Ernesto Zedillo in the context of Zapatista Army of National Liberation

The 1995 Zapatista Crisis was a political crisis in Mexico in the aftermath of the 1994 Zapatista uprisings, which began as a result of the 1991 revision of Article 27 of Mexico's Constitution. This revision caused unrest in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas, as many indigenous tribes believed that the article's revision negatively affected them due to the new economic policies. Violence ensued over several years, and the many peace deals proposed by the Mexican government were rejected. After he came to power in 1994, President Ernesto Zedillo engaged in a series of actions that contradicted policies of previous administrations.

The banderas monumentales (Spanish for "monumental flags") are a collection of tall flagpoles containing large flags of Mexico located throughout Mexico. They are part of a program started in 1999 under President Ernesto Zedillo that is currently administered by the Secretariat of National Defense (Secretaría de la Defensa Nacional). The main feature of these monuments (though not the biggest, see below) is a giant Mexican flag flying off a 50-meter-high (160-foot) flagpole. The size of the flag was 14.3 by 25 metres (47 by 82 ft) and it was flown on a pole that measured 50 metres (160 ft) high. In the time after the decree was issued, many more banderas monumentales have been installed throughout the country in various sizes and proportions. Many of the chosen locations were chosen due to significant events in Mexican history that occurred there.

General elections were held in Mexico on 21 August 1994. The presidential elections resulted in a victory for Ernesto Zedillo of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), whilst the PRI won 300 of the 500 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and 95 of the 128 seats in the Senate. Voter turnout ranged from 77.4% in the proportional representation section of the Chamber elections to 75.9% in the constituency section.

The presidential elections were the first in Mexico to be monitored by international observers. Turnout was just over 77% of those eligible. To date, the 1994 elections mark the last time a presidential candidate won in all 31 states and Mexico City.

General elections were held in Mexico on Sunday, 2 July 2000. Voters went to the polls to elect a new president to serve a single six-year term, replacing President Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de León, who was ineligible for re-election under the 1917 Constitution. The election system ran under plurality voting; 500 members of the Chamber of Deputies (300 by the first-past-the-post system and 200 by proportional representation) for three-year terms and 128 members of the Senate (three per state by first-past-the-post – two first-past-the-post seats are allocated to the party with the largest share of the vote; the remaining seat is given to the first runner-up – and 32 by proportional representation from national party lists) for six-year terms.

The presidential election was won by Vicente Fox of the Alliance for Change, who received 43.4% of the vote, the first time the opposition had won an election since the Mexican Revolution. In the congressional elections the Alliance for Change emerged as the largest faction in the Chamber of Deputies with 224 of the 500 seats, whilst the Institutional Revolutionary Party remained the largest faction in the Senate with 60 of the 128 seats in the Senate. Voter turnout was between 63 and 64% in the elections.