Foreign Policy
Before Vicente Fox, Mexico practiced the Estrada Doctrine, so named after its creator, Genaro Estrada (Secretary of Foreign Affairs during the Presidency of Pascual Ortiz Rubio). The Estrada Doctrine favored an enclosed view of sovereignty. It claimed that foreign governments should not judge, for good or bad, governments or changes in governments in other nations, because it would imply a breach of their sovereignty.
President Fox appointed Jorge Castañeda to be his Secretary of Foreign Affairs. Castañeda immediately broke with the Estrada Doctrine, promoting what was called by critics the Castañeda Doctrine. The new foreign policy called for an openness and an acceptance of criticism from the international community, and the increase of national involvement in foreign affairs.
During Fox's term, Mexico actively sought (and gained) a temporary seat on the UN Security Council. However, Luis Ernesto Derbez, Secretary of Foreign Affairs after Castañeda, unsuccessfully ran for the position of Secretary General of the Organization of American States, losing to Chilean José Miguel Insulza.
Mexico hosted several international summits during Fox's administration. The Monterrey Summit of 2001 adopted the so-called Monterrey Consensus. President Fox and his Foreign Relations cabinet were protagonists of one of the most serious diplomatic controversies of his administration. At the Summit, many heads of State were invited to the International Conference on Financing for Development. Early in the meeting Cuban President Fidel Castro surprisingly stood and said that he was leaving the city because of a "a special situation created by my participation in this Summit". Fox repeatedly denied Castro's subsequent allegations that he was asked to leave the summit, responding to a U.S. request. Several weeks after the incident, a recording of a phone call between Fox and Castro where the Mexican president asks Castro to leave before George Bush arrived at the summit was leaked to the press.
Read more about this topic: Fox Administration
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