Conexiones revolucionarias: repercusiones de la expropiación petrolera mexicana en Bolivia, 1938

Abstract

This article deals with a relevant subject in Latin American historiography, that being the Mexican oil expropriation during the Lázaro Cárdenas government and provides original information as well as an innovative approach that goes beyond strictly national historiographies, with the intention of contributing both to Bolivian and Mexican history. The Mexican expropriation of 1938 reached a transnational dimension beyond its diplomatic implications; an experience perceived through quite different prisms in each Latin American country. How was the Mexican expropriation viewed in the Bolivian Andes? We have argued that in La Paz and Sucre, various sectors of the society read that expropriation through the filters of the conflict with Standard Oil of Bolivia and of the ideological and political debate surrounding the recently created YFPB. This nationalistic episode was charged with another meaning in adopting it to a Bolivian context, by simultaneously being in dialogue with the previous substratum of the reception to the Mexican revolution in the region, together with the particular Andean political, economic and diplomatic context. Reasons of national and international order explain the reactions in Bolivia when faced with the Mexican petroleum episode, as well as the perception of those reactions by the Mexican diplomatic corps.

The Oil Nationalizations in Bolivia (1937) and Mexico (1938): A Comparative Study of Asymmetric Confrontations with the United States

“…Interestingly, the oil question was already present during the revolutionary days in Mexico, but expropriation had not been seriously contemplated then because early revolutionary governments "were overwhelmingly concerned with establishing their own political legitimacy" (Durán 1985, 181). As mentioned, Bolivian instability would last for a decade longer after the Bolivia, 1937-1942Mexico, 1938-1942 Legal figure for expropriation Confiscation decree for contractual breach: one foreign company affected David Toro (1937-1938 Germán Busch (1938Busch ( -1939 Carlos Quintanilla (1939Quintanilla ( -1940 Enrique Peñaranda (1940Peñaranda ( -1943 Two presidents: Lázaro Cárdenas (1934( -1940( ) Ávila Camacho (1940( -1946 Directives for negotiation Not formally established, mixed official pronouncements Expropriation decree established ten-year period for payment of compensation settlement agreement with SONJ and even beyond, extending in many ways into Bolivia's "uncompleted revolution" (Malloy 1970) of 1952. Theoretical efforts to better understand how similar units of the international system behave differently and have contrasting outcomes when confronted with similar international situations have already stressed the need to turn attention to what happens in domestic politics.…”

“…Stephen Krasner (1978) turned his attention to these cases as instances in which the US State Department successfully disputed foreign policy priorities with private companies, while Stephen Randall (2005) shows how these relative estrangements between state and companies were consequential for redefinitions on the structure of decision-making for US oil foreign policy. More recently, Maria Cecilia Zuleta (2011Zuleta ( , 2014 explored South American diplomatic reactions to the Mexican nationalization and the specific Bolivian perceptions of the Mexican experience.…”