The site of advanced Amerindian civilizations, Mexico came under Spanish
rule for three centuries before achieving independence early in the 19th
century. A devaluation of the peso in late 1994 threw
Mexico
into economic turmoil, triggering the worst recession in over half a century.
The nation continues to make an impressive recovery. Ongoing economic and
social concerns include low real wages, underemployment for a large segment
of the population, inequitable income distribution, and few advancement
opportunities for the largely Amerindian population in the impoverished
southern states. Elections held in July 2000 marked the first time since the
1910 Mexican Revolution that the opposition defeated the party in government,
the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). Vicente FOX of the National
Action Party (PAN) was sworn in on 1 December 2000 as the first chief
executive elected in free and fair elections.
Geography of
Mexico
Location:
Middle America, bordering the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf
of Mexico, between
Belize
and the
US
and bordering the North Pacific Ocean, between
Guatemala
and the
US
Coordinates:
23 00 N, 102 00 W
Area:
total: 1,972,550 sq km land: 1,923,040 sq km water: 49,510 sq km
Area comparative:
slightly less than three times the size of Texas
Land boundaries:
total: 4,353 km border countries:
Belize
250 km,
Guatemala
962 km, US 3,141 km
Coastline:
9,330 km
Maritime claims:
contiguous zone: 24 NM territorial sea: 12 NM exclusive economic zone: 200 NM continental shelf: 200 NM or to the edge of the continental margin
Climate:
varies from tropical to desert
Terrain:
high, rugged mountains; low coastal plains; high
plateaus; desert
Elevation extremes:
lowest point: Laguna Salada -10 m highest point: Volcan Pico de Orizaba 5,700 m
tsunamis along the Pacific coast, volcanoes and
destructive earthquakes in the center and south, and hurricanes on the
Pacific, Gulf of Mexico, and Caribbean coasts
Environment current issues:
scarcity of hazardous waste disposal facilities; rural
to urban migration; natural fresh water resources scarce and polluted in
north, inaccessible and poor quality in center and extreme southeast; raw
sewage and industrial effluents polluting rivers in urban areas;
deforestation; widespread erosion; desertification; deteriorating
agricultural lands; serious air and water pollution in the national capital
and urban centers along US-Mexico border; land subsidence in Valley of
Mexico caused by groundwater depletion note: the government considers the lack of clean water and
deforestation national security issues
Geography - note:
strategic location on southern border of US; corn
(maize), one of the world's major grain crops, is thought to have
originated in
Mexico
Population of
Mexico
Population:
107,449,525 (July 2006 est.)
Age structure:
0-14 years: 30.6% (male 16,770,957/female
16,086,172) 15-64 years: 63.6% (male 33,071,809/female 35,316,281) 65 years and over: 5.8% (male 2,814,707/female 3,389,599)
Median age:
25.3 years
Growth rate:
1.16%
Infant mortality:
20.26 deaths/1,000 live births
Life expectancy at birth:
total population: 75.41 years male: 72.63 years female: 78.33 years
Fertility rate:
2.42 children born/woman
Nationality:
noun: Mexican(s) adjective: Mexican
Ethnic groups:
mestizo (Amerindian-Spanish) 60%, Amerindian or
predominantly Amerindian 30%, white 9%, other 1%
Religions:
nominally Roman Catholic 89%, Protestant 6%, other 5%
Languages:
Spanish, various Mayan, Nahuatl, and other regional
indigenous languages
Literacy:
definition: age 15 and over can read and write total population: 92.2% male: 94% female: 90.5% (2003 est.)
Government
Country name:
conventional long form: United Mexican States local short form:
Mexico
local long form: Estados Unidos Mexicanos
Government type:
federal republic
Capital:
Mexico
(Distrito Federal)
Administrative divisions:
31 states (estados, singular - estado) and 1 federal
district* (distrito federal); Aguascalientes, Baja California, Baja
California Sur, Campeche, Chiapas, Chihuahua, Coahuila de Zaragoza, Colima,
Distrito Federal*, Durango, Guanajuato, Guerrero, Hidalgo, Jalisco, Mexico,
Michoacan de Ocampo, Morelos, Nayarit, Nuevo Leon, Oaxaca, Puebla,
Queretaro de Arteaga, Quintana Roo, San Luis Potosi, Sinaloa, Sonora,
Tabasco, Tamaulipas, Tlaxcala, Veracruz-Llave, Yucatan, Zacatecas
Independence:
16 September 1810 (from
Spain
)
National holiday:
Independence Day, 16 September (1810)
Constitution:
5 February 1917
Legal system:
mixture of
US
constitutional theory and civil law system; judicial review of legislative
acts; accepts compulsory ICJ jurisdiction, with reservations
Suffrage:
18 years of age; universal and compulsory (but not
enforced)
Executive branch:
chief of state: President Vicente FOX Quesada;
note - the president is both the chief of state and head of government cabinet: Cabinet appointed by the president; note - appointment of
attorney general requires consent of the Senate elections: president elected by popular vote for a single six-year
term.
Legislative branch:
bicameral National Congress or Congreso de la Union
consists of the Senate or Camara de Senadores (128 seats; 96 are elected by
popular vote to serve six-year terms, and 32 are allocated on the basis of
each party's popular vote) and the Federal Chamber of Deputies or Camara
Federal de Diputados (500 seats; 300 members are directly elected by
popular vote to serve three-year terms; remaining 200 members are allocated
on the basis of each party's popular vote, also for three-year terms)
Judicial branch:
Supreme Court of Justice or Corte Suprema de Justicia
(judges are appointed by the president with consent of the Senate)
Political parties and leaders:
Convergence for Democracy or CD [Dante DELGADO Ranauro];
Institutional Revolutionary Party (Institutional Revolutionary Party) or
PRI [leader NA]; Mexican Green Ecological Party or PVEM [Jorge Emilio
GONZALEZ Martinez]; National Action Party (Partido Accion Nacional) or PAN
[Manuel ESPINO Barrientos]; New Alliance Party (Partido Nueva Alianza) or
PNA [Miguel Angel JIMENEZ Godines]; Party of the Democratic Revolution
(Partido de la Revolucion Democratica) or PRD [Leonel COTA Montano];
Workers Party or PT [Alberto ANAYA Gutierrez]
Economy
Mexico
has
a free market economy that recently entered the trillion dollar class. It
contains a mixture of modern and outmoded industry and agriculture,
increasingly dominated by the private sector. Recent administrations have
expanded competition in seaports, railroads, telecommunications, electricity
generation, natural gas distribution, and airports. Per capita income is one-fourth
that of the
US;
income distribution remains highly unequal. Trade with the
US
and
Canada
has tripled since the implementation of NAFTA in 1994.
Mexico
has 12 free trade agreements with over 40 countries including,
Guatemala,
Honduras,
El
Salvador, the European Free Trade Area, and
Japan,
putting more than 90% of trade under free trade agreements. The FOX
administration is cognizant of the need to upgrade infrastructure, modernize
the tax system and labor laws, and allow private investment in the energy
sector, but has been unable to win the support of the opposition-led
Congress. The next government that takes office in December 2006 will
confront the same challenges of boosting economic growth, improving Mexico's
international competitiveness, and reducing poverty.
metalworking machines, steel mill products, agricultural
machinery, electrical equipment, car parts for assembly, repair parts for
motor vehicles, aircraft, and aircraft parts
