Mexico+-+Naquan+Bowline

=FLAG= > toc
 * Green stands for a better nation and to maintain peace
 * Red stands for the color of blood. Mexican people pay a tribute to those who died during the terrible war for independence.
 * White represents the purity of catholic faith.

=LOCATION= The capital of Mexico is Mexico City West of Mexico is the Pacific ocean and east is Gulf of Mexico. North of Mexico is the U.S.A. =PRESIDENT= The leader of Mexico is Felipe Calderon. The President of Mexico is Felipe Calderon. He was elected in 2006 Felipe earned his degrees in law and economics in Mexico before going to Harvard University, where he received a Masters of Public Administration. =MEXICO NATIONAL ANTHEM= =media type="youtube" key="Q8T9g7memUk" height="315" width="420"=

Mexicans, at the cry of war, Grasp the steel and the bridle, And let the earth's core tremble To the roar of the cannon.
 * CHORUS **:

By the divine archangel of Peace For in heaven, your eternal destiny Has been written by the finger of God.
 * 1. **O Homeland! may your brow be wreathed with the olive

But if a foreign enemy should dare To profane your ground with his step, Think, o beloved Homeland! that heaven Gave you a soldier in each son.


 * Chorus **

<span style="background-color: #cccccc; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: -webkit-left;">To sully the blazon of the Homeland; <span style="background-color: #cccccc; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: -webkit-left;">War, war! Soak our homeland's flags <span style="background-color: #cccccc; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: -webkit-left;">In the waves of blood.
 * <span style="background-color: #cccccc; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: -webkit-left;">5. **<span style="background-color: #cccccc; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: -webkit-left;">War, war without truce upon him who means

<span style="background-color: #cccccc; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: -webkit-left;">War, war! In the mountains and the valley, <span style="background-color: #cccccc; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: -webkit-left;">The dreadful cannons thunder, <span style="background-color: #cccccc; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: -webkit-left;">And the deafening echoes resound <span style="background-color: #cccccc; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: -webkit-left;">The cries of Union! Liberty!


 * <span style="background-color: #cccccc; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: -webkit-left;">Chorus **

<span style="background-color: #cccccc; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: -webkit-left;">Bend their necks under the yoke, <span style="background-color: #cccccc; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: -webkit-left;">Your countrysides will be watered with blood <span style="background-color: #cccccc; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: -webkit-left;">And in blood will be their footprints.
 * <span style="background-color: #cccccc; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: -webkit-left;">6. **<span style="background-color: #cccccc; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: -webkit-left;">O Homeland, before your unarmed sons

<span style="background-color: #cccccc; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: -webkit-left;">And your temples, palaces, and towers <span style="background-color: #cccccc; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: -webkit-left;">Will fall with terrible thunder, <span style="background-color: #cccccc; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: -webkit-left;">And their ruins shall live to say, <span style="background-color: #cccccc; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: -webkit-left;">"This was the fatherland of a thousand heroes."


 * <span style="background-color: #cccccc; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: -webkit-left;">Chorus **

<span style="background-color: #cccccc; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: -webkit-left;">To breathe out their breath on your altars, <span style="background-color: #cccccc; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: -webkit-left;">If the clarion with its warlike tone <span style="background-color: #cccccc; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: -webkit-left;">Calls them to struggle with valour.
 * <span style="background-color: #cccccc; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: -webkit-left;">10. **<span style="background-color: #cccccc; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: -webkit-left;">Homeland, Homeland! Your sons swear

<span style="background-color: #cccccc; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: -webkit-left;">For you the garlands of olive! <span style="background-color: #cccccc; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: -webkit-left;">For them a memory of glory! <span style="background-color: #cccccc; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: -webkit-left;">For you a laurel of victory! <span style="background-color: #cccccc; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: -webkit-left;">For them a tomb of honour!


 * <span style="background-color: #cccccc; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: -webkit-left;">Chorus **

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQXvI8Pyhos&feature=youtu.be = = =Holidays= //Next observance:// December 1, 2012. || **Civic Holidays: observed nationwide, but workers aren't entitled to a day off** **Festivals: Similar to our Mother's Day and Valentine's Day; also many religious holidays** []
 * ~ Date ||~ English name ||~ Spanish name ||~ Remarks ||
 * January 1 || New Year's Day || **Año Nuevo** || First day of the year. ||
 * February 5 || Constitution day || **Día de la Constitución** || Celebrates the Promulgation of the 1857 and 1917 Constitutions //. Observance:// First Monday of February. ||
 * March 21 || Benito Juárez 's birthday || **Natalicio de Benito Juárez** || Commemorates President Benito Juárez's birthday. //Observance:// Third Monday of March ||
 * May 1 || Labor day || **Día del Trabajo** || Commemorates the Mexican workers' union movements ||
 * September 16 || Independence Day || ** Día de la Independencia ** || Commemorates the start of the Independence War . ||
 * November 20 || Revolution day || ** Día de la Revolución ** || Commemorates the start of the Mexican Revolution //. Observance:// Third Monday of November. ||
 * December 1 || Change of Federal Government || **Transmisión del Poder Ejecutivo Federal** || Every six years, when a new President is sworn in office.
 * December 25 || Christmas || **Navidad** || Christmas celebration; secular and religious holiday. ||
 * ~ Date ||~ English Name ||~ Spanish Name ||~ Remarks ||
 * February 19 || Army's Day || ** Día del Ejército ** || Celebrates the Mexican Army on the Loyalty Day (//"Día de la Lealtad"//). ||
 * February 24 || Flag Day || ** Día de la Bandera ** || Celebrates the current Flag of Mexico and honors the previous ones. ||
 * March 18 || Anniversary of the Oil Expropriation || ** Aniversario de la Expropiación petrolera ** || Celebrates the Oil Expropriation. ||
 * April 21 || Heroic Defense of Veracruz || ** Heroica Defensa de Veracruz ** || Commemorates the defense against the United States occupation of Veracruz in 1914. ||
 * May 5 || Fifth of May || ** Cinco de Mayo ** || Celebrates the victory of the Mexican Army, led by Gral. Ignacio Zaragoza against French forces in the city of Puebla , on May 5, 1862. ||
 * May 8 || Miguel Hidalgo's birthday || ** Natalicio de Miguel Hidalgo ** || Commemorates the birth in 1753 of Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, the initiator of the Mexican Independence War. ||
 * June 1 || Marine's Day || ** Día de la Marina ** || Celebrates the Mexican Navy. ||
 * September 13 || "Boy Heroes" or "Heroic Cadets" || ** Día de los Niños Héroes ** || Celebrates the Battle of Chapultepec during the Mexican–American War of 1847. ||
 * September 15 || Cry of Dolores || ** Grito de Dolores ** || Celebrates the // Grito de Dolores //, an event that marked the start of the independence war against Spain. ||
 * September 27 || End of Independence War || **Consumación de la Independencia** || Celebrates the end of the Mexican Independence War on 1821. ||
 * September 30 || Morelos' birthday || ** Natalicio de José Ma. Morelos y Pavón ** || Commemorates the birth of one of the founding fathers of the Mexican nation. ||
 * October 12 || Columbus Day || ** Descubrimiento de América ** || Commemorates the Discovery of the Americas in 1492 by the Italian navigator Christopher Columbus . ||
 * ~ Date ||~ English Name ||~ Spanish Name ||~ Remarks ||
 * January 6 || Epiphany || Día de los Santos Reyes || Celebrates the Biblical New Testament story of the arrival of the three wise men. ||
 * February 14 || Valentine's Day || Día de San Valentín || Celebrates amorous unions. ||
 * April 30 || Children's Day || Día del Niño || Honors all the children. ||
 * May 10 || Mother's Day || Día de las Madres || Honors all the mothers throughout the country. ||
 * May 15 || Teacher's Day || Día del Maestro || Honors all the teachers throughout the country. ||
 * May 23 || Student's Day || Día del estudiante || Honors all the students throughout the country. ||
 * Third Sunday of June || Father's Day || Día del Padre || Honors all the fathers throughout the country. ||
 * November 1 || All Saints' Day ( Day of the Dead ) || Día de Todos los Santos || Honors dead relatives and/or friends (who were **less** than 18 years of age and //un//married). ||
 * November 2 || All Souls' Day (Day of the Dead) || Día de los Fieles Difuntos || Honors dead relatives and/or friends (who were **more** than 18 years of age or married). It is not a state holiday. ||
 * December 12 || Day of the Virgin of Guadalupe || Día de la Virgen de Guadalupe || Celebrates the day that Our Lady of Guadalupe appeared on Tepeyac hill to the native Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin . It is not a state holiday. ||
 * December 16–24 || Las Posadas || Las Posadas || Commemorates the Biblical New Testament story of Joseph and Mary's search for shelter in Bethlehem. ||
 * December 24 || Christmas Eve || Nochebuena || Celebrates the eve of the nativity of Jesus ||
 * December 28 || Day of the Innocents || Dia de los Santos Innocentes || On this day, people pull practical jokes on each other. It is equivalent to the U.S. version of April Fools' Day (April 1). ||
 * December 31 || New Year's Eve || Año Nuevo Vìspera || Mexicans celebrate New Year's Eve ||

=TIMELINE= <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #464646; font-family: verdana,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;">**1910** - Beginning of Epic Revolution, triggered by unrest amongst peasants and urban workers, who are led by Emiliano Zapata.


 * <span style="color: #464646; font-family: verdana,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;">1911 **<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #464646; font-family: verdana,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;"> - Mexico's dictator, Porfirio Diaz, is overthrown. The new president is Francisco Madero, a liberal. Madero introduces land reform and labour legislation. Political unrest continues with Zapata leading a peasant revolt in the south.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #464646; font-family: verdana,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;">**1913** - Madero is assassinated. Victoriano Huerta seizes power. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #464646; font-family: verdana,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;">**1914** - Huerta resigns. He is viewed with suspicion by the United States for his alleged pro-German sympathies. Huerta is succeeded by Venustiano Carranza. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #464646; font-family: verdana,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;">**1916** - US forces cross the border in pursuit of the guerrilla leader Francisco "Pancho" Villa. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #464646; font-family: verdana,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;">**1917** - US forces withdraw, having failed to kill Villa. A new constitution is adopted, which is designed to ensure permanent democracy in Mexico. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #464646; font-family: verdana,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;">**1920** - Carranza is murdered. Civil war follows.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #464646; font-family: verdana,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;">**The PRI**
<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #464646; font-family: verdana,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;">**1929** - The National Revolutionary Party is formed. In 1946 it is re-named the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #464646; font-family: verdana,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;">**1934** - President Lazaro Cardenas begins programme of oil nationalisation, land reform and industrial expansion. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #464646; font-family: verdana,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;">**1940** - Leon Trotsky murdered in Mexico.


 * <span style="color: #464646; font-family: verdana,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;">1942 **<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #464646; font-family: verdana,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;"> - Mexico declares war on Japan and Germany.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #464646; font-family: verdana,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;">**1960s** - Unrest amongst peasants and labourers over unequal wealth distribution is suppressed. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #464646; font-family: verdana,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;">**1968** - Student demonstration in Tlatelolco, Mexico City, during the Olympic Games is fired upon by Mexican security forces. Hundreds of protestors are killed or wounded. The extent of the violence shocks the country. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #464646; font-family: verdana,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;">**1976** - Huge offshore oil reserves discovered; the Cantarell field becomes the mainstay of Mexico's oil production. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #464646; font-family: verdana,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;">**1985** - Earthquake in Mexico City kills thousands and makes many more homeless. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #464646; font-family: verdana,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;">**1993** - Mexican parliament ratifies the North American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta) with the US and Canada.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #464646; font-family: verdana,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;">**Chiapas rebellion**
<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #464646; font-family: verdana,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;">**1994** - A guerrilla rebellion in Chiapas by the Zapatista National Liberation Army is brutally suppressed by government troops. The rebels oppose Nafta and want greater recognition for Indian rights. The government recognises the Zapatista National Liberation Front (EZLN). <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #464646; font-family: verdana,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;">**1994** August - Presidential elections won by PRI candidate Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de Leon, after the previous candidate, Luis Donaldo Colosio, was murdered. The stock market plunges in December, the peso loses a third of its value. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #464646; font-family: verdana,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;">**1995** - Former President Carlos Salinas goes into exile after his brother Raul Salinas is connected with Colosio's murder. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #464646; font-family: verdana,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;">**1995** November - The government and the EZLN reach an agreement on greater autonomy for the indigenous Mayans of Chiapas. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #464646; font-family: verdana,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;">**1996** - The insurgency in the south escalates as the leftist Popular Revolutionary Army (EPR) attacks government troops. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #464646; font-family: verdana,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;">**1997** - The PRI suffers heavy losses in elections and loses its overall majority in the lower house of parliament for the first time since 1929. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #464646; font-family: verdana,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;">**1997** December - 45 Indians killed by paramilitary gunmen in a Chiapas village. The incident causes an international outcry, President Zedillo starts an investigation. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #464646; font-family: verdana,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;">**1998** January - Governor of Chiapas resigns. Peace talks with the rebels are reactivated, but break down at the end of the year.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #464646; font-family: verdana,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;">**Fox election victory**
<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #464646; font-family: verdana,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;">**2000** July - Vicente Fox of the opposition Alliance for Change wins presidential elections, the first opposition candidate ever to do so. Parliamentary elections see the Alliance for Change emerge as the strongest party, beating the PRI by just over 1%. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #464646; font-family: verdana,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;">**2000** December - Vicente Fox is sworn in as president. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #464646; font-family: verdana,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;">**2001** March - Zapatista guerrillas, led by Subcomandante Marcos, stage their 'Zapatour', a march from Chiapas to Mexico City to highlight their demands. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #464646; font-family: verdana,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;">**2001** April - Parliament passes a bill increasing the rights of indigenous people. A few days later, Subcomandante Marcos rejects the bill, saying it leaves the Indian population worse off than before. Marcos says the uprising in Chiapas will continue. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #464646; font-family: verdana,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;">**2001** November - President Fox appoints a prosecutor to investigate the disappearance of left-wing activists during the 1970s and 1980s. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #464646; font-family: verdana,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;">**2002** March - Roberto Madrazo wins the contest to lead the PRI, which governed for 71 years until 2000.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #464646; font-family: verdana,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;">**Past uncovered**
<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #464646; font-family: verdana,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;">**2002** June - Millions of secret security files are released, shedding light on the torture and killing by security forces of hundreds of political activists in the 1960s and 1970s. President Fox says his government is not afraid to pursue prosecutions. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #464646; font-family: verdana,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;">**2002** July - Former President Luis Echeverria is questioned about massacres of student protesters in 1968, when he was interior minister, and in 1971 when he was president. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #464646; font-family: verdana,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;">**2002** September - Three army officers are charged with first-degree murder over the killings of 134 leftists in the 1970s. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #464646; font-family: verdana,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;">**2004** July - Investigator deems 1971 shooting of student protesters by government forces to have been genocide; judge refuses to order arrest of former President Luis Echeverria on charges that he ordered attack. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #464646; font-family: verdana,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;">**2005** January - Six prison officers are murdered and top-security jails are put on high alert amid escalating tension between the authorities and drug gangs. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #464646; font-family: verdana,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;">**2005** April - Political furore as Mexico City mayor and presidential favourite Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador is stripped of his immunity from prosecution by Congress in a land dispute. The government eventually abandons the prosecution. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #464646; font-family: verdana,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;">**2006** February - A federal post of special prosecutor is created to tackle violent crime against women. Mexico had been criticised by the UN and rights groups over the unsolved murders of more than 300 women over 12 years in the border city of Ciudad Juarez. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #464646; font-family: verdana,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;">65 miners are killed in an explosion at a coal mine in Coahuila state. President Fox orders an investigation. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #464646; font-family: verdana,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;">**2006** July - Conservative candidate Felipe Calderon is declared the winner of presidential elections with a razor-thin majority over his leftist rival, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who challenges the result with mass street protests. The Federal Electoral Tribunal confirms Mr Calderon's win in September. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #464646; font-family: verdana,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;">**2006** October - US President George W Bush signs legislation to build 1,125km (700 miles) of fencing along the US-Mexico border. Mexico condemns plans for the barrier, which is intended to curb illegal immigration.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #464646; font-family: verdana,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;">**War on drugs**
<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #464646; font-family: verdana,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;">**2006** December - A new federal police force is created to tackle drugs cartels; thousands of troops are deployed in the western state of Michoacan as part of a major anti-drug trafficking drive. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #464646; font-family: verdana,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;">**2007** February - New law obliging authorities to take tougher action against domestic violence comes into effect. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #464646; font-family: verdana,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;">**2007** July - A financial website says that Mexican telecoms tycoon Carlos Slim has overtaken Microsoft founder Bill Gates to become the world's richest person. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #464646; font-family: verdana,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;">Genocide trial against former president Luis Echeverria is suspended. || <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #464646; font-family: verdana,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;">**2007** October - Heavy rains flood nearly the entire southern state of Tabasco. Some 500,000 are made homeless in one of the country's worst natural disasters. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #464646; font-family: verdana,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;">**2008** Drug-related killings soar. Murders linked to organised crime leap to almost 1,400 in first five months of year. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #464646; font-family: verdana,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;">**2008** May - Attorney-general Eduardo Medina Mora says more than 4,000 people have been killed in 18 months since President Calderon took office and declared war on drugs cartels. About 450 of the dead are police, soldiers or prosecutors, and many of the killings have been concentrated along the US border. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #464646; font-family: verdana,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;">**2008** August - Hundreds of thousands join marches throughout Mexico to protest against continuing wave of drugs-related violence.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #464646; font-family: verdana,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;">**Energy reforms**
<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #464646; font-family: verdana,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;">**2008** October - Faced with drop in Mexican oil production, government passes series of energy reforms. Package includes controversial plans to allow private investment in state oil giant Pemex. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #464646; font-family: verdana,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;">**2008** December - US justice department report says Mexican drug traffickers pose biggest organised crime threat to US. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #464646; font-family: verdana,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;">**2009** January - Government unveils package of emergency measures worth nearly $150m (£100m) to protect economy from effects of US economic downturn. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #464646; font-family: verdana,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;">**2009** February - Reports say about 1,000 people died in a further upsurge in drug-related violence in the first six weeks of 2009. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #464646; font-family: verdana,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;">**2009** March - Army troops enter Ciudad Juarez, on the border with the US, as open warfare erupts between rival drug gangs. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #464646; font-family: verdana,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;">**2009** April - Authorities close schools and public buildings after dozens are confirmed to have been killed by the virulent new swine flu virus. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #464646; font-family: verdana,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;">**2009** July - Opposition Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) makes large gains in mid-term congressional elections, winning 48% of seats in the Chamber of Deputies. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #464646; font-family: verdana,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;">**2009** October - Murder rate in Ciudad Juarez on Mexico-US border reaches all-time high amid battles between rival drug cartels. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #464646; font-family: verdana,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;">**2009** December - One of Mexico's most-wanted drug lords, Arturo Beltran Leyva, is killed in a shoot-out with state security forces. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #464646; font-family: verdana,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;">The authorities put the number of drug-related killings for 2009 at around 6,500, the worst year of bloodshed since President Felipe Calderon declared war on the drug cartels in late 2006. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #464646; font-family: verdana,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;">**2010** March - President Calderon calls on United States to share responsibility in battle against drug trafficking, after murder of three people connected to US consulate in border city of Ciudad Juarez. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #464646; font-family: verdana,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;">**2010** August - US President Barack Obama signs into law a $600m bill to put more agents and equipment along the Mexican border to stem the flow of illegal immigrants. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #464646; font-family: verdana,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;">President Calderon accepts calls for debate on legalisation of drugs, but insists his anti-drugs strategy is working. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #464646; font-family: verdana,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;">**2010** December - Wikileaks releases US diplomatic cables revealing that the US ambassador questioned the Mexican security forces' ability to tackle organised crime. []
 * <span style="color: #464646; font-family: verdana,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;">2011 **<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #464646; font-family: verdana,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;"> April - Thousands participate in protests across Mexico against drug-related violence. The marches are called by Mexican poet Javier Sicilia, whose son was murdered in March 2011; protests continue throughout the summer.
 * <span style="color: #464646; font-family: verdana,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;">2011 **<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #464646; font-family: verdana,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;">June-July - Two crime journalists, Miguel Angel Lopez Velasco and Yolanda Ordaz de la Cruz, are killed in separate incidents.
 * <span style="color: #464646; font-family: verdana,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;">2011 **<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #464646; font-family: verdana,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;">August - An attack on the Casino Royale in Monterrey kills 52 people, after gunmen douse the building with fuel and set it alight. President Calderon describes the attack as "an abhorrent act of terror."

=Mexican Food=

Empanadas
These flaky pastries are perfect for a meal or even a snack. First you make the dough and then you can stuff it with all sorts of things, from meat to fruit. Here is a delicious beef empanada filling made with ground beef, potatoes and hard-boiled eggs. For a sweeter version try these apple empanadas with a caramel sauce.



Plantain Chips
It's a very good snack. It's cut up fried plantain with salt on it.



Mexican Rice
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Beef Tacos
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=<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #464646; font-family: verdana,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;">Bibliography =

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