Mexico and the Spanish Republic. 1931-1939 Mario Ojeda-Revah Thesis Submitted for the Ph.D. Degree in Government at the London School of Economics and Political Science, University of London. London, 2002 UMI Number: U615458 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Dissertation Publishing UMI U615458 Published by ProQuest LLC 2014. Copyright in the Dissertation held by the Author. Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest LLC 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 r OF POLITICAL !> AN0 P j ~ru e s e s f gosz 1028a s ! TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION______________________________________________________ 6 CHAPTER ONE_______________________________________________________ 24 SPANISH-MEXICAN RELATIONS 1821-1931: AN OVERVIEW Intellectuals and Diplomats________________________________________________ 32 Spain and the Mexican Revolution ___________________________________________ 34 The Mexican Religious Conflict and Spain _____________________________________ 38 Hispanismo and the Exaltation of the Indian by the Mexican Revolution _______________ 44 CHAPTER TW O______________________________________________________ 48 MEXICAN RELATIONS WITH REPUBLICAN SPAIN PRIOR TO THE CIVIL WAR (1931-36) CHAPTER THREE____________________________________________________ 89 MEXICO AND THE SPANISH CIVIL WAR. MATERIAL AID AND DIPLOMATIC SOLIDARITY Mexico in the eve of the Spanish Civil War. A Recapitulation _______________________ 91 The Spanish War _______________________________________________________ 102 The Spanish Embassy in Mexico ____________________________________________ 103 The Decision to aid the Republic ___________________________________________ 106 Further Instances of Support _______________________________________________ 114 Spanish Responses to Mexican Solidarity ______________________________________ 116 The Mexican Embassy in Madrid ___________________________________________ 121 The Refugee Crisis _____________________________________________________ 123 Communists against Cardenas______________________________________________ 133 The Mexican Oil Expropriation, Spain and the Impending World War ________________ 135 CHAPTER FOUR____________________________________________________ 140 MEXICAN ARMS FOR REPUBLICAN SPAIN Open Engagement: The Expedition of the Magallanes ____________________________ 147 International Reactions to Mexican Involvement in the Spanish W ar _________________ 156 Miscellaneous Shipments _________________________________________________ 161 Transhipment of American Aircraft through Mexico _____________________________ 164 Failed Expectations. The Journey of the Mar Cantabrico ___________________________ 169 The Czech Connection ___________________________________________________ 178 The Mexican Legation in Paris: Procurer of Arms for Spain ________________________ 183 CHAPTER FIVE 189 THE DIPLOMATIC FRONT. MEXICAN DEFENCE OF SPAIN AT THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS The Mexican Revolution’s Foreign Policy. Its Principles and Historical Antecedents _____ 190 Mexico and the League of Nations 1931-1939__________________________________ 195 Mexican Diplomatic Support for the Republic __________________________________ 199 Mexico’s Advocacy of Spain in the Realm of the Inter-American System ______________ 203 Unflagging Support: Isidro Fabela’s Upholding of Spain Before the League ____________ 206 CHAPTER SIX_______________________________________________________ 221 DOMESTIC REPERCUSSIONS OF THE WAR Armed Militias in Mexico_________________________________________________ 222 The Spanish Community and the Rebellion ____________________________________ 228 The Cedillo Rebellion. A Mexican Franco? ____________________________________ 231 In search of the Mexican Popular Front: The Party of the Mexican Revolution (PRM) ____ 233 The Falange in Mexico __________________________________________________ 236 The Mexican Right and Franco’s Crusade _____________________________________ 239 Women’s Suffrage in Mexico and the Spanish War ______________________________ 250 The Mexican Press and the Francoist Uprising __________________________________ 253 The Mexican Catholic Church and the Spanish Crusade ___________________________ 256 The Economic Elite _____________________________________________________ 258 CHAPTER SEVEN___________________________________________________ 262 THE REPUBLIC’S DOWNFALL AND ITS EFFECTS ON THE MEXICAN REVOLUTION Defeat and Exodus______________________________________________________ 262 Change of Course. Franco’s Victory and the Decline of Cardenismo _________________ 273 The protection of Spanish refugees in Vichy and occupied France ___________________ 279 The Presidential Election of 1940___________________________________________ 283 Mexico and Spain 1945-1977 From Enduring Hostility to Final Reconciliation __________ 294 CONCLUSIONS _____________________________________________________ 299 BIBLIOGRAPHY _____________________________ 307 ABSTRACT This thesis examines Mexico’s relationship with the Second Spanish Republic, and analyses the rationale behind the Lazaro Cardenas government’s (1934-1940) decision to provide military, diplomatic and moral support to the Republic during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). The Mexican government sent arms and ammunition to Spain when other nations refused to do so, constrained by the so- called Non-Intervention Pact. Moreover, Mexican diplomats organised a covert network to buy arms in third countries and then re-direct them to Spain. Mexico also lent the Spanish Republic its diplomatic backing at the League of Nations, where its delegates defended the Republican cause and denounced both the Axis intervention and the democracies’ inaction. The thesis also interprets the repercussions that such policy had on internal Mexican politics, and for Mexico’s international position, most particularly with regards to the United States. The Spanish War generated a backlash in Mexico, with the growth of a domestic Right, heavily influenced by European Fascism and Spanish Falangism. Conversely, Cardenas’ position concerning Spain ultimately afforded his government the backing of the Roosevelt administration in the final showdown with that Rightist opposition. Extensive reference is made to primary sources, mainly diplomatic documentation and newspaper reports of the period. Acknowledgements I owe several valuable corrections and suggestions to Dr. Sebastian Balfour. Without his kind help the work of completion and revision would not have been possible. I wish to acknowledge the aid given to my work by Gerald Howson, who crucially helped me with the arms issue. Many thanks to Professor Paul Preston, under whom I worked as a graduate student, for his suggestions and orientations. I am also indebted with Dr. Michael Alpert, Professor Georges Couffignal, Dr. Marie-Therese Texeraud, Micaela Chavez, Luis Alberto de la Garza, Heman Gomez Bruera, and Jaime Serrano Berea, for their support and many helpful advices in the preparation of the final manuscript. The research would have not been possible without the generous support given by Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico and the University of London Central Research Fund. I wish to dedicate this thesis to Mario Ojeda Gomez, Tilda Revah, Renee Revah, for their love and patience, and very especially to Paola de Maria y Campos Lignarolo to whom this work belongs. INTRODUCTION This thesis examines how the Mexican Government pursued its national interest within an international background that drifted toward a large-scale international war. It is a study of the correlation between Mexico’s internal politics and the transformations experienced by the international context between 1936 and 1939. The thesis attempts to analyse a complex picture of domestic-international interaction within the framework of the specific case of the Mexican-Spanish bilateral relationship before, during, and immediately after the Spanish Civil War. The study presumes that far from being an ideological or romantic stance, Mexican support for the Republic represented a conscious effort that resulted in an increase of Mexico’s economic and political autonomy amidst the sweeping conflict between the fascist, communist and liberal doctrines of the time. This solidarity also represented the opportunity for the Mexican revolutionary regime to confront a rising Right in the home front, which, emboldened by Spanish events, threatened to replicate them in Mexico. Moreover, Spain also afforded the Mexican revolutionary regime the opportunity to challenge the Right in its own terms on a “cultural struggle” for the hearts and minds of the Mexican people.1 The Mexican Right had historically usurped for itself the image of Spain through the manipulation of the Hispanista discourse. The emergence of a “new” Spain after 1931 represented in that sense a vindication of the Mexican Revolution. Shortly after the Spanish Civil War started the government of Lazaro Cardenas (1934-1940) declared its solidarity with the beleaguered Spanish Republic and pledged official support to its cause. Throughout the conflict, Mexico almost alone 1 John Sherman, The