Nuevo Laredo

Nuevo Laredo (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈnweβo laˈɾeðo]) is a city in the Municipality of Nuevo Laredo in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas. The city lies on the banks of the Rio Grande, across from Laredo, Texas, United States. The 2010 census population of the city was 373,725. Nuevo Laredo is part of the Laredo-Nuevo Laredo Metropolitan Area with a population of 636,516. The municipality has an area of 1,334.02 km² (515.07 sq mi). Nuevo Laredo is considered the “customs capital of Latin America” because of its high volume of international trade operations in the region, and number 1 in importance for US inland commercial traffic. Both the city and the municipality rank as the third largest in the state.

The city is connected to Laredo, United States by three international bridges and a rail bridge. The city is larger and younger than its US counterpart. As an indication of its economic importance, one of Mexico's banderas monumentales is in the city (these banderas have been established in state capitals and cities of significance).

Before the founding of Nuevo Laredo, the area was inhabited by different nomadic indigenous tribes. The most prominent indigenous group to have lived in the Nuevo Laredo region were the Coahuiltecas. The Coahuiltecas were hunter-gatherers who manufactured many stone and leather artifacts in order to survive the harsh environment.

Later, the region saw the influx of other nomadic indigenous tribes, such as the Apaches and Comanches. The increasing numbers of Apaches led the Spanish authorities to establish military garrisons and towns to serve as a buffer zone against northern indigenous tribes. Laredo (now in Texas) was one of those towns founded by the Spanish, from which Nuevo Laredo would stem into existence.

Nuevo Laredo was part of the territory of the original settlement of Laredo (now in Texas) which was founded in 1755 by the Spaniard Don Tomás Sánchez in the northern part of the Rio Grande. The settlement's territory was granted to José de Escandón by the King of Spain, and the settlement's territory and population remained unified for ninety years, until the war of 1846–1848, the Mexican–American War.

Early in 1848, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo divided the territory attached to Laredo between the United States (Texas) and Mexico (Tamaulipas). Nuevo Laredo was founded on June 15, 1848, by seventeen Laredo families who wished to remain Mexican and therefore moved to the Mexican side of the Rio Grande. They identified with Mexico, its history, and its cultural customs, and decided to keep their Mexican citizenship. The founders of Nuevo Laredo even took with them the bones of their ancestors so they would continue to rest in Mexican ground.

In August 25, 1855 the customs house was officially established in Nuevo Laredo by orders of Santiago Vidaurri, governor of Nuevo Leon and Coahuila, and military chief of Tamaulipas. This was to collect import taxes at the new border with the United States.

In 1858 a duty-free zone was established along the border with the United States. Nuevo Laredo fell inside this area of tax exemption in order to be competitive with American markets. The creation of this border economic zone was ratified three years later by president Benito Juarez.