Anniversary of the Oil Expropriation in Mexico

Despite the political difficulties, Mexico became the world’s second largest producer of oil in the 1920s. Nevertheless, the foreign-owned oil companies were the object of much popular resentment. A strike by oil workers in 1937 ultimately led the Mexican Government to act. On March 18, 1938, Mexican President Lázaro Cárdenas signed an order that expropriated the assets of nearly all of the foreign oil companies operating in Mexico. The expropriation act had international repercussions.