On December 14, 1859, in Veracruz, Benito Juárez and his foreign minister, Melchor Ocampo, signed a treaty with Ambassador Robert Milligan McLane that many historians consider the most shameful concession ever granted by a Mexican president: the so-called McLane-Ocampo Treaty.
In exchange for a mere $4 million (of which only $2 million would reach Mexico, as the oth...