Blanco represented the Mexico national football team from 1995 to 2010 (with a special appearance in 2014). He was capped 120 times, and scored 39 goals; he is the third highest goalscorer for his country. He is the only Mexican to have won Confederations Cup awards, being awarded the Silver Ball and Silver Boot at the 1999 Confederations Cup after a first place finish on home soil, until Oswaldo Sanchez's Golden Glove award in 2005. In 2010, he became the first Mexican to score at three World Cup tournaments, a feat later equalled by Rafael Márquez and Javier Hernández, appearing in the 1998, 2002, and 2010 editions of the tournament.