Mexico

• high, rugged mountains;
• low coastal plains;
• high plateaus;
• desert

• 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

party to:

Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Marine Life Conservation, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Wetlands, Whaling

signed, but not ratified:

none of the selected agreements

at birth:

1.05 male(s)/female

under 15 years:

1.043 male(s)/female

15-64 years:

0.936 male(s)/female

65 years and over:

0.828 male(s)/female

total population:

0.96 male(s)/female (2007 est.)

noun:

Mexican(s)

adjective:

Mexican

conventional long form:

United Mexican States

conventional short form:

Mexico

local long form:

Estados Unidos Mexicanos

local short form:

Mexico

name:

Mexico (Distrito Federal)

geographic coordinates:

19 26 N, 99 08 W

time difference:

UTC-6 (1 hour behind Washington, DC during Standard Time)

daylight saving time:

+1hr, begins first Sunday in April; ends last Sunday in October

note: Mexico is divided into four time zones

• 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

• mixture of US constitutional theory and civil law system;
• judicial review of legislative acts;
• accepts compulsory ICJ jurisdiction with reservations

• Convergence for Democracy or CD [Luis MALDONADO Venegas];
• Institutional Revolutionary Party or PRI [Beatriz PAREDES];
• Labor Party or PT [Alberto ANAYA Gutierrez];
• 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 Godinez];
• Party of the Democratic Revolution (Partido de la Revolucion Democratica) or PRD [Leonel COTA Montano];
• Social Democratic and Peasant Alternative Party (Partido Alternativa Socialdemocrata y Campesina) or Alternativa [Alberto BEGNE Guerra]

• Broad Progressive Front or FAP;
• Businessmen's Coordinating Council or CCE;
• Confederation of Employers of the Mexican Republic or COPARMEX;
• Confederation of Industrial Chambers or CONCAMIN;
• Confederation of Mexican Workers or CTM;
• Confederation of National Chambers of Commerce or CONCANACO;
• Coordinator for Foreign Trade Business Organizations or COECE;
• Federation of Unions Providing Goods and Services or FESEBES;
• National Chamber of Transformation Industries or CANACINTRA;
• National Peasant Confederation or CNC;
• National Small Business Chamber or CANACOPE;
• National Syndicate of Education Workers or SNTE;
• National Union of Workers or UNT;
• Popular Assembly of the People of Oaxaca or APPO;
• Roman Catholic Church

chief of mission:

Ambassador Antonio O. GARZA, Jr.

embassy:

Paseo de la Reforma 305, Colonia Cuauhtemoc, 06500 Mexico, Distrito Federal

mailing address:

P. O. Box 9000, Brownsville, TX 78520-9000

telephone:

[52] (55) 5080-2000

FAX:

[52] (55) 5511-9980

consulate(s) general:

Ciudad Juarez, Guadalajara, Monterrey, Tijuana

consulate(s):

Hermosillo, Matamoros, Merida, Nogales, Nuevo Laredo

• three equal vertical bands of green (hoist side), white, and red;
• the coat of arms (an eagle perched on a cactus with a snake in its beak) is centered in the white band

agriculture:

18%

industry:

24%

services:

58% (2003)

lowest 10%:

1.6%

highest 10%:

39.4% (2004)

• corn, wheat, soybeans, rice, beans, cotton, coffee, fruit, tomatoes;
• beef, poultry, dairy products;
• wood products

general assessment:

• low telephone density with about 18 main lines per 100 persons;
• privatized in December 1990;
• the opening to competition in January 1997 improved prospects for development, but Telmex remains dominant

domestic:

• adequate telephone service for business and government, but the population is poorly served;
• mobile subscribers far outnumber fixed-line subscribers;
• domestic satellite system with 120 earth stations;
• extensive microwave radio relay network;
• considerable use of fiber-optic cable and coaxial cable

international:

• country code - 52;
• satellite earth stations - 32 Intelsat, 2 Solidaridad (giving Mexico improved access to South America, Central America, and much of the US as well as enhancing domestic communications), 1 Panamsat, numerous Inmarsat mobile earth stations;
• linked to Central American Microwave System of trunk connections;
• high capacity Columbus-2 fiber-optic submarine cable with access to the US, Virgin Islands, Canary Islands, Morocco, Spain, and Italy (2005)

• gas 22,705 km;
• liquid petroleum gas 1,875 km;
• oil 8,688 km;
• oil/gas/water 228 km;
• refined products 6,520 km (2006)

total:

17,665 km

standard gauge:

17,665 km 1.435-m gauge (2006)

total:

235,670 km

paved:

116,751 km (includes 6,144 km of expressways)

unpaved:

118,919 km (2004)

total:

60 ships (1000 GRT or over) 802,128 GRT/1,157,971 DWT

by type:

bulk carrier 2, cargo 7, chemical tanker 6, liquefied gas 4, passenger/cargo 11, petroleum tanker 25, roll on/roll off 5

foreign-owned:

4 (Denmark 2, Norway 1, UAE 1)

registered in other countries:

14 (Brazil 1, Honduras 1, Liberia 1, Panama 4, Portugal 1, Spain 3, Venezuela 3) (2007)

• Secretariat of National Defense (Secretaria de Defensa Nacional, Sedena): Army (Ejercito), Mexican Air Force (Fuerza Aerea Mexicana, FAM);
• Secretariat of the Navy (Secretaria de Marina, Semar): Mexican Navy (Armada de Mexico, ARM, includes Naval Air Force (FAN) and Marines) (2007)

• 18 years of age for compulsory military service, conscript service obligation - 12 months;
• 16 years of age with consent for voluntary enlistment;
• conscripts serve only in the Army;
• Navy and Air Force service is all voluntary;
• women are eligible for voluntary military service (2007)

males age 18-49:

24,488,008

females age 18-49:

26,128,046 (2005 est.)

males age 18-49:

19,058,337

females age 18-49:

21,966,796 (2005 est.)

males age 18-49:

1,063,233

females age 18-49:

1,043,816 (2005 est.)

• abundant rainfall in recent years along much of the Mexico-US border region has ameliorated periodically strained water-sharing arrangements;
• the US has intensified security measures to monitor and control legal and illegal personnel, transport, and commodities across its border with Mexico;
• Mexico must deal with thousands of impoverished Guatemalans and other Central Americans who cross the porous border looking for work in Mexico and the United States

current situation:

• Mexico is a source, transit, and destination country for persons trafficked for sexual exploitation and labor;
• while the vast majority of victims are Central Americans trafficked along Mexico's southern border, other source regions include South America, the Caribbean, Eastern Europe, Africa, and Asia;
• women and children are trafficked from rural regions to urban centers and tourist areas for sexual exploitation, often through fraudulent offers of employment or through threats of physical violence;
• the Mexican trafficking problem is often conflated with alien smuggling, and frequently the same criminal networks are involved;
• pervasive corruption among state and local law enforcement often impedes investigations

tier rating:

Tier 2 Watch List - Mexico remains on the Tier 2 Watch List for the third consecutive year based on future commitments to undertake additional efforts in prosecution, protection, and prevention of trafficking in persons, and the failure of the government to provide critical law enforcement data

• major drug-producing nation;
• cultivation of opium poppy in 2005 amounted to 3,300 hectares yielding a potential production of 8 metric tons of pure heroin, or 17 metric tons of "black tar" heroin, the dominant form of Mexican heroin in the western United States;
• marijuana cultivation decreased 3% to 5,600 hectares in 2005 - just two years after a decade-high cultivation peak in 2003 - and yielded a potential production of 10,100 metric tons;
• government conducts the largest independent illicit-crop eradication program in the world;
• continues as the primary transshipment country for US-bound cocaine from South America, with an estimated 90% of annual cocaine movements towards the US stopping in Mexico;
• major drug syndicates control majority of drug trafficking throughout the country;
• producer and distributor of ecstasy;
• significant money-laundering center;
• major supplier of heroin and largest foreign supplier of marijuana and methamphetamine to the US market