Narciso Bassols García (October 22, 1897 – July 24, 1959)[1][2] was a Mexican lawyer,[2][3] socialist politician,[4] ambassador to France, the Soviet Union, and the United Kingdom,[1][2] and professor of law at the National University of Mexico.
[10][11] Motivated partially by the onset of world recession in 1929, Bassols felt a greater emphasis should be placed on the teachings of better production methods for satisfaction of local needs.
[8] Bassols argued that schools should substituted religious teachings with "true, scientific, and rational knowledge,"[6] his ideas following in line with Karl Marx's maxim that religion is an "opiate of the masses.
"[4] On December 29, 1931, Congress passed a law, crafted by Bassols, that extended state control over schools affiliated, or incorporated, into the federal system.
[4] Through the wording of Article 3, Bassols argued further that members of the clergy could not continue to teach in affiliated schools, stating by their nature, they would influence young children.
[4] In 1932, the Mexican Eugenics Society reported to Bassols that it found a high frequency of unwanted pregnancies and abortions in adolescents lacking a complete understanding of their actions.
[1][7][9] In 1935, then President Lázaro Cárdenas, cited as finding Bassols Marxist zeal inconvenient, gave him the position of Ambassador to the United Kingdom where he served until 1937.
[1][2] While there, Bassols condemned Mussolini's invasion of Ethiopia, denounced the Munich Agreement as a "capitulation" and "infamy" and supported the Molotov-Von Ribbentrop nonaggression treaty.
[15] In 1939, Bassols resigned the position, brought on by the news that Leon Trotsky had been granted asylum by Cárdenas, he is cited as feeling betrayed, at the time representing Mexico in talks in Geneva with Soviet foreign minister Maxim Maximovich Litvinov.