UNITED MEXICAN STATES Official name: Estados Unidos Mexicanos (United Mexican States) Location: North America International organisations: The Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation Forum, The Organisation of American States, The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, The United Nations, The World Trade Organisation

Borders: Belize, Guatemala, United States of America
Coastline: Gulf of Mexico, North Pacific Ocean
Land area: 1,972,550 Km2
Population: 103,400,000
Ethnicity: The majority of the population (60%) is of mestizo (mixed Amerindian-Spanish) descent, while most of the remainder are of entirely Amerindian descent. A minority, 9%, is of entirely European (mostly Spanish) descent.
Languages: Spanish is the official language. Mayan, Nahuatl and other indigenous languages are still spoken in some areas.
Religion: Nearly 90% are at least nominally Catholic Christians.
Form of government: Federal presidential democracy. Mexico is divided into 31 states and one federal district.

Capital: Mexico City (Ciudad de Mexico) Constitution: The Constitution of the United States of Mexico came into effect on 5 February 1917. It has been substantially amended since. Head of state: The President, elected by direct universal franchise for a six-year term. Head of government: The President, who appoints the members of the Cabinet.

Legislature: The Congress of the Union (Congreso de la Unión) is a bicameral legislature. The Chamber of Deputies (Cámara de Diputados) has 500 members, elected for three-year terms. Of these, 300 are elected from single-seat constituencies, and 200 are elected by proportional representation. The Chamber of Senators (Cámara de Senadores) has 128 members, elected for six-year terms. Of these 96 are elected from the states, three per state, and 32 by proportional representation.
Electoral authority: The Federal Electoral Institute conducts national elections.
Freedom House rating: Political Rights 2, Civil Liberties 2
(Freedom House notes that Mexico's civil liberties rating has improved since 1991.)

Political history

Mexico was conquered by the Spanish in 1521, and ruled by Spain for nearly 300 years. It declared its independence in 1810, but did become fully independent until 1821. For the next century Mexico was ruled by factions of its tiny European elite, during which time there were frequent revolutions, coups and civil wars. From 1863 to 1867 Mexico had a Hapsburg "Emperor" under French control.

Francisco Madero

From 1876 to 1911, with one break, Mexico was ruled by the dictator Porfirio Diaz. On his resignation a reform movement succeeded in having Francisco Madero elected President. His assassination in 1913 sparked a revolution and a civil war, which resulted in the establishment of a militantly anti-clerical and semi-socialist regime. Out of this regime came the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), which ruled Mexico behind a facade of constitutional democracy from As PRI rule relaxed in the 1980s, and also became more corrupt, a reform movement developed. Presidents Carlos Salinas (1988-94) and Ernesto Zedillo (1994-2000) allowed increasingly free elections and an independent media. The result was the election in 2000 of Vicente Fox as the first non-PRI President for over 70 years.

Today the PRI is the principal opposition party, still formally committed to socialism but now more-or-less accepting of pluralism and the free market system. The revolutionary tradition is better represented by Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas's Party of the Democratic Revolution, which has a big following among the poor. President Fox's National Action Party is the party of business and the middle class, pro-American and pro-free market reform. President Fox's term expires in December 2006.

Human Rights Watch's 2002 Report on Mexico noted the recent dramatic improvement in the country's human rights record:

"In the second year of Vicente Fox's presidency, Mexico took unprecedented steps toward establishing accountability for past abuses committed by state security forces. The government also continued its active cooperation with international human rights monitors, welcoming external scrutiny of the country's compliance with international norms. Progress toward eliminating the obstacles to full compliance with these norms remained limited, however.

"After decades of official secrecy and denial, the Mexican government publicly recognised the acts of political violence perpetrated by its security forces during the "dirty war" of the 1960s and 1970s. In November 2001, the National Human Rights Commission (Comisión Nacional de Derechos Humanos, CNDH) released a three thousand-page report on state abuses committed during that era.

"The government took important steps toward eradicating the culture of secrecy that had prevented the Mexican public from learning about these and other political crimes. In June, the Fox administration released eighty million pages of secret intelligence files compiled between 1952 and 1985. President Fox also signed a national freedom of information law, passed by the national congress."