We might as well since all of our troops and national guards are stuck in Iran and Iraq.

With the numbers of illegals being what they are, we could feed the crocs for decades and still have some body parts to put in the freezer for future border feedings.

Take care

quote:

Originally posted by Beverly:
We might as well since all of our troops and national guards are stuck in Iran and Iraq.

With the numbers of illegals being what they are, we could feed the crocs for decades and still have some body parts to put in the freezer for future border feedings.

Take care

I knew you were ignorant, but please, please try to inform yourself. Thanks for proving my point: most bigots are blind, obsessed idiots...

Wooooooo I made a mistake. I was typing so fast I said Iran instead of AFGHANISTAN.

Good catch Explora um . . . not

STFU you stalking, sniveling, whiney crybaby. YOU LOSE AGAIN . . . .

I accept your apologies, but I still think you're an ignorant bigot. And a blind, obsessed idiot too...

Money buys first class border crossing
By Jeremy Schwartz | Monday, February 18, 2008, 03:18 PM


Apparently money can buy almost anything, including, easy access to the United States. According to last week's emeequis magazine, a kind of a hip version of Time or Newsweek, coyotes, or people smugglers are using techniques that go far beyond the traditional desert exodus.

For its cover story, the magazine uses the story of an anonymous coyote, who claims to be from the state of Sinaloa and plies his trade along the Arizona border. According the man, migrants who can afford $3,000 get the deluxe treatment: The coyote says that his operation rents legal visas from Mexicans for $300 a week and has a stash of the documents at any given time. When migrants pay the $3,000 they go through the visas looking for a photo ID that resembles the would-be border crosser. The match doesn't have to be exact, our anonymous coyote explains. The human smugglers also have a crew of makeup artists stashed along the border who will change hair color, give colored contacts, pencil in moles or freckles, glue fake beards and dress the migrant as a well-to-do border crosser. The migrant is then taken across the international bridge by car and tells the border guard that he or she is simply headed to the nearest Wal-Mart or shopping mall. "That's because if you say you're going ****her, they'll pass the visa through the machine...and they trap you," the coyote says.

If the migrant can't afford the $3,000 he or she is taken on a brutal journey through the murderous Arizona desert, a trip that costs $1,500. At $700 is the budget border crossing experience: the mad dash. The coyote explains that for this price, the coyotes will gather a group of migrants together along the border and send them across in a mad dash at the hour of the Border Patrol shift change. Some will undoubtedly get caught, but those that make it across are given a bus ticket to Phoenix. "If they get caught along the way, that's their problem," the coyote says. "$700 isn't enough money to risk anything more."

Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment


http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs...st_class_border.html

Press Releases :: February 14, 2008

T.Q. Houlton 202-225-7882
Tancredo Letter to Mexican President Calderon

( WASHINGTON, D.C. ) – Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-Littleton) today sent a letter to Mexican President Felipe Calderon questioning the motives behind his current visit to the United States as well as the charges levied by Mr. Calderon against the fairness of American immigration policy. A copy of the letter is below:

President Calderon:

I was disappointed by misguided comments you recently made regarding U.S.-Mexico relations and U.S. immigration laws. Purveying misinformation and absurd allegations is hardly a positive step to building a constructive partnership.

According to the Associated Press you recently said, "You have two economies. One economy is intensive in capital, which is the American economy. One economy is intensive in labor, which is the Mexican economy. We are two complementary economies, and that phenomenon is impossible to stop." Yes, both countries benefit by the 85% of Mexico's manufacturing exports that come to the U.S., but people are not commodities. While I appreciate your concern for our joint prosperity, the economic and social ills that plague your country cannot be resolved by simply exporting your citizens to the United States.

It is undeniable that Mexico faces major challenges. Endemic corruption and the power of violent drug cartels still dominate everyday life across Mexico. Beyond the headlines, Mexico has deep institutional maladies. Mexico's absurdly antiquated Napoleonic-inquisition styled legal system and the squandering of robust energy-industry opportunity by a poorly managed, state-run Pemex monopoly are just two examples of the kind of self-inflicted wounds that hobble your troubled nation.

I understand that you are attempting to resolve some of these problems and applaud your leadership in trying to do so. But what would contribute more to the long term stability of your economy and your country would be to focus more energy on addressing your domestic challenges and less on lobbying the U.S. to provide amnesty for Mexicans who have illegally entered this country with the blessing of your government. In doing so, you might be able to keep Mexico's "best and brightest young men" in Mexico – where they can contribute more to Mexico's economy than remittance payments. Unfortunately, your recent comments indicate that Mexico will continue its policy of encouraging illegal immigration and treating the United States as little more than a dumping ground for your social and economic problems.

In your speech yesterday to the California State legislature, you lectured the American people on how to improve our immigration policies. Why did you not propose that we model our policies on Mexico's own policies toward illegal entry across your own southern border? Mexico expends enormous resources to prevent Guatemalans, Hondurans and Salvadorans from entering the country illegally, but you castigate the United States for wanting secure borders. Mr. President, in my neighborhood that is called hypocrisy.

You proposed in your Sacramento speech that "migration" be made "legal, safe and organized." Mr. President, we already have such a program and it is called legal immigration. Over one million legal immigrants come through our ports of entry each year, not across our border fences. The American people set limits on the number of legal immigrants through our immigration laws, and it is not the job of the Mexican government to revise or expand those limits.

President Calderon, you are insulting the American people when you tell us that fifteen to twenty million illegal aliens in our country bring only benefits and no costs. I challenge you to give one concrete example of how the enforcement of our existing immigration laws violates anyone's human rights. The people of Oklahoma are not anti-Mexican for passing laws to require verification of employment eligibility. The people of Indiana are not anti-immigrant for passing laws to require photo identification for voting. The people of California are not anti-Mexican for denying driver's licenses to illegal aliens. The people of Arizona are not anti-immigrant for passing laws that deny welfare benefits to people who are in that state unlawfully.

It is no secret that the purpose of your visit is to influence the American election, and in fact your trip has been billed as a high-stakes effort to shape the immigration debate underway in the U.S. presidential race. What is perhaps more disappointing, however, is your attempt to insinuate that anti-amnesty sentiment here in the U.S. is the same as anti-Mexican sentiment. I am referring to your statement, "I need to change in the perception that the Americans are the enemy, and it is important to change the perception that the Mexicans are the enemy."

It is both disingenuous and dangerous for you to inject this kind of xenophobia into this debate. The fact that the overwhelming majority of Americans support the enforcement of our immigration laws and take issue with the notion that we should reward illegal behavior, hardly qualifies as ethnic animosity or international enmity. What you must understand is that a treasured aspect of our national foundation is a respect for the rule of law. Perhaps if corruption were not so widespread and commonplace in Mexico, it would be easier for you to understand this.

President Calderon, in many ways your trip thus far has been a long series of mixed messages. You accuse the United States of recent protectionist trends, yet you heavily restrict foreign entry into Mexico's energy sector through a massive, state-run Pemex monopoly. You assure American politicians that an open flow of cheap Mexican labor is not only benign but vitally necessary, but you take great care in securing your own southern border with Guatemala. You come to the United States purportedly to promote better political and economic ties with the U.S., but then issue a thinly veiled threat that Mexicans will regard the U.S. as an enemy if we refuse to provide millions of illegal aliens with unconditional amnesty.

President Calderon, I respectfully suggest that the next time you visit our country, rather than trying to influence U.S. policymakers or our election process, you take time to listen to Americans rather than lecture them. If you want to make changes in government policies, apply your energies to Mexico's laundry list of problems rather than meddling in domestic American politics.

***
From Tom's Congressional website:

http://tinyurl.com/33epex

Couple in Colorado uses a fake $100 bill to rip off Girl Scouts
Associated Press
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 02.19.2008

WESTMINSTER, Colo. "” A pair of con artists ripped off a Girl Scout group when they exchanged a fake $100 bill for cookies, police said.

The unknown couple handed over the bill Friday night at a supermarket, telling the girls it had been washed when asked about why it looked so strange.

"It felt and looked wrong and it was a quarter of an inch shorted than a $1 bill," said Jil Hennessey-Seabolt, the cookie director for Junior Girl Scouts Troop 2121. Hennessey-Seabolt said the Girl Scouts gave the couple $93.50 in change after the purchase.

The exchange eradicated the Scouts' earnings that day. The money they raise in the sales goes to camping trips and to area charities.
"Something like this isn't fair when it happens to adults, but when it happens to kids who work so hard, it's so frustrating," Hennessey-Seabolt said.

The story does have a happy ending, though. A resident donated $100 to the Girl Scouts.

1,200 hear George Lopez back Obama
Ramón Rentería / El Paso Times

Article Launched: 02/28/2008 12:00:00 AM MST


Comedian George Lopez made a campaign stop at Magoffin Auditorium on the campus of the University of Texas at El Paso Wednesday afternoon for presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama. Over 1,200 supporters filled hte auditorium to hear Lopez. (Ruben R. Ramirez / El Paso Times. )


Hollywood television celebrity and popular comedian George Lopez brought U.S. Sen. Barack Obama's message of hope and change Wednesday afternoon to an estimated 1,200 potential young voters at the University of Texas at El Paso.

"It is the time of the Latino, your time to step up, your time to take this country over," Lopez said, eliciting applause. "But si se puede doesn't mean anything unless you go out and make it happen."

Obama and opponent U.S. Sen.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Advertisement

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hillary Rodham Clinton are trying to harvest Texas' 228 total delegates in Tuesday's Democratic primary.
Lopez spent 22 minutes on stage spinning familiar comedy lines and urging students to vote early and then vote again in precinct caucuses after the polls close on election day. He later fielded questions backstage.

"I've seen in Senator Obama somebody who really cares about people. It's nice to feel like you're important to the fabric of America," Lopez said. "Latinos cannot be under fire every day and when it comes time to make a difference, you don't vote."

Lopez, 46, has been performing comedy in El Paso since 1986 and routinely sells out shows here.

Lopez also spent a few minutes chatting with students after making his formal pitch for Obama.

Stacey Bernard, 22, a senior

kinesiolology major, and her friend Leticia Lopez, 32, a senior multidisciplinary studies major, have already been plugging Obama on campus. They both described the comedian as very down-to-earth.

"This is a big deal for us, a Latino community as well as multi-racial," Leticia Lopez said. "It's a great opportunity for us to experience this."

Event organizers filled Magoffin Auditorium, but it was hard to tell whether most students went to embrace the Obama campaign or to be entertained with Lopez's politically laced but familiar stand-up comedy.

"This was fun and more entertaining than Hillary's rally, but I'm not going for either one of them right now," said Jacob Torres, 20, a sophomore education major. "Some of the stuff they're promising is kind of hard to accomplish."

Ramón Rentería may be reached at rrenteria@elpasotimes.com; 546-6146.

Their mission: Turn back migrants, save lives

No guns, no radios: This is Mexico's border patrol
Sean Holstege
The Arizona Republic
Feb. 29, 2008 12:00 AM

SAN LUIS RIO COLORADO, Sonora - Mexico's unarmed border patrol faces a daunting challenge: Arrest often-dangerous smugglers and persuade people, who have invested their life's savings to cross the border illegally, to head back home.

The border agents patrol without weapons or radios in parts of the Altar Desert so remote that their cellphones don't work. Here, drug smugglers roam freely with military-style automatic rifles and satellite phones.

Called Grupos Beta, the agents are parts federal police, medic and social worker. They exist to deter hundreds of thousands of compatriots from dangerous border crossings and to rescue them when the harsh landscape and climate prove too much. Agents also arrest the coyotes who guide immigrants into the United States, violating laws of both countries.


Yet questions linger about the role and effectiveness of the Betas, who were disarmed in 2000 because of abuse allegations. Grupos Beta has fans and foes on both sides of the border.

Detractors portray the Betas as a Band-Aid against illegal immigration at best and at worst as adding to the problem. Supporters, including U.S. Border Patrol agents, point to the nearly 5,700 rescues by Betas last year along the U.S.-Mexican frontier. Human-rights groups say the Betas have overcome their image as armed thugs preying on immigrants to become respected as an elite corps of lifesavers.

"They have the power of persuasion, which is power. And they have access to the migrants, which is also a power," said Robin Hoover, who runs the Tucson-based Humane Borders, which is dedicated to saving lives in the desert.

Five agents patrol about 90 miles of border across from Arizona's Yuma County. When they encounter would-be immigrants, they hand them cartoon-style guidebooks that give advice on how to survive in the desert - assuming the people don't turn back after hearing tales of rape and seeing photos of corpses. Beta agents hand out water, food and clothing for those who continue north.

The pamphlets and tactics have enraged immigration-control groups in the United States, who accuse the Mexican government of encouraging illegal border crossings. But there is little else the Beta agents can do: It's not illegal in Mexico to cross the border, just as it is not illegal for U.S. citizens to cross into Mexico, so they cannot arrest crossers.

Jorge Alberto Vasquez Oropeza, who leads the Beta office in San Luis Rio Colorado, is proud his team arrested 36 coyote suspects last year. It was none the year before. Coyotes can get 12 years in Mexican prison, but, Vasquez says, migrants almost never testify and judges regularly let the coyotes go.

Lonely patrols

A recent patrol began at 7:30 a.m. with a strong scent of diesel smoke as Commandante Vasquez roared his trademark orange Beta truck to life. He headed east along Mexico Highway 2, which runs parallel to and 100 yards from the new border fence. A cold wind blew sand across the two-lane artery connecting Baja California to the rest of Mexico.

The road between San Luis Rio Colorado and Los Vidrios is dominated by four features that typify today's Mexican frontier:

"¢ Wide-open desert. For years, this openness has made Arizona the most popular entry point for illegal immigrants, but the rough terrain often turns deadly.

"¢ A military checkpoint. Just east of San Luis Rio Colorado, two dozen Mexican army troops, shouldering vintage wood-stock rifles, stop vehicles in search of narcotics. President Felipe Calderón has deployed thousands of troops to fight Mexico's war on drugs.

"¢ Abandoned ranch houses. Dozens dot Highway 2. All lack windows, roofs and doors. They've become staging areas for bands of border-crossers.

"¢ A 15-foot, metal-mesh border fence. The barrier dominates the landscape. It has choked off human smuggling near Yuma.


Evidence of crossers

About 15 miles east of town, Vasquez pulled off the road into Cafe Cesar to take a second look at a van. The woman driver glanced away. Lashed to her roof were two extension ladders, a more common sight near the fence these days.

He drove away without confronting the woman because planning to cross isn't a crime.

Vasquez and his team bounced off-road along the fence for three hours, stopping at known hot spots. One was the abandoned La Paloma restaurant, now a compound of cinder-block skeletons, where the mesh fence is temporarily interrupted by rocky hills.

The compound was empty, but rusty tin cans at the foot of one hill and an ice pick at the top signaled that spotters were there.
F-a-r-ther east, at another hillside break in the fence, Beta agents found a pile of clothes, including black military boots.

"Narcotraficantes," said Beta Agent Ricardo Ramirez Piñal, noting that the dark clothes and small size of the group indicate drug smugglers. Footprints led around the fence, into Arizona.

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0229betas0229.html

TRANSLATED FROM:
http://www.elfinanciero.com.mx/ElFinanciero/Portal/cfpa...rby=docid&sortby=ASC

Chicago, February 29.- The commitments acquired by the immigrant leaders of Illinois with the Democratic Party in the U.S., put in doubt the execution of a march on May 1st to demand an integral migratory reform, notified an activist.

The coordinator of the March 10 Movement (M10M), Jorge Mújica, assured that the immigrant community is willing to march in the streets for an integral migratory reform.

Nevertheless, the leaders of the movement haven't arrived at an agreement due to the fact that a great majority of them have given priority to party participation in the American electoral process, he explained.

"There is difficulty to convince certain activists that have interests with the democrats, because the party is opposed to the marches", affirmed Mújica.

He added that others, whose organizations depend on a governmental budget, are commited with the services they give out for which they do not desire to be involved with the march organization.

"There are also clubs of Mexican natives, that are slow to incorporate, and other leaders that reject the marches, although they are the first that add themselves in the photo", he exposed.

Nevertheless, he said that there will be a march on May 1st, due to the insistence of raids and deportations which maintains lit the spirit of the immigrant community to come out and demand the return of the immigration issue to be debated in Congress.

"At least in Illinois there isn't any fear, but certainty that they will not be able come against us all. Because 50 years would be needed to remove to all the undocumented, a raid of a thousand daily, we are speaking of 365 thousand per year, is not even the quantity that enters", he assured.

It underlined that the M10M organizes a congress, to take place on March 8 and 9, regarding immigration reform, during which he expects to define its future strategy. March 10, to commemorate the start of its movement, the activists will concentrate at mid-day in downtown Chicago where they will distribute informative flyers.

"The message is that we are going to begin our third year of marches and the we the undocumented are still here in spite of the raids and we want that the immigration issue be taken up again" in Congress, insisted Mújica. (With information of Notimex/MVC)

Legislators from Mexican State Angry at Influx of...Mexicans


Posted by Kim Priestap

Published: January 20, 2008 - 1:39 PM

Nine state legislators from the Mexican state of Sonora traveled to Tucson to complain about Arizona's new employer crackdown on illegals from Mexico. It seems many Mexican illegals are now returning to their hometowns and the officials in the Sonora state government are ticked:

A delegation of nine state legislators from Sonora was in Tucson on Tuesday to say Arizona's new employer sanctions law will have a devastating effect on the Mexican state.

At a news conference, the legislators said Sonora - Arizona's southern neighbor, made up of mostly small towns - cannot handle the demand for housing, jobs and schools it will face as illegal Mexican workers here return to their hometowns without jobs or money.

The law, which took effect Jan.1, punishes employers who knowingly hire individuals who don't have valid legal documents to work in the United States. Penalties include suspension or loss of a business license

They want to tell them how the law will affect Mexican families on both sides of the border.
"How can they pass a law like this?" asked Mexican Rep. Leticia Amparano Gamez, who represents Nogales.

"There is not one person living in Sonora who does not have a friend or relative working in Arizona," she said in Spanish.

"Mexico is not prepared for this, for the tremendous problems" it will face as more and more Mexicans working in Arizona and sending money to their families return to hometowns in Sonora without jobs, she said.

"We are one family, socially and economically," she said of the people of Sonora and Arizona.

Wrong. The United States is a sovereign nation and its states and its citizens are not responsible for the welfare of Mexico's citizens. It's time for the Mexican government to stop parasitically feeding off of the United States and start taking care of its own citizens.

Hat tip: Bryan at Hot Air.

http://wizbangblog.com/content/2008/01/20/legislators-f...nflux-ofmexicans.php

San diego California,Fredy got tired of reading beverly full of **** comments,I agree she is so ignorant,I told her long time ago to stop smoking that stuff.But she does not lisen,I wonder when she is going to be sober and post something while not under the influence of drugs.I guess that is never going to happen .VIVA MEXICO!

Main article: Toponymy of Mexico
After winning independence from Spain, it was decided that the new country would be named after its capital city, whose original name of foundation was México-Tenochtitlan, in reference to the Mexica tribe, the main group of people of what came to be known as the Aztec civilization. The origin of the name of the Mexica is obscure and subject to diverse interpretations. Some[10] argue that it derives from the Nahuatl Mexitl or Mexitli, a secret name for the god of war and patron of the Aztecs, Huitzilopochtli, in which case Mexico means "Place where Mexitli lives". Another hypothesis is that the word Mexiko derives from the metztli ("moon"), xictli ("navel", "center" or "son"), and the suffix -co (place), in which case it means "Place at the center of the moon" or "Place at the center of the Lake Moon", in reference to Lake Texcoco. The system of interconnected lakes, of which Texcoco was at the center, had the form of a rabbit, the same image that the Aztecs saw in the moon. Tenochtitlan was located at the center (or navel) of the lake (or rabbit/moon).[11] Still another hypothesis suggests that it is derived from Mectli, the goddess of maguey.[11]

The name of the city was transliterated to Spanish as México with the phonetic value of the x in Medieval Spanish, which represented the voiceless postalveolar fricative /ʃ/. This sound, as well as the voiced postalveolar fricative /Ê’/, represented by a j, evolved into a voiceless velar fricative /x/ during the sixteenth century.[12] This led to the use of the variant Méjico in many publications in Spanish, most notably in Spain, whereas in Mexico and some other Spanish–speaking countries México was the preferred spelling. In recent years the Real Academia Española, which regulates the Spanish language, determined that both variants are acceptable in Spanish but that the normative recommended spelling is México.[13] The majority of publications in all Spanish-speaking countries now adhere to the new norm, even though the alternative variant is still occasionally used.[14] In English, the x in Mexico represents neither the original nor the current sound, but the consonant cluster /ks/.


Geography and climate

A picture of Mexico seen from space.Main article: Geography of Mexico
Situated in southern North America[15][16] at about 23˚ N and 102˚ W,[17] Mexico comprises much of Middle America.[18][19] Physiographically, the lands east of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec including the Yucatán Peninsula (which together comprise around 12% of the country's area) lie within Central America; geologically, the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt delimits the region on the north.[20] Geopolitically, however, Mexico is commonly not considered a Central American country.

Mexico's total area is 1,972,550 km², making it the world's 14th largest country by total area, and includes approximately 6,000 km² of islands in the Pacific Ocean (including the remote Guadalupe Island and the Islas Revillagigedo), Gulf of Mexico, Caribbean Sea, and Gulf of California. On its north, Mexico shares a 3,141 km border with the United States. The meandering Río Bravo del Norte (known as the Rio Grande in the United States) defines the border from Ciudad Juárez east to the Gulf of Mexico. A series of natural and artificial markers delineate the United States-Mexican border west from Ciudad Juárez to the Pacific Ocean. On its south, Mexico shares an 871 km border with Guatemala and a 251 km border with Belize.


Topography

Topographic map of Mexico.Mexico is crossed from north to south by two mountain ranges known as Sierra Madre Oriental and Sierra Madre Occidental, which are the extension of the Rocky Mountains from northern North America. From east to west at the center, the country is crossed by the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt also known as the Sierra Nevada. A fourth mountain range, the Sierra Madre del Sur, runs from Michoacán to Oaxaca. As such, the majority of the Mexican central and northern territories are located at high altitudes, and the highest elevations are found at the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt: Pico de Orizaba (5,700 m), Popocatépetl (5,462 m) and Iztaccíhuatl (5,286 m) and the Nevado de Toluca (4,577 m). Three major urban agglomerations are located in the valleys between these four elevations: Toluca, Greater Mexico City and Puebla.


Climate

Annual snowfall in Chihuahua and an isolated beach in Cabo San Lucas.
Map of climates in MexicoThe Tropic of Cancer effectively divides the country into temperate and tropical zones. Land north of the twenty-fourth parallel experiences cooler temperatures during the winter months. South of the twenty-fourth parallel, temperatures are fairly constant year round and vary solely as a function of elevation.

Areas south of the twenty-fourth parallel with elevations up to 1,000 meters (the southern parts of both coastal plains as well as the Yucatán Peninsula), have a yearly median temperature between 24 and 28 ˚C. Temperatures here remain high throughout the year, with only a 5 ˚C difference between winter and summer median temperatures. Although low-lying areas north of the twentieth-fourth parallel are hot and humid during the summer, they generally have lower yearly temperature averages (from 20 to 24 ˚C) because of more moderate conditions during the winter.

Many large cities in Mexico are located in the Valley of Mexico or in adjacent valleys with altitudes generally above 2,000 m, this gives them a year-round temperate climate with yearly temperature averages (from 16 to 18 ˚C) and cool nighttime temperatures throughout the year. Many parts of Mexico, particularly the north have a dry climate with sporadic rainfall while parts of the tropical lowlands in the south average more than 200 cm of annual precipitation.


Biodiversity

A Lepisosteus, one of the endemic species of Mexico.Mexico is one of the 17 megadiverse countries of the world. With over 200,000 different species, Mexico is home of 10–12% of the world's biodiversity.[21] Mexico ranks first in biodiversity in reptiles with 707 known species, second in mammals with 438 species, fourth in amphibians with 290 species, and fourth in flora, with 26,000 different species.[22] Mexico is also considered the second country in the world in ecosystems and fourth in overall species.[23] Approximately 2,500 species are protected by Mexican legislations.[23] The Mexican government created the National System of Information about Biodiversity, in order to study and promote the sustainable use of ecosystems.

In Mexico, 170,000 square kilometres are considered "Protected Natural Areas." These include 34 reserve biospheres (unaltered ecosystems), 64 national parks, 4 natural monuments (protected in perpetuity for their aesthetic, scientific or historical value), 26 areas of protected flora and fauna, 4 areas for natural resource protection (conservation of soil, hydrological basins and forests) and 17 sanctuaries (zones rich in diverse species).[21]


History
Main article: History of Mexico

Pre-Columbian civilizations

"The Castle" of Chichén-Itzá, one of the New Seven Wonders.Human presence in Mexico has been shown to date back 40,000 years based upon ancient human footprints discovered in the Valley of Mexico (previous evidence substantiated indigenous inhabitants at 12,500 years ago). For thousands of years, Mexico was a land of hunter-gatherers. Around 9,000 years ago, ancient Mexicans domesticated corn and initiated an agricultural revolution, leading to the formation of many complex civilizations.

These civilizations revolved around cities with writing, monumental architecture, astronomical studies, mathematics, and militaries. For almost three thousand years, Aridoamerica (northern Mexico)[24] and Mesoamerica (central and southern Mexico)[25] were the site of several advanced Amerindian civilizations, among them the Olmecs, the Mayas and the Aztecs.

In 1519, the native civilizations of what is now Mexico were invaded by Spain;[26] this was one of the most important conquest campaigns in America. Two years later, in 1521, the Aztec capital and metropolis of Tenochtitlan was conquered by an alliance between Spanish and Tlaxcaltecs, the main enemies of the Aztecs, setting up a three-century colonial rule in Mexico. The viceroyalty of New Spain became the first and largest provider of resources for the Spanish Empire, and the most populated of all Spanish colonies.

After the independence of the vice-royalty of New Spain, it was decided to name the country after its capital, Mexico City. The city's original name was Mexico-Tenochtitlan, in reference to the name of the Nahua Aztec tribe, the Mexica.


Colonial era and independence

Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, the founder of the Mexican independence movement.On September 16, 1810, independence from Spain was declared by Priest Miguel Hidalgo in the small town of Dolores, Guanajuato state.[27] This was the catalyst for a long war that eventually led to recognized independence in 1821 and the creation of an ephemeral First Mexican Empire. Agustín de Iturbide was the first and only emperor. Two years later, he was deposed by the republican forces. In 1824, a republican constitution was drafted creating the United Mexican States with Guadalupe Victoria as its first President.

The first four decades of independent Mexico were marked by a constant strife between liberales (those who supported the federal form of government stipulated in the 1824 constitution) and conservadores (who proposed a hierarchical form of government in which all local authorities were appointed and subject to a central authority).[28] General Antonio López de Santa Anna was a strong influence in Mexican politics, a centralist and a two-time dictator. In 1836, he approved the Siete Leyes, a radical amendment to the constitution that institutionalized the centralized form of government, after which Texas declared independence from Mexico, obtained in 1836. The annexation of Texas by the United States created a border dispute that would cause the Mexican-American War. Santa Anna played a big role in trying to muster Mexican forces but this war resulted in the resolute defeat of Mexico and as a result of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848), Mexico lost one third of its surface area to the United States.


Evolution of the Mexican territory.Dissatisfaction with Santa Anna's return to power, and his unconstitutional rule, led to the liberal Revolution of Ayutla, which initiated an era of liberal reforms, known as La Reforma, after which a new constitution was drafted that reestablished federalism as the form of government and first introduced freedom of religion. In the 1860s the country again underwent a military occupation, this time by France, which established the Habsburg Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian of Austria on the Mexican throne as Emperor Maximilian I of Mexico with support from the Catholic clergy and the conservative Mexicans. This Second Mexican Empire was victorious for only a few years, when the previous president of the Republic, the Zapotec Indian Benito Juárez, managed to restore the republic in 1867.


20th and 21st centuries

Venustiano Carranza, former president and supporter of the 1917 constitution.Porfirio Díaz, a republican general during the French intervention, ruled Mexico from 1876–1880 and then from 1880–1911 in five consecutive reelections. The period of his rule is known as the Porfiriato, which was characterized by remarkable economic achievements, investments in art and sciences, but also of huge economic inequality and political repression.[29] An obvious and preposterous electoral fraud that led to his fifth reelection sparked the Mexican Revolution of 1910, initially led by Francisco I. Madero. Díaz resigned in 1911 and Madero was elected president but overthrown and murdered in a coup d'état in 1913 led by a conservative general named Victoriano Huerta after a secret council held with the U.S. ambassador Henry Lane Wilson. This re-ignited the civil war, with participants such as Pancho 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. Carranza was killed in 1920 and 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) which became the most influential party during the next 70 years.

Between 1940 en 1980, Mexico experienced substantial economic growth that some historians call "El Milagro Mexicano", the Mexican Miracle.[30] The assumption of mineral rights by the government, and the subsequent nationalization of the oil industry into PEMEX during the presidency of Lázaro Cárdenas del Río (1938) was a popular move, but sparked a diplomatic crisis with those countries whose citizens had lost businesses expropriated by the Cárdenas government.

Although the economy continued to flourish, social inequality remained a factor of discontent. Moreover, the PRI rule became increasingly authoritarian and at times oppressive.[31] An example of this is the Tlatelolco Massacre [32] of 1968, which according to government officials claimed the life of around 30 protesters, while according to many r