Nuevo Laredo 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, 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 banderas monumentales 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. The main feature of these monuments is a giant Mexican flag flying off a 50-meter-high (160-ft) flagpole. The size of the flag was 14.3 by 25 metres 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. Many of the locations were chosen due to significant events in Mexican history that occurred there.