Mexico is a nation where affluence, poverty, natural splendour and urban blight rub shoulders.
Its politics were dominated for 70 years by the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI. But elections in 1997 saw a resurgent opposition break what was in effect a one-party system behind a democratic facade.
Elections in 2000 confirmed the trend when Vicente Fox became the first president to come from the right-wing opposition PAN.
Mexico has the second-largest economy in Latin America and is a major oil exporter. Though production has fallen in the last few years, about one-third of government revenue still comes from the industry. Much of the crude is bought by the US.