Negotiation

US Ambassador Thomas C. Mann and Mexico's Secretary for Foreign Relations Manuel Tello sign the Chamizal Convention in Mexico City on August 29, 1963.

INTERNATIONAL BOUNDARY AND WATER COMMISSION

 

Presidents Kennedy and López Mateos directed their governments to solve the Chamizal problem. After negotiating the details for over a year, US Ambassador Thomas C. Mann and Mexico’s Foreign Secretary Manuel Tello, signed the Chamizal Convention on August 29, 1963. The treaty built on a century of diplomatic efforts to resolve the dispute.

 

From Kennedy To Johnson

President John F. Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, 1963. Lyndon Baines Johnson succeeded JFK as president and implemented the Chamizal settlement.

 

Portion of Standard Oil Company of Texas (ESSO) Map dated 1958 used by negotiators to resolve the Chamizal Issue. Map includes hand-drawn lines of a potential new boundary and writing indicating hectares of lands potentially to be exchanged.

NPS

 

Ambassador Thomas C. Mann meets with residents of the Chamizal Zone. Image from U.S. Department of State publication "Hands Across the Border: The Story of Chamizal," October, 1967. (Page 6)

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE

“To keep the negotiations confidential and unofficial I used ESSO gas station maps of El Paso on which lines were drawn by both sides showing various possible solutions.”

—Frank V. Ortiz, Jr., Special Assistant to US Ambassador Thomas C. Mann

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“We worked quietly . . . without any publicity—otherwise I don’t think it would have been possible to reach any settlement. . . . I went to the El Paso Chamber of Commerce. I went to the county officials, the city officials . . . . Of course we even talked with the people who resided in the Chamizal area.”

—Thomas C. Mann, US Ambassador to Mexico

 

The Negotiators

These men are identified as key negotiators of the Chamizal Convention in the U.S. Department of State publication Hands Across the Border: The Story of Chamizal, October, 1967.

 

Thomas C. Mann

US Ambassador to Mexico

 

Manuel Tello

Mexican Secretary for Foreign Relations

 

Robert M. Sayre

US Director of Mexican Affairs

 

J.F. Friedkin

US Commissioner, IBWC

 

David Herrera Jordan

Mexican Commissioner, IBWC

 

Frank V. Ortiz, Jr.

Special Assistant to Ambassador Mann

 

• Frank V. Ortiz, Jr.

  
  

  The Special Assistant to U.S. Ambassador Thomas Mann speaks on his participation in negotiations over El Chamizal.
  Audio Transcript

  Ambassador Mann and I flew to El Paso to see if the city's leaders were ready to support a mutually agreeable solution. Without publicity we met with a few of the most influential citizens. They told us to keep the negotiations secret until a settlement was sure and told us we had to succeed or the future for El Paso and Juárez would be one of constant bitter recrimination. A settlement could no longer be postponed.

  Next we flew to Austin. Governor Connally was in the hospital for surgery. He received us at his bedside. After weighing the pros and the cons the Governor said he was for a solution but it had to be quick and negotiations kept confidential because of a probable Texas "nationalist" backlash.

  Our next stop was Houston. There we met with media owners and civic leaders. Again Ambassador Mann won their support and their warnings to "be careful". Ambassador Mann was so highly regarded and confidence in his judgement and integrity was so high in Texas that he almost alone won the support we had to have for a solution. Since the Vice President Lyndon Johnson was also from Texas we could count on a strong supporter in Washington.

  To keep the negotiations confidential and "unofficial" I used ESSO gas station maps of El Paso on which we drew lines by both sides showing various possible solutions. Until later, after a solution was agreed, there were no formal notes or letters.

  To see what form a solution of the issues could take, I returned to El Paso many times. I will never forget flying over the Chamizal area in a rusty, noisy helicopter dodging power lines, tall chimneys and the terrible dust, smoke and industrial smells.

  Now, early on Mexico made it clear it would only accept the exact acreage in the area awarded by the international arbitration the US had refused to accept. These amounted to 437 acres. That fact meant that the river would have to be moved cutting US citizens and their property, public and private, to the Mexican side. We expected this would stir up a hornet's nest of protest.

 

Vicente Sanchez Gavito

Mexican Ambassador to the OAS

 

Frederick Smith, Jr.

Legal Counsel

 

T.R. Martin

Special Assistant for Boundary and Water Affairs

 

Add Your Voice

What can we learn from the resolution of the Chamizal issue to help with current conflicts?

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