Young vendor, Guanajuato Mexico.jpg

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. The elections held in 2000 marked the first time since the 1910 Mexican Revolution that an opposition candidate - Vicente FOX of the National Action Party (PAN) - defeated the party in government, the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). He was succeeded in 2006 by another PAN candidate Felipe CALDERON.

Mexico continues to suffer from drug inspired crime, corruption and terrorist like actions against the government for its efforts to reduce the influence of drug lords and cartels in its country. The government's actions are often uncoordinated and well known in advance by virtue of the money and influence the cartels exercise throughout the country.Skip to next paragraph