The participation of Mexico in the Second World war (SGM) While it is known for the intervention of the 201 Squadron, after maintaining a neutral posture at the beginning, he also stood out for his involvement in economic and geopolitical aspects during the conflict.
Behind him German attack To Mexican oil ships’Potrero del Llano‘, on May 13, 1942, and’Gold belt‘On May 20 of that same year, in the Gulf of Mexico, the aggression caused the government of the President Manuel Ávila Camacho (1940-1946) will declare the guerra al Axis and be inclined to the allies.
He Squadron 201 It was the only Mexican military unit to have direct participation in the battlefield, with 53 missions of direct land support in Luzón (Philippines) in the summer of [1945.
Precisely this week, at 100 years of age, Sergeant César Maximiliano Gutiérrez Marín, the last survivor of the 201, hero and veteran of the Mexican Expeditionary Air force (FAEM) who participated in World War II, according to the national defense Secretariat, died.
Mexico and its geographical location
In an interview with Efe, Martha Ortega Soto, teacher in History for the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), stressed that “the geographical location what you have Mexiconot only as a commercial partner and as a US labor force provider, he has given the country a presence in international relevance issues. ”
-He recalled that, at that time, “the most important thing for American geopolitics was the Pacific (…) and avoiding a possible expansion of Japanese interests in Latin America was of priority interest for the United States.”
In addition, he said that as Mexico is a Mining country par excellence, one of the interests of the United States was that the country “will exploit that industry to produce the raw materials as copper, zinc, lead and export them to the United States for the industry Armamentistic“.
And here, he added, it is where, perhaps Mexico “has a more relevant participation, not for the 201 Squadron, which is important, but because what worries the US government is that Japanese ships can seize or can reach the Mexican coasts and from there put together an offensive.”
“It is a possibility, it did not happen. But on the stage of the war they had to contemplate it (…) then the US government itself declared, after 1941, that the defense of Mexico was a matter of national security,” said Ortega Soto.
With EFE information
