FACTBOX - Some facts about Mexico

Sun Jul 2, 2006 1:13 PM ET

(Reuters) - Mexico holds presidential elections on Sunday. Here are some facts about the country.

* There are few places in the world where the rich-poor divide is so visible as in Mexico. Mexico's Carlos Slim is the world's third-richest tycoon, with an estimated wealth of $30 billion (16 billion pounds), whereas one in five cannot afford to eat properly.

* Outgoing President Vicente Fox is a former Coca-Cola executive. A keen rancher who knows how to milk cows, Fox was told by his doctors to stop wearing his trademark cowboy boots halfway through his presidency because of a back problem.

* Fox ousted the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, from the presidency in 2000 elections. The PRI had held power for 71 years, longer than any party in the world except the Soviet Communists.

* In 1994, Zapatista rebels in the southern state of Chiapas stunned the world when they declared war against the government to fight for indigenous rights. Cease-fires and piecemeal peace accords have stifled the conflict, leaving the Zapatistas and ski-masked leader Subcomandante Marcos off the political agenda.

* Mexico is one of the most biologically diverse countries in the world, with both jungles and deserts. In the southern state of Chiapas alone, there are 1,200 butterflies species -- twice as many as in the United States and Canada combined.

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