Chronology of Rescue by Mexico
Gilberto Bosques, Mexican Consul General in Paris and Marseilles, 1939-42
Gilberto Bosques was a member of the revolutionary movement in Mexico in 1910. He served in numerous occupations, including that of journalist, educator and politician. He was appointed Ambassador at Large to France by Mexican President Cardenas. Bosques served as the Mexican Consul General in Paris and Marseilles in 1939-1942. During this time, Bosques issued thousands of visas to refugees, including anti-Franco fighters from the Spanish Civil War. He also issued visas to thousands of Jews. Among those he helped save were artists, politicians and other refugees from Germany, Austria, France and Spain. Bosques supplied visas to Varian Fry and his Emergency Rescue Committee as well as numerous other rescue agencies. Bosques maintained two estates outside of Marseilles (formerly castles) in which he housed and fed thousands of refugees. In November 1942, Bosques and other members of the Mexican legation were arrested by French Vichy officials and Nazis. Bosques and his staff were later released and returned to Mexico. When Consul General Bosques returned to Mexico City, he was greeted by cheering throngs and a parade was held in his honor. After the war, Bosques served many years as a career diplomat in the Mexican foreign service. Bosques has been honored by the Spanish Republican soldiers that he aided during the war. He has yet to be recognized by Yad Vashem and the State of Israel.
Biographical Timeline of Ambassador Bosques
July 20, 1892
Gilberto Bosques Saldívar is born in Villa de Chiautla de Tapia, in the State of Puebla, Mexico. His father is Don Cornelio C. Bosques and his mother is Doña Maria de la Paz Saldivar de Bosques.
Gilberto Bosques begins his schooling in his hometown. He later studies at la Escuela Primaria Anexa al Instituto Normalista del Esatdo, in the city of Puebla de Zaragoza.
1909-1910
While a student, Bosques becomes a member of the Revolutionary Movement under the leadership of Aquiles Serdán Alatriste. He serves in the Mexican revolution with accolades in the period from 1909-1910.
Bosques becomes president of the student organization Junta Directiva de la Sociedad de Estudiantes Normalistas.
Bosques becomes Director of the Maderist student movement in the State of Puebla.
1911
After the Mexican revolution, Bosques resumes his studies at the Instituto Normalista del Estado.
1913
Bosques directs a group of students and teachers that conspires against Mexican President Victoriano Huerta.
1914
Bosques organizes and shares the leadership of the group Body of Volunteers of San Carlos, Veracruz. This group opposes the North American invasion of the port of Veracruz in 1914.
1915-1917
Bosques follows the Commander in Chief of the Constitutional Army of the States of Tabasco, Campeche, Yucatan, Puebla and Tlaxcala.
April 13, 1916
Bosques organizes and presides over the First National Pedagogic Conference in Santa Ana, Chiautempam, Tlaxcala.
1917
The constitution of Mexico is written and ratified.
1917-1919
Bosques is a delegate to the 23rd Constitutional Legislature in the State of Puebla for the Second Electoral District of the Capital.
1920
Bosques serves as a journalist in Mexico City.
1921
Bosques serves as Secretary General of the State of Puebla.
1922
Bosques serves as Treasurer General of the State of Puebla.
1922-1923
Bosques represents Puebla as a Federal Deputy. He takes part in the Constitutional Congress of the State of Puebla, Mexico. He helps write the constitution for the State of Puebla. In the legislature, he promotes workers’ rights.
Bosques serves as the delegate to the Congress of the Union for the Electoral District of Izucar de Matamoros Chiautla de Tapia.
1929
Bosques serves as a journalist in the Department of the Press of the Secretary of Public Education.
October 1929
The New York Stock Exchange crashes, initiating a worldwide depression. Mexico is particularly hard hit by the international depression.
1930
Founder and editor of the National Economy, a monthly magazine of economic studies.
1930-1932
Bosques serves as translator for the Department of the Press and produces editorials for the radio station XFI of the Secretary of Industry and Commerce.
1932-1934
Bosques serves as Chief of Technical Studies for women in the Department of Technical Studies of the Secretary of Public Education.
December 1933
Mexico’s political party, the P.N.R., meets to endorse Presidential candidate and former general Lázaro Cárdenas. The party outlines the presidential platform, the Six Year Plan.
1933-1934
Professor and head of classes in Spanish in the Superior School of Instruction.
Delegate to the Congress of the Union for the Electoral District of Chiautla de Tapia Acatlan de Osorio.
1934-1937
Bosques serves as the President of the General Congress to answer the state of the union report of the government of President Lázaro Cárdenas.
1934
President Lázaro Cárdenas elected 56th President of Mexico.
1936
Cárdenas creates strong central political controls over the agrarian and labor movements. Cárdenas brings both organized peasantry and organized labor into the open political arena. His government is on the side of land reform and class reform. He further stresses educational reform and economic nationalism. Gilberto Bosques figures largely in the educational reform movement.
During Cárdenas’ program of land redistribution, more than 44 million acres pass to the ownership of the poor farmers (campesinos).
Cárdenas’ and the party’s platform is based on the Communist/Socialist ideals of the Mexican revolution and the Mexican constitution of 1917.
July 16, 1936
The outbreak of the Spanish Civil War. The war will last until 1939 with Franco’s victory over the legal Spanish Republican Government. Hitler sends 6,000 German troops to support Franco’s forces. The Germans use the Spanish Civil War to test new weapons and tactics. Mussolini sends 60,000 Italian soldiers to fight for the Republican side.
More than 8,000 Jews fight against Franco with the Republican Army. This is nearly 20% of the total number of soldiers fighting against Franco. They are from all over the world.
July 1936
Germany and Italy intervene on behalf of Franco’s fascist forces.
November 18, 1936
Germany sends volunteer soldiers to fight on behalf of Franco’s fascist nationalist army in the Spanish Civil War.
November 1936
The Asociacion Espanola Anti-Communista y Anti-Judea is founded by two ex-Mexican generals. In May 1937, it sends Franco a letter informing him that the Mexican community is 90% pro-Franco. A larger umbrella organization is soon formed called Falange Espanola Tradicionalista. The organization is created to organize Spanish descendants living abroad to support Franco. The Falange begins work against Cárdenas in September 1937.
December 27, 1936
Great Britain and France agree to non-intervention in the Spanish Civil War.
1937
Several anti-Jewish and anti-Communist parties are formed and, in cooperation with the foreign legation in Mexico, these parties try to influence Mexico to support Nazi Germany. President Cárdenas takes these organizations very seriously.
April 26, 1937
The German Condor Legion bombs and nearly destroys the Basque town of Guernica. They kill or wound 2,500 inhabitants.
1937-1938
Secretary of the Press for the Mexican Revolutionary Party.
1938
Bosques founds the Left Wing of the National Revolutionary Party. He is the managing director and editor of the newspaper El Nacional.
Bosques is President of the Centro de Estudios Pedagógicos e Hispanoamericanos.
Bosques leaves politics to devote his time to the Foreign Ministry and diplomatic activities.
1939
Mexican President Lázaro Cárdenas appoints Bosques Consul General in France. Bosques maintains consulates in Paris and Marseilles.
Bosques serves as the permanent delegate to the Mexican Committee for International Relations before the Meetings of the Executive Commission of the Permanent Conference of High International Studies in Paris.
March 1939
France sets up the Gurs concentration camp. It is designed to intern Spanish Republican soldiers who escape into France. Gurs will eventually become one of the most notorious camps on French soil.
March 30, 1939
The Spanish Civil War ends. Franco’s fascist army is victorious against the Republicans. Franco sets up a dictatorship that will last until 1975. The Spanish Civil War claims more than 600,000 lives. Thousands of anti-Franco Republican soldiers flee to southern France.
April 12, 1939
French government passes law against fifth column activity. It institutes strict government control over foreigners, cultural, artistic and philanthropic associations.
May 1939
After the German attack on Czechoslovakia, the Mexican Minister in Berlin warns the Mexican foreign ministry, “In view of the imminent war, all countries are liquidating their credits in Germany.” He also encourages the creation of a commission to prepare for the closing of the European markets for Mexico.
May 6, 1939
French law allows the Minister of the Interior to seize foreign publications.
French government tries to impose financial military obligation on refugees.
Fall 1939
The French government opens numerous concentration camps throughout France to house the influx of refugees entering the country. Thousands of Jews and refugee Spanish Republican soldiers are interned in the camps. Eventually, they become deportation centers to the Nazi death camps.
September 1, 1939
Beginning of World War II: Germany invades Poland.
There are between 300,000 and 330,000 Jews living in France; 200,000 live in Paris. This is less than one percent of the total population in France, which is 43 million.
Three thousand German and Austrian Jews are interned as “undesirable aliens.”
May 1940
The French government rounds up and interns thousands of German and Austrian refugees throughout France. These are called “administrative internments.” The internees have no legal rights.
June 10, 1940
Germany invades the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, and France. 136 German divisions participate in the invasion. Anti-Jewish measures are immediately applied.
In the wake of the German invasions, more than 8 million persons are displaced all over Europe.
June 11, 1940
French government evacuates Paris.
June 22, 1940
France surrenders to Germany. The French sign an armistice with Germany; in Article 19 of this document, the French agree to “surrender on demand” all persons named by the German authorities in France. The French Army is limited to 125,000 officers and soldiers in metropolitan France.
Italy and France sign a peace agreement.
Cárdenas pursues a personal initiative, the rescue of more than 100,000 Spanish Republican refugees trapped in France. Cárdenas orders the Mexican ambassador to France, Luis I. Rodríquez, and Consul General Gilberto Bosques to negotiate with the Vichy government regarding the disposition of Spanish Republican refugees in France.
July 8, 1940
Ambassador Rodríguez and Consul General Bosques meet with Vichy leader Marshal Philippe Pétain. At the meeting, they negotiate a French-Mexican commission to study the issue of Spanish refugees.
July 23, 1940
The French-Mexican commission meets for the first time to discuss Spanish refugees.
July 1940
Manuel Avila Camacho is elected the 57th President of the United States of Mexico.
President Camacho and his government support the Allied war efforts. President Camacho continues to support Mexico’s policy toward rescuing Spanish Republican soldiers trapped in the southern, unoccupied zone of France. In addition, Camacho liberalizes immigration policy and allows many more Jewish refugees enter Mexico.
August 23, 1940
The French and Mexican representatives sign an accord agreeing that Mexico will grant refugee status to Spanish refugees in southern France. Further, it will provide Mexican diplomatic protection and residency to those refugees willing to immigrate. Mexico, however, does not have ships to transport the refugees directly to Mexico.
August 24, 1940
Mexican Minister to Germany Azcárate asks for formal permission to allow former Spanish Republican soldiers to immigrate to Mexico. He further states that Mexico would use the French merchant marine to transport the refugees.
October 15, 1940
Azcárate, the Mexican Minister to Germany, meets with German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop. Azcárate reiterates Cárdenas’ proposal to transfer 15,000 former Spanish Republican soldiers to Mexico and alleviate the financial burden to the Vichy government. Ribbentrop sees an opportunity to destabilize the Mexican government by allowing these Communist sympathizers to enter Mexico.
November 1940
The German Army rejects Mexico’s request to transport former Spanish Republican soldiers to Mexico. This is based on Article 10 of the French-German armistice agreement. The French Vichy government suspends all activities until March 1941. Approximately 123,000 Spanish refugees are left in southern France.
1940-1943
Bosques represents Mexico to the French collaborationist government of Marshal Philippe Pétain and Pierre Laval. He maintains offices in Marseilles and Vichy.
Bosques serves as Consul General in wartime France. He issues thousands of visas to Jews, members of the Austrian, German and French Resistance, Spanish Republican soldiers and citizens, and other refugees fleeing the Nazis. He also issues visas to artists and European political leaders. Bosques supplies visas to Varian Fry of the Emergency Rescue Committee.
After 1940, Gilberto Bosques personally intervenes with newly-elected President Avila Camacho of Mexico to also help the Jews and those persecuted by the Nazis and the Fascists. During the war, more than 1,800 Jews come to Mexico from southern France.
July 1941
Spanish refugees residing in southern France continue to be deported to French-run concentration camps. Bosques obtains release for hundreds of Spanish Republican soldiers from these camps.
1941-1945
Immigrants flood into Mexico bearing visas from Consul General Bosques.
1942
Bosques serves as Minister in charge of negotiations with Vichy France.
As a result of the mistreatment of Jews, Bosques asks permission to break relations with France and Germany.
1943
Bosques is arrested by German and French officials because of his work in helping refugees flee France. Bosques and his family are interned at the German village of Bad Godesberg for a year. This action is a violation of the international conventions for diplomatic representatives in times of war.
1944
Bosques is released and repatriated in a prisoner exchange with Germany.
When Bosques returns to Mexico City, he is greeted by thousands of cheering refugees who had received his visas.
1944-1945
Bosques serves on the Commission of the Secretary of Foreign Relations.
1946-1950
Bosques is appointed Minister Plenipotentiary to Portugal.
1950-1953
Bosques is appointed Minister Plenipotentiary to Sweden and Finland.
1953-1964
Bosques is appointed Ambassador Plenipotentiary to Cuba.
November 1993
A bronze bust of Gilberto Bosques, donated by the exiled Germans and Austrians, was unveiled at the Instituto del Derecho de Asilo y las Libertades Públicas, Museo Casa de Leon Trotsky. “A Gilberto Bosques Dank an Mexiko, Los Exilados Alemanes y Austriacos.” [Institute of Asylum Rights and Public Liberties. Leon Trotsky House Museum.]
1994
Former Jewish immigrants return to Mexico City to present Ambassador Bosques, who is 102 years old, with a document of gratitude. It states: “To Gilberto Bosques, whose human greatness will be present in our hearts forever.”
A documentary film entitled “Flucht nach Mexiko: Deutsche im Exil” [Fleeing to Mexico: Germans in Exile] is produced on Gilberto Bosques, documenting his rescue of Jews and other refugees. It is broadcast in Mexico.
June 4, 2003
A street in Vienna is named for Gilberto Bosques.
October 2003
Consul General Gilberto Bosques is honored in the Visas for Life exhibit and ceremony at the US Capitol in Washington, DC.
March 20, 2005
Consul General Gilberto Bosques is nominated by the Visas for Life: The Righteous and Honorable Diplomats Project for the title of Righteous among the Nations by the Yad Vashem Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Authority.
Timeline: Mexico and the United States in World War II
October 1929
The New York Stock Exchange crashes, initiating a worldwide depression. Mexico is particularly hard hit by the international depression.
1934
President Lázaro Cárdenas elected 56th President of the United States of Mexico. This is a one-term, six-year presidency.
Cárdenas and the Mexican Communist Party institute widespread economic, social, political reforms. The high point of the reform is land redistribution and reform. Cárdenas also institutes universal compulsory education throughout Mexico. Cárdenas sees as his mission to fulfill the goals and social reforms, and the idealistic spirit, of the Mexican revolution of 1910 and the Mexican constitution of 1917. In some ways, these reforms mirror the reforms of President Roosevelt in the United States.
July 16, 1936
The outbreak of the Spanish Civil War. The war will last until 1939 with Franco’s victory over the legal Spanish Republican Government. Hitler sends thousands of German troops to support Franco’s forces. The Germans use the Spanish Civil War to test new weapons and tactics. Mussolini sends his Italian soldiers to fight for the Republican side. Mexico’s sympathies are with the Spanish Republicans.
July 1936
Germany and Italy intervene on behalf of Franco’s fascist forces.
November 18, 1936
Germany sends volunteer soldiers to fight on behalf of Franco’s fascist nationalist army in the Spanish Civil War.
November 1936
The Asociacion Espanola Anti-Communista y Anti-Judea is founded by two ex-Mexican generals. In May 1937, it sends Franco a letter informing him that the Mexican community is 90% pro-Franco. A larger umbrella organization is soon formed called Falange Espanola Tradicionalista. The organization is created to organize Spanish descendants living abroad to support Franco. The Falange begins work against Cárdenas in September 1937.
December 27, 1936
Great Britain and France agree to non-intervention in the Spanish Civil War.
1937
Several anti-Jewish and anti-Communist parties are formed and, in cooperation with the foreign legation in Mexico, these parties try to influence Mexico to support Nazi Germany. President Cárdenas takes these organizations very seriously.
1938
Bosques leaves politics to devote his time to the Foreign Ministry and diplomatic activities.
March 18, 1938
President Lázaro Cárdenas expropriates all foreign oil interests in Mexico and nationalizes the Mexican oil industry. This was a popular political move in Mexico and highly unpopular in the United States.
March 27, 1938
US Secretary of State Cordell Hull states that the Mexican government was within its rights to expropriate property for public utility. Hull notes that there should be fair and prompt reimbursement. Cárdenas favorably replies to the United States and declares that Mexico will honor its obligations.
1939
Mexican President Lázaro Cárdenas appoints Bosques Consul General in France. Bosques maintains consulates in Paris and Marseilles.
Bosques serves as the permanent delegate to the Mexican Committee for International Relations before the Meetings of the Executive Commission of the Permanent Conference of High International Studies in Paris.
April 1, 1939
The Spanish Civil War ends. Franco’s fascist army is victorious. Thousands of anti-Franco Republican soldiers flee to southern France.
May 1939
After the German attack on Czechoslovakia, the Mexican Minister in Berlin warns the Mexican foreign ministry, “In view of the imminent war, all countries are liquidating their credits in Germany.” He also encourages the creation of a commission to prepare for the closing of the European markets for Mexico.
Fall 1939
The French government opens 31 concentration camps in southern France and 15 camps in the German occupied northern zone to house the influx of refugees entering the country. Thousands of Jews and refugee Spanish Republican soldiers are interned in the camps. Eventually, they become deportation centers to the Nazi death camps. By September 1940, the main French concentration camps would be Rivesaltes (Pyrenees), Le Vernet (Ariege), Rieucros (Lozere), Argelès (Pyrenees), Les Milles (near Aix-en-Provence), Gurs (Pyrenees), Noé (Haute Garonne) and Recebedou (near Toulouse). Jews interned in the German occupied zone in the north were sent to Beaune-la-Roland (Loiret), Pithiviers (Loiret) and Drancy (Paris). By September 1940, 50,000 Jews will be interned in camps in both zones. By the beginning of November 1940, Jews will make up more than 70% of the internees in unoccupied France.
September 1, 1939
Beginning of World War II: Germany invades Poland.
The outbreak of fighting in Poland and the British economic blockade in the Atlantic cause the collapse of Mexico’s European markets. This is particularly critical for Mexico’s nationalized oil industry. Cárdenas is encouraged by his party and advisors to maintain closer economic ties to the United States as an alternative to its lost European markets.
There are between 300,000 and 330,000 Jews living in France; 200,000 live in Paris. This is less than one percent of the total population in France, which is 43 million.
Three thousand German and Austrian Jews are interned as “undesirable aliens.”
December 2, 1939
The Mexican Supreme Court upholds the expropriation act by Cárdenas.
June 11, 1940
French government evacuates Paris.
June 22, 1940
France surrenders to Germany. The French sign an armistice with Germany; in Article 19 of this document, the French agree to “surrender on demand” all persons named by the German authorities in France.
Italy and France sign a peace agreement.
Cárdenas pursues a personal initiative, the rescue of more than 100,000 Spanish Republican refugees trapped in France. Cárdenas orders the Mexican ambassador to France, Luis I. Rodríquez, and Consul General Gilberto Bosques to negotiate with the Vichy government regarding the disposition of Spanish Republican refugees in France.
July 1, 1940
The French government moves to Vichy, France.
July 5, 1940
Vichy France severs relationship with Britain.
July 8, 1940
Ambassador Rodríguez and Consul General Bosques meet with Vichy leader Marshal Philippe Pétain. At the meeting, they negotiate a French-Mexican commission to study the issue of Spanish refugees.
July 23, 1940
The French-Mexican commission meets for the first time to discuss Spanish refugees.
July 1940
Manuel Avila Camacho is elected the 57th President of the United States of Mexico.
The foreign ministers of the American Republics meet in Havana, Cuba, to discuss policy and economic cooperation during World War II. The delegation from the United States will make a half billion dollars in loans from the Capital Import-Export Bank available for the defense of the hemisphere. In turn, Latin American countries will make raw materials available to the US. There is to be a joint effort to prevent Axis countries from having military aggression or Fifth Column activities in Latin America.
August 23, 1940
The French and Mexican representatives sign an accord agreeing that Mexico will grant refugee status to Spanish refugees in southern France. Further, it will provide Mexican diplomatic protection and residency to those refugees willing to immigrate. Mexico, however, does not have ships to transport the refugees directly to Mexico.
August 24, 1940
Mexican Minister to Germany Azcárate asks for formal permission to allow former Spanish Republican soldiers to immigrate to Mexico. He further states that Mexico would use the French merchant marine to transport the refugees.
September 11, 1940
The Quanza, a Jewish refugee ship chartered out of Lisbon with nearly 300 refugees, is granted temporary asylum in Virginia. Many of these refugees have received visas from the Mexican ambassador Castillo in Lisbon. Eleanor Roosevelt intercedes on behalf of these refugees.
Later, Ambassador Castillo is criticized for his liberal issuing of visas to Jews, and he returns to Mexico City to explain his visa policy. He claims that the contradictory nature of Mexican immigration law led to the misunderstanding. Castillo is allowed to return to his post in Lisbon.
October 15, 1940
Azcárate, the Mexican Minister to Germany, meets with German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop. Azcárate reiterates Cárdenas’ proposal to transfer 15,000 former Spanish Republican soldiers to Mexico and alleviate the financial burden to the Vichy government. Ribbentrop sees an opportunity to destabilize the Mexican government by allowing these Communist sympathizers to enter Mexico.
November 1940
The German Army rejects Mexico’s request to transport former Spanish Republican soldiers to Mexico. This is based on Article 10 of the French-German armistice agreement. The French Vichy government suspends all activities until March 1941. Approximately 123,000 Spanish refugees are left in southern France.
November 12, 1940
The White House announces that Vice President Wallace will attend the inauguration of President Camacho on December 1, 1940.
December 1, 1940
Manuel Avila Camacho is inaugurated President of Mexico. Camacho’s foreign policy moves Mexico toward an alliance with the United States.
Mexico moves from a role of passive spectator in 1939 to a partner with the United States in “belligerent neutrality.”
Camacho’s administration is more conservative than that of his predecessor, Cárdenas.
1940-1943
Bosques represents Mexico to the French collaborationist government of Marshal Philippe Pétain and Pierre Laval. He maintains offices in Marseilles and Vichy.
Bosques serves as Consul General in wartime France. He issues thousands of visas to Jews, members of the Austrian, German and French Resistance, Spanish Republican soldiers and citizens, and other refugees fleeing the Nazis. He also issues visas to artists and European political leaders. Bosques supplies visas to Varian Fry of the Emergency Rescue Committee.
Gilberto Bosques personally intervenes with the President of Mexico to also help the Jews and those persecuted by the Nazis and the Fascists.
February 1941
68,500 foreigners are interned in camps in the occupied zone. 40,000 Jews are interned in the unoccupied zone.
April 14, 1941
President Camacho, in his Pan-American Day speech, criticizes Germany and the fascist countries. He makes it clear that Mexico welcomes no “New Order” based on fascist aggression. This and additional speeches by the Mexican foreign minister create fear that Mexico will be drawn into World War II.
May 1941
President Camacho announces that Mexico is carrying forward defense efforts in the hemisphere and that the United States and Mexico are not in a formal military alliance.
June 22, 1941
Germany invades the Soviet Union, breaking the Soviet-German pact. From this time until the end of the war, the militant left wing in Mexico vigorously supports the war effort against Germany. Attacks against the United States in the Mexican press virtually disappear. The official Communist paper in Mexico, La Voz de Mexico (The Voice of Mexico), changes its party line to “Win the war, open the second front!”
July 17, 1941
The United States publishes its Black List, which lists 1,800 persons and firms in the Western Hemisphere who are deemed to be acting to the advantage of either Germany or Italy. Several of these individuals and businesses are in Mexico. The German Ambassador in Mexico seeks to have protection for these companies. Mexico rejects the Ambassador’s protection.
July 1941
Spanish refugees residing in southern France continue to be deported to French-run concentration camps. Bosques obtains release for hundreds of Spanish Republican soldiers from these camps.
August 22, 1941
Mexico breaks off economic relations with Germany. It cancels Germany’s privilege of having an embassy in Mexico and closes Mexican consulates in Germany and German-occupied territories.
September 1941
The Mexican espionage law is passed to preclude Fifth Column and spying in Mexico.
December 7, 1941
Japanese Imperial Navy attacks US forces at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, and the Philippine Islands.
December 8, 1941
The United States, Great Britain, Australia and New Zealand declare war on Japan.
Mexico breaks off relations with Japan. The Mexican government impounds Japanese and German funds, but does not declare war.
Former President Cárdenas is named military commander of the Pacific Zone.
1941
Neutral Mexico, like the United States, seizes Axis vessels in its ports. Mexico limits its trading with the Axis powers.
Immigrants flood into Mexico bearing visas from Consul General Bosques.
1942
Mexico becomes an active belligerent against the Axis powers.
Bosques serves as Minister in charge of negotiations with Vichy France.
January 1, 1942
President Camacho announces that Mexico’s contribution to winning World War II will be supplying arms and food for the Allies. Mexico was to contribute to the arsenal of democracy.
January 1942
President Camacho sends Foreign Minister Ezequiel Padilla to the United States where he becomes one of the head advocates and members of Latin American teams cooperating with Roosevelt to strengthen the defense of the Americas.
March 1942
German submarines operating in the Atlantic stop Mexican oil tankers delivering petroleum to the United States. The German government warns of serious consequences if oil shipments continue. Mexico increases its petroleum delivery to the United States.
April 14, 1942
President Camacho, in a speech on Pan-America Day, states: “Independence is too important to think that others will defend it in our name.” This speech is in support of the Allies’ war against the Axis.
April 17, 1942
Ezequiel Padilla vigorously condemns the Axis powers in a speech in New York.
May 1942
US and Mexican oil tankers deliver ever-increasing amounts of petroleum to the United States in support of the war effort.
May 14, 1942
German submarine torpedoes and sinks the Mexican tanker Potrero de Llano off the Florida coast. Five Mexicans are killed. Public outrage is great.
May 22, 1942
Mexican tanker Faja de Oro is sunk and seven Mexicans die.
Mexicans are still mixed about whether to enter the war on the side of the Allies. 40.7% of urban Mexicans say yes; 59.3% say no.
The left-wing organizations and leaders of labor encourage the government to declare war on the Axis.
May 25, 1942
President Camacho meets with his cabinet and calls the Mexican Congress into extraordinary session. State governors and military zone commanders are called to Mexico City.
Mass meetings and speeches against German aggression are made in Mexico City.
May 28, 1942
President Camacho requests a declaration of war against Germany and the Axis. He also asks for the suspension of the Constitutional Bill of Rights for the duration of the war.
May 30, 1942
Mexico declares war on the Axis. The declaration is made retroactive to May 14, 1942. The Mexican congress gives President Camacho power to suspend personal civil rights at his discretion. This is a granting of power unprecedented in modern Mexican history.
Camacho and the Mexican Minister of the Interior Miguel Aleman Valdes are responsible for maintaining internal security.
In a new poll, 81.7% of the population agrees with Mexico’s entry into the war; 18.3% disagree.
June 14, 1942
Mexico signs the United Nations pact in Washington, DC. It places Mexico on the side of the Allies in the full economic and military sense. This is the first time the Mexican government has declared war since the conflict with the United States in 1847.
Mexico’s principal role in the war is to provide strategic materials for war manufacturing to the United States. Camacho’s administration creates a Supreme Defense Council to mobilize Mexico for war.
August 4, 1942
The United States and Mexico sign a labor agreement. The US agrees to allow thousands of Mexicans into the United States to work in the agricultural and war industries.
November 19, 1942
Relations between the Soviet Union and Mexico are formally reestablished. A Mexican Minister is sent to Moscow in December.
December 16, 1942
In a ceremony on traditional Mexican Independence Day, six ex-presidents of Mexico join in a show of national unity in support of President Camacho and the war effort. The ex-presidents are given important posts in Mexico’s defense efforts.
1943
The Mexican-North American Commission on Economic Cooperation is set up to study and coordinate the war efforts between Mexico and the United States. This commission is made up of two Mexicans and two US citizens. It makes recommendations for major war policies and war production for the duration of the war. In the agreement, the United States will supply Mexico with heavy machinery and aid in its industrialization. The United States, in turn, will receive raw materials. The Commission also agrees to lend $40 million to Mexico to modernize its military. The Mexican Army receives $18 million worth of equipment.
Throughout the war, Mexico will contribute to the war effort by supplying cotton, coffee, beef, wood, and other agricultural products. This is at a time when there was widespread poverty in Mexico. In addition, Mexico supplied vast amounts of copper, lead, zinc and petroleum for the war effort.
Bosques is arrested by German and French officials because of his work in helping refugees flee France. Bosques and his family are interned at the German village of Bad Godesberg for a year. This action is a violation of the international conventions for diplomatic representatives in times of war.
April 1943
President Roosevelt and Mexican President Camacho meet in the United States and, later, in Monterrey, Mexico. This is the first time in history that a President of the United States enters the Republic of Mexico. In a conciliatory remark, Roosevelt states, “We know that the epoch of exploitation of resources and people by one country for the benefit of one group…now has definitely passed.”
1944
More than 250,000 Mexican residents in the United States enter the US Armed Forces. 14,000 of these are assigned to combat units. A high number of Mexicans receive the US Medal of Honor, the highest military medal that the US can award.
Bosques is released and repatriated in a prisoner exchange with Germany.
When Bosques returns to Mexico City, he is greeted by thousands of cheering refugees who had received his visas.
January 23, 1944
President Camacho appoints Lázaro Cárdenas as Mexican Secretary of Defense.
Mexico enacts a conscription law providing a year of mandatory military training.
July 1944
The Mexican Expeditionary Air Force is created. It is trained for deployment. It has three squadrons, one of which flies missions in the Philippines. It serves under the Fifth Air Corps. This unit flies P47 thunderbolt fighter planes against the Japanese. Squadron 201 is personally decorated by General Douglas MacArthur.
1944-1945
Bosques serves on the Commission of the Secretary of Foreign Relations.
Updated November 4, 2017