Estrada Doctrine

Estrada Doctrine, precept formulated in a 27 September 1930 note sent by Mexican foreign minister Genaro Estrada to Mexican diplomatic representatives throughout the world. Recent revolutions in Argentina, Bolivia, Peru, and Central America had presented the Mexican government with the question of recognizing a number of de facto regimes. Given Mexico's problems in obtaining diplomatic recognition from the United States and other powers during its own revolutionary period, it was understandable that the Mexican government would be sympathetic to the plight of other revolutionary governments. Accordingly, Estrada asserted that Mexico would "not make any declarations regarding recognition because it considers that such a policy is an insulting practice which, in addition to offending the sovereignty of other nations, places them in a position of having their internal affairs judged by other governments."

The Estrada Doctrine was received enthusiastically by many Latin Americans who felt that the region had been unfairly discriminated against by the great powers through the selective application of de jure recognition. With the exception of the Franco regime in Spain, Mexico has been remarkably consistent over the years in adhering to the Estrada Doctrine.

See alsoMexico: Since 1910

BIBLIOGRAPHY

John W. F. Dulles, Yesterday in Mexico: A Chronicle of the Revolution, 1919–1936 (1961), esp. pp. 497-498; Enciclopedia de México, edited by José Rogelio Álvarez (1987), esp. vol. 5, p. 2, 596.

Additional Bibliography

Buchenau, Jürgen. In the Shadow of the Giant: The Making of Mexico's Central America Policy, 1876–1930. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1996.

Gonzales, Michael J. The Mexican Revolution, 1910–1940. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2002.

                                   Richard V. Salisbury