sexenio of President Lázaro Cárdenas (1934-40). And while the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) continued to speak the rhetoric of revolution after the fall of Batista, its leaders considered the resurgence of the left a serious threat to PRI hegemony.

The regime's dilemma was complicated by the fact that a leading proponent of the new activism was Lázaro Cárdenas himself, champion of Mexican farmers and the force behind the country's nationalization of its oil industry. Inspired by Fidel Castro's victory, the former President broke the cardinal rule that demanded total loyalty to the PRI by founding, in 1961, the Movimiento de Liberación Nacional (MLN), a “civic organization” designed to bring together the disparate efforts of the Mexican left under one umbrella.

Faced with the increasing radicalism of one of Mexico's living heroes, President Adolfo López Mateos had to find a way to contain Cárdenas and the MLN without betraying the PRI's revolutionary roots. He did so through a calculated policy of coaxing, co-opting and brutally suppressing the left, while skillfully avoiding damage to the fragile political equilibrium on which the party depended to maintain power.

Exactly how López Mateos managed this juggling act – and how the United States perceived it – is a tale told in fascinating detail in declassified U.S. documents posted in this latest collaboration between the National Security Archive and Proceso magazine. The record describes, first and foremost, a regime fundamentally incapable of permitting legitimate attempts to reform the political system outside of the channels sanctioned by the PRI.

U.S. officials recognized the authoritarian tendencies of the ruling party. But the documents show that their fears about the spread of “Castro-communism” in the hemisphere made them unwilling to question their support for the PRI. As a result, Washington and the U.S. embassy in Mexico interpreted any effort by the MLN to promote political or social change through the distorted lens of the Cold War – so that reform became radicalism and the government's coercive response was transformed into reasonable anti-communism.

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Note: After producing fourteen articles and accompanying electronic briefing books, Archivos Abiertos (”Open Archives”) will pause for the relocation of its author, Kate Doyle, from Mexico City to New York City. The collaboration between the National Security Archive and Proceso will resume in the fall of 2004.
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