Nuevo Leon

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STATE OF NUEVO LEON Other Mexican States Capital Monterrey Other major cities Area 64,924 km² Ranked 13th Population (2000 census) 3,826,240 Ranked 9th Governor (2003-09) Jose Natividad Gonzalez Paras (PRI/PVEM) Federal Deputies (11) PRI/PVEM = 10 PAN = 1 Federal Senators PAN = 2 PRI = 1 ISO 3166-2 Postal abbr. MX-NLE N.L.

Nuevo Leon (Spanish for "New Leon", after the province in Spain) is a state located in north-eastern Mexico. It borders the Mexican states of Tamaulipas to the north and east, Zacatecas and San Luis Potosi to the south, and Coahuila to the west. To the north, Nuevo Leon also shares a 15 km stretch of borderline with Texas, (USA).

It was originally called Nuevo Reyno de Leon (archaic Spanish for New Kingdom of Leon) when founded by Portuguese and Spanish settlers led by Luis Carvajal y de la Cueva at the end of the 16th century.

The capital city of Nuevo Leon is Monterrey.

Economy

Highly industralized, Nuevo Leon ranks above all Latin American countries at the Human Development Index developed by the UN, with a standard of living above many European nations including the Czech Republic and Poland.

One of its municipalities, San Pedro Garza Garcia, has the highest income per capita in Latin America and Monterrey, the capital, is one of the largest cities in the nation and home of powerful conglomerates, such as Cemex (world's 4th largest cement company), Bimbo (bakery and pastry), Maseca (food and grains), Banorte (the only high-street bank in Mexico wholly owned by Mexicans), Alestra (telecommunications), Vitro (glass), Hylsa (aluminium), FEMSA (Coca-Cola in Latin America), and Cerveceria Cuauhtemoc-Moctezuma (brewers of Sol, Tecate, XX, Bohemia, Indio and Nochebuena).

Government

Official name: Estado Libre y Soberano de Nuevo Leon (Free and Sovereign State of Nuevo Leon).

Type of government: Republican and representative according to 30th article of the local constitution.

Municipalities: A total of 51: Abasolo, Agualeguas, Los Aldama, Allende, Anahuac, Apodaca, Aramberri, Bustamante, Cadereyta Jimenez, El Carmen, Cerralvo, China, Cienega de Flores, Doctor Arroyo, Doctor Coss, Doctor Gonzalez, Escobedo, Galeana, Garcia, General Bravo, General Teran, General Trevino, Guadalupe, Los Herreras, Hidalgo, Higueras, Hualahuises, Iturbide, Juarez, Lampazos de Naranjo, Linares, Marin, Melchor Ocampo, Mier y Noriega, Mina, Montemorelos, Monterrey (capital), Paras, Pesqueria, Los Ramones, Rayones, Sabinas Hidalgo, Salinas Victoria, San Nicolas de los Garza, San Pedro Garza Garcia, Santa Catarina, Santiago, Vallecillo, Villaldama, Zaragoza and General Zuazua.

'''Nuevo Leon Gubernatorial Election 2003 PAN 491,973 PRI/PVEM 824,567 PRD 14,934 PT 72,620 Others 51,250 See also: List of political parties in Mexico

Executive: In the 6 July 2003 gubernatorial election, Alianza Ciudadana – an electoral alliance between the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) and the Green Ecological Party of Mexico (PVEM) – regained control of the state from President Fox's party National Action Party (PAN). The new governor, Jose Natividad Gonzalez Paras of the PRI, was sworn in on 4 October 2003 for a period of six years.

Cabinet: Chosen directly by the Governor except for the General Comptroller and the State General Attorney, which are elected by Congress from a list of names provided by the Governor.

Legislative: The State has a unicameral chamber. The LXX Congress of Nuevo Leon is composed of 42 deputies, 26 of them chosen by first-past-the-post electoral districts and 16 of them by proportional representation on a party-list basis. The parties represented are the PRI with twenty-four (20 fpp and 4 pr), the PAN with eleven (6 & 5) , the Partido del Trabajo (PT) with three (0 & 3), the PVEM with two (0 & 2), the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) with one (0 & 1), and Convergencia with one (0 & 1). The president of the permanent commission is Cesar Santos Cantu of the PRI.

Judiciary: Judicial power rests in the Superior Court of Justice of the State of Nuevo Leon, led by Minister Genaro Munoz Munoz.

Political parties: Official recognition is given by the State Electoral Commission to those parties getting more than 1.5% of the votes in the last election (Art.40 of the State Electoral Law), which are the ones represented in Congress.

Sources:

• Human Development Report for Mexico 2002
• Historia de Nuevo Leon by Israel Cavazos (in Spanish)
• Encliclopedia de los Municipios de Mexico (in Spanish)
• Comision Estatal Electoral de Nuevo Leon (in Spanish)
• Ley Estatal Electoral de Nuevo Leon, 1996 (in Spanish)