About: Zona Libre

The Zona Libre, or Free Zone, was a free trade zone in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas along the Mexico–United States border established in 1858. The goal of Zona Libre was to equalize the imbalanced economic environments that had resulted after the Mexican–American War on either side of the Rio Grande River, which had become the international border between the United States and Mexico under the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo. In January 1885, roughly three decades after the Zona Libre was established, the Mexican government extended the free trade zone along the entire US-Mexican border, which created a zone approximately a thousand miles long and six miles wide.