Mexico actively participates in several international organizations. It currently holds a seat on the UN Security Council (2002-03). It is a supporter of the United Nations and Organization of American States systems and also pursues its interests through a number of ad hoc international bodies. Mexico has been selective in its membership in other international organizations. It declined, for example, to become a member of Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. Nevertheless, Mexico does seek to diversify its diplomatic and economic relations, as demonstrated by its accession to GATT in 1986; its joining APEC in 1993; becoming, in April 1994, the first Latin American member of the OECD; and a founding member of the World Trade Organization in 1996. Mexico attended the 1994 Summit of the Americas[?], held in Miami, and managed coordination of the agenda item on education for the 1998 Summit of the Americas in Santiago, Chile.
Disputes - international: none
Illicit drugs: illicit cultivation of opium poppy (cultivation in 1998 - 5,500 hectares; potential production - 60 metric tons) and cannabis cultivation in 1998 - 4,600 hectares; government eradication efforts have been key in keeping illicit crop levels low; major supplier of heroin and marijuana to the US market; continues as the primary transshipment country for US-bound cocaine from South America; involved in the production and distribution of methamphetamines; upsurge in drug-related violence and official corruption; major drug syndicates growing more powerful
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