Nuevo León
Nuevo León (
Spanish for "New
León", after the former kingdom in
Spain) is a state located in north-eastern
Mexico. It borders the states of
Tamaulipas to the north and east,
Zacatecas and
San Luis Potosí to the south, and
Coahuila to the west. To the north, Nuevo León accounts for a 15 km stretch of the
U.S.-Mexico border adjacent to the
U.S. state of
Texas.
It was originally founded by
Alberto del Canto, although frequent raids by
Chichimecas, the
natives of the north, prevented the establishment of almost any permanent settlements. Subsequent to the failure of del Canto to populate Nuevo León,
Luis Carvajal y de la Cueva, at the head of Portuguese and Spanish settlers, requested permision from the Spanish King to attempt to repopulate the area.
The capital city of Nuevo León is
Monterrey.
Highly industralized, Nuevo León 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 García, 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 second largest cement company),
Bimbo (bakery and pastry),
Maseca (food and grains),
Banorte (the only high-street bank in Mexico wholly owned by Mexicans),
Grupo Alfa (Sigma, Alestra, Nemak, Alpek and Hylsa (recenlty bought by Ternium),
i-service (HelpDesk),
Vitro (glass),
FEMSA (Coca-Cola in Latin America), and
Cervecería Cuauhtémoc Moctezuma (brewers of
Sol,
Tecate,
XX,
Bohemia,
Indio and
Nochebuena).
See main article Politics and government of Nuevo León.Official name: Estado Libre y Soberano de Nuevo León (Free and Sovereign State of Nuevo León).
Official motto: Latin:
Semper Ascendens (Always Ascending).
Type of government: Republican and representative according to 30th article of the local
constitution.
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,
José Natividad González Parás 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 León 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 one independent (who was a member of
Convergencia at the time of the election). The president of the permanent commission is Juan Manuel Parás of the PRI.
Judiciary: Judicial power rests in the
Superior Court of Justice of Nuevo León, led by Minister
Jorge Luis Mancillas.
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.
Nuevo León has an extreme climate, and there is very little rainfall throughout the year. The territory covers 64,924
km², and can be divided into three regions: a hot, dry region in the north, a temperate region in the mountains, and a semi-arid region in the south. The
Sierra Madre Oriental mountain range affects in an important way the lay of the land forming the Galeana and Doctor Arroyo plateaus, the Iguana, Picachos, Papagayos, and Santa Clara mountain ranges, and the Pilón, Ascensión, and Río Blanco valleys. As for hydrography, the
San Juan River supplies the El Cuchillo dam, which provides water for
Monterrey and the metropolitan area. There are also the Cerro Prieto, La Boca, Vaquerías, Nogalitos, and Agualeguas dams.
Laguna de Labradores is a major lake in Nuevo León, and
Pozo del Gavilán is a natural well. Both are located in the
Galeana municipality. The flora of the region includes brush and pastures in the low regions, and pine and oak trees in the mountains. The fauna includes
black bears,
mountain lions,
javelinas,
foxes,
coyotes, and
white-tailed deer, along with smaller species.
Nuevo León is divided into 51 municipalities
(municipios). See
municipalities of Nuevo León.
*
History of Nuevo León*
Fiestas of Nuevo León*
Human Development Report for Mexico 2002*
Historia de Nuevo León by Israel Cavazos (in Spanish)*
Enciclopedia de los Municipios de México (in Spanish)*
Comisión Estatal Electoral de Nuevo León (in Spanish)*
Ley Estatal Electoral de Nuevo León, 1996 (in Spanish)*
Nuevo León State Government *
Towns, cities, and postal codes in Nuevo León 
