No nukes is good nukes? Russia and Mexico

Some Russian “pundit”, commenting on US “permission” for the missiles it provided to Ukraine to be fired into Russian territory, suggested the Russians install their own missiles… in Mexico.

Naturally, the more “click-baity” on-line outlets (here’s looking at you “zerohedge” and Newsweek … we read the nonsense, so you don’t have to) immediately picked up on this, leading to the usual nonsensical commentary about Mexico and (though retro) “commies”, some of which Mexfiles couldn’t resist replying to.

Seriously, though, while the idea is stupid (ain’t gonna happen) it brings up the question of Mexican-Russian relations. And nukes.

When it comes to the Americas, Russia was late to the European imperial “hippity-hoppity, it’s my property” land grab game. As did Spain, and England, France, Netherlands, and every other European state at the time, if one of your ships showed up, or some wandering subject of your king walked through some unclaimed by another European state, it was considered “proof” you owned the place. Spanish ships had been up and down the Pacific coast and occasionally landed along it … as far north as Valdez Alaska… in the 17th and 18th century. Spain… out of it’s viceregal capital of Ciudad de México claimed the entire Pacific coast of the Americas from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego (and, yes, there was an Intendencia of Valdez back in the 18th century).

The Russians had been moving east (“Go east, young man!”), which was at least adjacent to their home base, only getting to the Pacific and the Americas in the 1730s. Spain really didn’t even take notice until 1812, when the Russians were a bit closer to home (or rather, parts of North America they could reasonably control) until very late in their colonial history, when the Russians showed up in what’s now northern California. Even the Malspina Expidition in the 1790s … which took a long side trip up the north Pacific coast had no real interest in driving the Russians out of their trading posts although they did manage to get Russian coloniies to operate as concessions of the Spanish crown (and, incidentally, one of the science officers on the expedition…. José Cardero… interviewing Tligit residents in Yakutuk Bay… is a footnote in the history of crypozoology, having given the first scientific report — second or third hand — of a hairy humanoid said to be found in the north Pacific. That’s probably more in the field of anthopology than zoology, but still, Cardero was doing his job, recording and cataloging the resources, peoples, and cultures of what was to the Eureopeans, unknown territory).

Following independence, Mexico wasn’t really in much of hurry to do anything about a few Russian fur traders on the outskirts of their difficult to govern new republic. They wanted the Russians gone, but they didn’t want the Gringos — a much more existential threat — either. They did get the Russians, who weren’t all that successful in colonizing California, to sell off to new migrants, like the Swiss John Sutter.

As it was, Mexico and Russia wouldn’t even have diplomatic relations until 1890, neither being of all that much importance to the other. All this changed with the Mexican Revolution… beating Lenin and friends to the punch in a workers and peasants uprising game. In some ways seen by the Bolshevik’s as the elder brother of social revolution, Mexico and Mexicans became an object of fascination to the new Soviet elites. And vice-versa. Foreign “radicals” excited by the prospect of a new economic order… … and maybe because Spanish is easier to learn than Russian for most of them, and the climate is a hell of a lot better… did their Russia watching from Mexico City hotels and cafes.

While, of course, the Czarist embassy had closed, there was strong pressure from the US and old imperial powers like France and Britain… to “quaranteen” the Soviets. Still, President Obregon, despite being seen now by many as betraying the Revolution, and despite being a “self-made millionaire” and greedhead — saw the Soviets, or the Bolsheviks, as much more in line with his own ideas of Revolution and a new state, than most others. When he was basically told by the United States not to, he in no uncertain terms told the Coolidge Administration to stuff it, and went ahead becoming the first nation in the Americas to recognize the Soviet Union. And, incidentally, to welcome Ambassador Alexandra Kollontai, the first woman ambassador in the world.

“Official” Mexico was a bit schizophrenic when it came to post-war relations. On the one hand, The good will extended throughout the 1920s, although by 1930 — in good part due to Stalin’s “Revolution my way or the gulag” approach, and under pressure from the United States.. formal diplomatic relations fell into abeyance, even if informal ties, including their mutual massive support for the Spanish Republic, continued. Formal diplomatic ties were not restored until 1943, when — even after that little misunderstanding that gave Soviet exile, Leon Trotsky a terrible headache — Mexico and the Soviet Union found themselves allies in the war on Fascism.

Following the Second World War, Mexico’s relationship with the Russians was a bit schizophrenic. On the one hand, Mexico’s declared neutrality extended to ideological battles, and there was an active Communist Party and a sizable bloc of intellectuals identifying themselves with the Soviets. On the other hand, the state was moving rapidly away from the socialist policies of the 1920s and 30s, and from the 1950a on, was openly repressing leftist movements in the name of “economic stability”.

Despite pressure from the United States — which above all, wanted “stability” in Mexico — there was room for the left and at least in some areas, “tolerance” for Mexico’s limited independence in policy matters that conflicted with those of the hegemon. As long as Mexico remained in the “Capitalist” camp, it could ignore a few professors and poets, the occasional mass demonstration against some US move, and Mexico’s open support for pro-soviet, or soviet supported, movements and governments (including Cuba, which Mexico refused to “blockade” — and served as a go-between with the Cubans during the 1963 Missile Crisis — , the leftist military government in 1970s Peru, or the later revolutionary movements in Central America.

And, although it did not have much in the way of economic impact in Mexico, the Soviets found it a useful outpost for coordinating what few activities and interests in had in the Americas. i.e. Spies. The CIA and the KGB had any number of “assets” both within the government and elsewhere… and providing a more “tropical” setting for any number of spay novels and films during that era.

Although the Soviets received kudos for their enthusiastic support for, and assistance with, drawing up the 1967 “Treaty of Tlatelolco” (creating a nuclear free zone in the Americas south of the US border), relations remained merely cordial. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union (spurred, some claim, by the popularity of Mexican telenovels within the Soviet Union, presenting a relatively prosperous .. but filled with unrequited love, duplicitous matriarchs and impossibly handsome and rich heroes… society they’d always been presented as a “fraternal” revolutionary state) there was a second wave of Meixcan immgrants from the former Soviet Union. And, given both nations role in the world oil and mineral market, shared interests.

While brings us to those missiles. Of course, Mexico’s return to the left after several years of “neo-liberalism” suggests there is some rejection of the United States. BRICS+ membership is openly discussed (although only as a theoretical possibility) and — as a recent Pew poll suggests, the US miltiamodel of “democracy” is not much admired by Mexicans (60+ percent think US style democracy is either bad, or outdated in practice). Not to mention that other than that war against the Nazis, Mexico has never gotten itself into an offensive war.

TLDR: No way in Hell are russian… or US… or Chinese.. or North Korean… or any other foreign missiles going to be placed in Mexico.