During the counterrevolution of 1973, dos Santos was forced to seek refuge again and went to Mexico in 1974, where he became a professor in the faculty of Economics and philosophy of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma De México. In 1975, he was nominated as coordinator of the Doctorate in Economics of UNAM and, in 1976, chief of the postgraduate division of UNAM, which he assumed until his return to Brazil in 1979.