Don't Corner Mexico!

Castañeda, Jorge G.

doi:10.2307/1148892

Cited by 9 publications

(6 citation statements)

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“…33 Mexican political scientist and diplomat Jorge Castañeda wrote at the time that Mexico's dual policy of opposing US military involvement and lending diplomatic cover to Marxist groups in Central America was therefore based "exclusively on self-interest." 34 Colombian foreign minister Augusto Ramírez Ocampo similarly explained that Central American instability complicated his country's efforts to reorient its economic growth strategy toward the Caribbean coast, while Panamanian officials frequently commented that instability might jeopardize the Torrijos-Carter treaties that saw Panama win control of its interoceanic canal. 35 Moreover, political elites across the continent worried that US proxy intervention might evolve into a direct military invasion.…”

Section: Two Warsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As Castañeda wrote in 1984, the Contadora process was "essentially pro-Sandinista," even when its representatives chastised the FSLN for imprisoning political opponents or shuttering dissident newspapers, and even though the draft treaties bound the revolutionary government to vague promises of democratization. 66 The Sandinista National Directorate reasoned that the gains from participating in Contadora-mitigating the intensity of US coercion-outweighed the costsbacktracking on its prior refusal to make concessions regarding the country's internal affairs. The FSLN's Department of International Relations (DRI) and Nicaragua's Foreign Ministry consciously exploited the North-South cleavages exposed by Reagan's heavy-handed approach to the region.…”

Section: The Death Of Contadora?mentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Nicaraguan Question: Contadora and the Latin American Response to US Intervention Against the Sandinistas, 1982–86

Jarquín¹

2021

The Americas

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While much has been written about the United States’ efforts to undermine Nicaragua's Sandinista government (1979–90), historians have paid little attention to Latin American state perspectives on the only successful armed revolution in the region since Cuba. In fact, the war that subsequently emerged between Sandinista armed forces and US-backed contras was a thoroughly regionalized affair: at least 12 Latin American countries—including the five largest—became directly involved in efforts to broker peace by the mid 1980s. How and why did they become involved? What can Latin American diplomacy vis-à-vis the Sandinista Revolution tell us about the shape of inter-American relations in the twilight years of the Cold War?To answer these questions, this article uses diplomatic archival sources and oral history interviews from Nicaragua, the United States, Mexico, Cuba, Costa Rica, and Panama to trace Latin American state responses to US intervention against the Sandinista government between 1982 and 1986. While the Reagan administration viewed Nicaragua as the place where it would begin to roll back Soviet-sponsored communism in the Third World, a bloc of Latin American governments—especially those associated with the Contadora peace process—saw Central America as the site where they would push back against US unilateralism and the threat it posed to their real interests and shared hopes for regional sovereignty. In stark contrast with the earlier reaction to the Cuban Revolution, most Latin American states rejected US intervention and sought to legitimize Managua's left-wing government. The regional dimensions of Nicaragua's civil war therefore show how the political fault lines of Latin America's Cold War shifted over time.

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Section: Two Warsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Death Of Contadora?mentioning

confidence: 99%

The Nicaraguan Question: Contadora and the Latin American Response to US Intervention Against the Sandinistas, 1982–86

Jarquín¹

2021

The Americas

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“…While the United States obviously prefers the quieter position, it should not forget that such rhetoric serves a useful purpose in pacifying more radical elements on the domestic Mexican political scene, thereby also contributing to the US interest in preserving Mexican political stability (Castaneda, 1985;Cornelius, 1987). Mexico sees itself as a Latin American country which, ipso facto, has a better understanding of the region than does the United States.…”

Section: Relations With the United Statesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mexico: The Unravelling of a Corporatist Regime?

Wiarda¹,

Guajardo²

1988

Journal of Interamerican Studies and World Affairs

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JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.. Center for Latin American Studies at the University of Miami is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Journal of Interamerican Studies and World Affairs.

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“…Mexico began to provide the rebels with small amounts of money and political support. 67 The following spring witnessed a new set of circumstances: the United States was looking for a way to replace Somoza with a non-Sandinista; Venezuela's commitment to the FSLN was under question because of domestic politics; and the possibility was emerging that Cuba could become the dominant foreign influence in a FSLN government. Faced with these circumstances, Mexico decided to step in.…”

Section: The Sandinistas and A New Us Threat Since 1979mentioning

confidence: 99%

Mexico's Foreign Policy as a Middle Power: The Nicaragua Connection, 1884-1986

Mares

1988

Lat. American Res. Rev.

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The field of international relations and foreign policy in Latin America is presently experiencing tremendous institutional and intellectual growth. These developments are increasingly emphasizing economic and political determinants at the national and international levels over the traditional focus on diplomacy and international law. This article will address one of the major theoretical issues in the study of international relations: can structural theories provide anything more than very general predictions of international politics? In addition, because most work using this perspective focuses on great powers, I ask whether structural theories can explain the behavior of lesser powers.

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Don't Corner Mexico!

Cited by 9 publications

References 0 publications

The Nicaraguan Question: Contadora and the Latin American Response to US Intervention Against the Sandinistas, 1982–86

The Nicaraguan Question: Contadora and the Latin American Response to US Intervention Against the Sandinistas, 1982–86

Mexico: The Unravelling of a Corporatist Regime?

Mexico's Foreign Policy as a Middle Power: The Nicaragua Connection, 1884-1986

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