Mexico

Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a federal republic in North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States, the south by Guatemala and Belize. Its western coasts borders the Pacific Ocean and the east borders the Gulf of Mexico.

## History

### Twentieth and Early Twenty-First Century

President Porfirio Díaz announced in 1908 that he would retire in 1911, resulting in the development of new coalitions. But then he ran for reelection anyway and in a show of U.S. support, Díaz and William Howard Taft planned a summit in El Paso, Texas, and Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, for October 16, 1909. On the day of the summit, Frederick Russell Burnham, the celebrated scout, and Private C.R. Moore, a Texas Ranger, discovered a man holding a concealed palm pistol standing at the El Paso Chamber of Commerce building along the procession route, and they disarmed the assassin within only a few feet of Díaz and Taft. Díaz was re-elected in 1910, but alleged electoral fraud forced him into exile in France and sparked the 1910 Mexican Revolution, initially led by Francisco I. Madero.
Madero was elected president but overthrown and murdered in a coup d'état two years later directed by conservative general Victoriano Huerta. That event re-ignited the civil war, involving figures such as Francisco Villa and Emiliano Zapata, who formed their own forces. A third force, the constitutional army led by Venustiano Carranza managed to bring an end to the war, and radically amended the 1857 Constitution to include many of the social premises and demands of the revolutionaries into what was eventually called the 1917 Constitution.

Assassinated in 1920, Carranza was succeeded by another revolutionary hero, Álvaro Obregón, who in turn was succeeded by Plutarco Elías Calles. Obregón was reelected in 1928 but assassinated before he could assume power. In 1929, Calles founded the National Revolutionary Party (PNR), later renamed the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), and started a period known as the Maximato, which ended with the election of Lázaro Cárdenas, who implemented many economic and social reforms. This included the Mexican oil expropriation in March 1938, which nationalized the U.S. and Anglo-Dutch oil company known as the Mexican Eagle Petroleum Company.

Between 1940 and 1980, Mexico remained a poor country but experienced substantial economic growth that some historians call the "Mexican miracle". Although the economy continued to flourish, social inequality remained a factor of discontent. Electoral reforms and high oil prices followed the administration of Luis Echeverría, mismanagement of these revenues led to inflation and exacerbated the 1982 Crisis. That year, oil prices plunged, interest rates soared, and the government defaulted on its debt. President Miguel de la Madrid resorted to currency devaluations which in turn sparked inflation.

In 1988, alleged electoral fraud prevented the leftist candidate Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas from winning the national presidential elections, giving Carlos Salinas de Gortari the presidency and leading to massive protests in Mexico City. Salinas embarked on a program of neoliberal reforms which fixed the exchange rate, controlled inflation and culminated with the signing of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which came into effect on January 1, 1994.

In December 1994, a month after Salinas was succeeded by Ernesto Zedillo, the Mexican economy collapsed, with a rapid rescue package authorized by the U.S. President, Bill Clinton, and major macroeconomic reforms started by President Zedillo, the economy rapidly recovered and growth peaked at almost 7% by the end of 1999.

### Latin Spring Revolution

*See Full Article: Latin Spring*

Following the beginning of a revolution in Venezuela and Colombia, protesters in Mexico began flooding into Angel of Independence Plaza, demanding the resignation of the President. These protests spread quickly across the country and riot police started attacking into the protests in an attempt to disperse them. Civil order collapsed in Mexico, as protesters began attacking government buildings and in some extreme cases, murdering local politicians. In response, the riot police and military units began to use lethal force to restrain protests. A curfew and a state of emergency was declared across Mexico in order for reforms to be made. In the Mexican city of Zapatista, pro-government forces lost control of the city, as the protests turned into a full scale rebellion. Riot police were then ordered to clear the Angel of Independence Plaza, leading to deadly clashes between protesters and police and protesters began to barricade themselves inside the plaza.

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## Government and Politics

The United Mexican States are a federation whose government is representative, democratic and republican based on a presidential system according to the 1917 Constitution. The legislature is the bicameral Congress of the Union, composed of the Senate of the Republic and the Chamber of Deputies. The Chamber of Deputies has 500 deputies. Of these, 300 are elected by plurality vote in single-member districts and 200 are elected by proportional representation with closed party lists for which the country is divided into five electoral constituencies. The Senate is made up of 128 senators. Of these, 64 senators (two for each state and two for the Federal District) are elected by plurality vote in pairs; 32 senators are the first minority or first-runner up (one for each state and one for the Federal District), and 32 are elected by proportional representation from national closed party lists.

The executive is the President of the United Mexican States, who is the head of state and government, as well as the commander-in-chief of the Mexican military forces. The President also appoints the Cabinet and other officers. The highest organ of the judicial branch of government is the Supreme Court of Justice, the national Supreme Court, which has eleven judges appointed by the President and approved by the Senate.

### Administrative Divisions

The United Mexican States are a federation of 31 free and sovereign states, which form a union that exercises a degree of jurisdiction over the Federal District and other territories. Each state has its own constitution, congress, and a judiciary, and its citizens elect by direct voting a governor for a six-year term, and representatives to their respective unicameral state congresses for three-year terms. The Federal District is a special political division that belongs to the federation as a whole and not to a particular state, and as such, has more limited local rule than the nation's states.

### Foreign Relations

Mexico is a member of the G-30, BRICS and G8+5 economic forums with many of its allies, including the United States, Russia, Brazil and China. Mexico is also a member of the ‘Coffee Club’ along with Canada, Italy, Turkey and several other countries aiming to reform the United Nations Security Council.