I'm using QGIS, but I am quite familiar with R and python. So I could use any of these.

I want a map of mexico but want to color the stats according to a certain variable. It goes from 0 to 100. So it would be like a heatmap of Mexico. What would be the best way to do this?

I just have the names of the states and the corresponding value. I would therefore need an already made "empty" map with the states already defined or something.