Deputy Prime Minister Abba Eban of Israel left today for Venezuela after a whirlwind week’s visit to Mexico, during which he addressed the Mexican Chamber of Deputies, met with key Mexican officials, and pledged more technical cooperation and more Israeli experts to help Mexico.
He said he was convinced that Mexico, traditionally neutral in the Middle East conflict, would demand respect for the territorial integrity and independence of all United Nations members. The Deputy Premier’s impact on the public, from the top officials to the man on the street, was generally considered to have been of exceptional value to Israel’s relations with Mexico.
In his address to the Chamber of Deputies, Mr. Eban asked Mexico to aid Israel in pursuit of its development free of outside pressure. He proposed that Israel’s friends exercise pressure for Israel not against the Arab nations “but in favor of peace versus war, in favor of co-existence against aggression, of economic development against the sterile accumulation of arms. ” He was received by President Alfredo Lopes Mateos and by President-designate Gustave Dias Ordaz.
He told 2,000 persons at a meeting sponsored by the Mexican Zionist Federation that Britain and the United States were not fully aware of the dangers which Israel faced due to the mounting arms strength of Israel’s hostile neighbors. He will visit other Latin American countries during his formal tour of Latin America.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
