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| Map: Mexico. Credit: CIA World Factbook. |
FROM: U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT
Media Note
Office of the Spokesperson
Washington, DC
December 14, 2012
The U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of International Security and Nonproliferation welcomes Mexico as the newest addition to the Global Partnership Against the Spread of Weapons and Materials of Mass Destruction (Global Partnership). Mexico is the first Latin American country to join the Global Partnership, which addresses nuclear and radiological security, biosecurity, scientist engagement, and facilitates the implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1540 through cooperative projects.
The Global Partnership began at the 2002 Kananaskis G8 Summit as a 10-year, $20 billion initiative to prevent terrorists or states that support them from acquiring or developing weapons of mass destruction (WMD). Since then, the Global Partnership has grown to include 25 members and has allocated about $21 billion worldwide. At the 2011 G8 Summit in Deauville, leaders agreed to extend the Partnership beyond 2012 and to make it more truly global.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION FROM CIA WORLD FACTBOOK
The site of advanced Amerindian civilizations - including the Olmec, Toltec, Teotihuacan, Zapotec, Maya, and Aztec - Mexico was conquered and colonized by Spain in the early 16th century. Administered as the Viceroyalty of New Spain for three centuries, it achieved its independence early in the 19th century. The global financial crisis beginning in late 2008 caused a massive economic downturn the following year, although growth returned quickly in 2010. 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. National elections, including the presidential election, are scheduled for 1 July 2012. Since 2007, Mexico's powerful drug-trafficking organizations have engaged in bloody feuding, resulting in tens of thousands of drug-related homicides.
