With the so-called "tercermundismo" ("Third Worldism") a reorientation in Mexican foreign policy took place during the presidential term of Echeverría.
He showed his solidarity with the developing nations and tried to establish Mexico as the defender of Third World interests.
The aims of Echeverría's foreign policy were to diversify Mexico's economic links and to fight for a more equal and just international order.

He visited numerous countries and had strong ties with the socialist governments of Cuba and Chile.
Echeverría visited Cuba in 1975.
Also, Mexico provided political asylum to many political refugees from South American countries who fled their country's repressive military dictatorships; among them Hortensia Bussi, the widow of former Chilean President Salvador Allende.
Moreover, he condemned Zionism and allowed the Palestine Liberation Organization to open an office in the capital.

Echeverría's candidacy rode a wave of anger by citizens in Northwestern Mexico against the United States for its use (and perceived misappropriation) of water from the Colorado River, which drains much of the American Southwest before crossing into Mexico.
The established treaty between the US and Mexico called for the US to allow a specified volume of water, 1.85 cubic kilometres (0.44 cu mi), to pass the U.S.-Mexican border, but it did not establish any quality levels.
Throughout the 20th century, the United States, through its water policy managed by the United States Bureau of Reclamation, had developed wideranging irrigation along the river, which had led to progressively higher levels of salinity in the water as it moved downstream.
By the late 1960s, the high salinity of the water crossing into Mexico had resulted in the ruin of large tracts of the irrigated land along the lower Colorado.

The sudden increase in oil prices in 1973, coupled with the possibility of new Mexican oil deposits in the Bay of Campeche, gave Echeverría a strong bargaining position against the Nixon administration in the United States.
Echeverría threatened to bring the issue to the World Court, prompting the Nixon administration to renegotiate the treaty to include a salinity-control agreement.
The implementation of salinity control at the border (supposed to be at US expense) has been ongoing and slow, however, and the lower Colorado remains largely a desolate shadow of what it once was.
With the so-called "tercermundismo" ("Third Worldism") a reorientation in Mexican foreign policy took place during the presidential term of Echeverría. He showed his solidarity with the developing nations and tried to establish Mexico as the defender of Third World interests. The aims of Echeverría's foreign policy were to diversify Mexico's economic links and to fight for a more equal and just international order.
He visited numerous countries and had strong ties with the socialist governments of Cuba and Chile. Echeverría visited Cuba in 1975. Also, Mexico provided political asylum to many political refugees from South American countries who fled their country's repressive military dictatorships; among them Hortensia Bussi, the widow of former Chilean President Salvador Allende. Moreover, he condemned Zionism and allowed the Palestine Liberation Organization to open an office in the capital.
Echeverría's candidacy rode a wave of anger by citizens in Northwestern Mexico against the United States for its use (and perceived misappropriation) of water from the Colorado River, which drains much of the American Southwest before crossing into Mexico. The established treaty between the US and Mexico called for the US to allow a specified volume of water, 1.85 cubic kilometres (0.44 cu mi), to pass the U.S.-Mexican border, but it did not establish any quality levels. Throughout the 20th century, the United States, through its water policy managed by the United States Bureau of Reclamation, had developed wideranging irrigation along the river, which had led to progressively higher levels of salinity in the water as it moved downstream. By the late 1960s, the high salinity of the water crossing into Mexico had resulted in the ruin of large tracts of the irrigated land along the lower Colorado.
The sudden increase in oil prices in 1973, coupled with the possibility of new Mexican oil deposits in the Bay of Campeche, gave Echeverría a strong bargaining position against the Nixon administration in the United States. Echeverría threatened to bring the issue to the World Court, prompting the Nixon administration to renegotiate the treaty to include a salinity-control agreement. The implementation of salinity control at the border (supposed to be at US expense) has been ongoing and slow, however, and the lower Colorado remains largely a desolate shadow of what it once was.
Luis Echeverría