Relations Between Mexico and the United States

Report Outline
Mexican American Relations - 1845–1910
Mexican-American Relations Since 1910
Issues in Present Petroleum Dispute

Since the promulgation by the Mexican Government of the new land and petroleum laws on December 31, 1925, a series of notes have been exchanged between Minister of Foreign Affairs Saenz and Secretary of State Kellogg. In these notes each side has set down and reiterated the fundamental principles for which it stands. The United States insists that the Mexican land and petroleum laws as interpreted by the government under President Calles are confiscatory while Mexico affirms that she has a clear right to make such property laws as she may see fit and that the United States has no reason or right to object to them until some actual specific wrong has been done to American property through the execution of these laws.

The situation is acute in that Mexico has set January 1, 1927, as the last date when foreign oil companies can exchange their present vested property rights for the fifty-year leases provided for under the new la.w. The large oil companies backed up by the American government consider that this amounts to confiscation in the case of property acquired before 1917 and many of them are said to be refusing to make such applications. Under the Mexican law these companies will automatically lose all their rights on January 1, 1927, if they fail to comply with these regulations.

Nicaraguan and Catholic Church Issues

The relationship between the two countries is further complicated by the Mexican attitude towards Nicaragua and by her attitude towards the Roman Catholic Church in Mexico. In neither of these cases, however, has the American Government made any official protest.