This article reviews general and economic information about Mexico to help you form a global impression of the area you are thinking of visiting.

Location
Middle America, bordering the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico, between Belize and the US and bordering the North Pacific Ocean, between Guatemala and the US

Background
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. Elections held in July 2000 marked the first time since the 1910 Mexican Revolution that the opposition defeated the party in government, the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). Vicente FOX of the National Action Party (PAN) was sworn in on 1 December 2000 as the first chief executive elected in free and fair elections.

Economic Overview
Mexico has a free market economy with a mixture of modern and outmoded industry and agriculture, increasingly dominated by the private sector.

Goverment Type
Federal Republic: A mixture of US constitutional theory and civil law system; judicial review of legislative acts; accepts compulsory ICJ jurisdiction, with reservations

Languages
Spanish, various Mayan, Nahuatl, and other regional indigenous languages

Religions
Nominally Roman Catholic 89%, Protestant 6%, other 5%

Telephone System
International Country Code - 52