Municipalities of Mexico

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Municipalities (municipios in Spanish) are the second-level administrative division in Mexico (where the first-level administrative division is the estado, or state). There are 2,438 municipalities in Mexico. The internal political organization and their responsibilities are outlined in the 115th article of the Mexican Constitution,^[1] and further expanded in the constitutions of the states they are part of.

Contents 1 Structure 2 History 3 Ranking of municipalities 3.1 By population 3.2 By area 4 Delegaciones or boroughs 5 References 6 External links

[edit] Structure

All Mexican states are divided into municipalities. Each municipality is administratively autonomous; citizens elect a "municipal president" who heads an ayuntamiento or municipal council, responsible of providing all the public services for their constituents. This concept, which originated after the Mexican Revolution is known as a municipio libre ("free municipality"). A municipal president heads the municipal council. The municipal president is elected by plurality and cannot be reelected for the next immediate term. The municipal council consists of a cabildo (chairman) and several síndicos (trustees).

If the municipality covers a large area and contains more than one city or town (collectively called localidades), one city or town is selected as a cabecera municipal (head city, seat of the municipality's government) while the rest elect representatives of a presidencia auxiliar or junta auxiliar (auxiliary presidency or council). In that sense, a municipality in Mexico is roughly equivalent to American counties, whereas the auxiliary presidency is equivalent to a township. Nonetheless, auxiliary presidencies are not considered a third-level administrative division since they fiscally depend on the municipalities in which they are located.

Northern states are divided into small numbers of large municipalities (e.g. Baja California is divided into only 5 municipalities), and therefore they cover large areas incorporating several separated cities or towns that do not necessarily conform one single conurbation. Central and southern states, on the other hand, are divided into a large number of small municipalities (e.g. Oaxaca is divided into 570 municipalities), and therefore large urban areas usually extend over several municipalities which form one single conurbation. In spite of the fact that an urban area might cover the entire area of a municipality, auxiliary councils might still be used for administrative purposes.

Municipalities are responsible for public services (such as water and sewerage), street lighting, public safety, traffic, supervision of slaughterhouses and the cleaning and maintenance of public parks, gardens and cemeteries. They may also assist the state and federal governments in education, emergency fire and medical services, environmental protection and maintenance of monuments and historical landmarks. As of 1983, they can collect property taxes and user fees although more funds are obtained from the state and federal governments than from their own collection efforts.

[edit] History

Since the Conquest and colonization of Mexico, the municipality became the basic entity of the administrative organization of the New Spain and the Spanish Empire. Settlements located in strategic locations received the status of city (the higher status within the Empire, superior to that of villas and pueblos) and were entitled to form an ayuntamiento or municipality. After the independence, the 1824 Constitution did not specify any regulation for the municipalities, whose structure and responsibilities were to be outlined in the constitution of each state of the federation. As such, every state set its own requirements for a settlement to become a municipality (usually based on population). The constitution of 1917 abolished the jefatura política ("politic authority"), the intermediate administrative authority between the states and converted all existing municipalities into municipios libres ("free municipalities"), that is, gave them full autonomy to manage local affairs, while at the same time restricting the scope of their competencies.^[2] However, in 1983 the 115th article was modified to expand the municipality's authority to raise revenue (through property taxes and other local services) and to formulate budgets.

[edit] Ranking of municipalities

[edit] By population

Data from the Conteo 2005 by INEGI.^[3]

Ranking	State	Municipality	Population
1	México	Ecatepec de Morelos	1,688,258
2	Jalisco	Guadalajara	1,600,940
3	Puebla	Puebla	1,485,941
4	Baja California	Tijuana	1,410,700
5	Chihuahua	Juárez	1,313,338
6	Guanajuato	León	1,278,087
7	Jalisco	Zapopan	1,155,790
8	México	Nezahualcóyotl	1,140,528
9	Nuevo León	Monterrey	1,133,814

[edit] By area

Data from Los Municipios con Mayor y Menor Extensión Territorial by Instituto Nacional Para el Federalismo y el Desarrollo Municipal^[4]

Ranking	State	Municipality	Area (km²)
1	Baja California	Ensenada	51,952.26
2	Baja California Sur	Mulegé	33,092.20
3	Coahuila	Ocampo	26,433.60
4	Baja California Sur	La Paz	20,275.00
5	Quintana Roo	Othón P. Blanco	17,189.75
6	Chihuahua	Ahumada	17,131.48
7	Baja California Sur	Comondú	16,858.30
8	Chihuahua	Camargo	16,066.01
...	...	...	....
2,438	Tlaxcala	San Lorenzo Axocomanitla	4.34

[edit] Delegaciones or boroughs

Main article: Boroughs of the Mexican Federal District

Mexico City is a special case in that it is not organized as a municipality, but as a federal district as the capital of the federation. It is administered through the Government of the Federal District and it has its own unicameral Legislative Assembly. For administrative purposes, the Federal District is subdivided into delegaciones or boroughs. While not fully equivalent to a municipality as of 2000 they have gained a certain degree of political autonomy, in that residents within a borough directly elect a local borough head of government (called jefe delegacional). However, boroughs do not form local [municipal] councils nor are they constituted by a group of trustees. They do not have regulatory powers, which are mostly centralized in the Federal District government. The majority of the city's public services are organized by the Federal District even if part of the administration responsibilities are carried out by the boroughs. In spite of that, at the federal level, the delegaciones of the Federal District are considered a second-level territorial division in statistical data collection and cross-municipal comparisons.

Other cities in Mexico have chosen to use a similar administrative internal organization. The municipality of Santiago de Querétaro, for example is subdivided into seven delegaciones. Nonetheless, the heads of government of the boroughs in Querétaro are not elected by the residents but appointed by the municipal president. Unlike the boroughs of Mexico City, the boroughs of Querétaro would constitute a third-level administrative division.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Mexican government structure
• (Spanish) History of the Mexican constitution

• Mexico Portal de Información Municipal - Spanish

v • d • e Spanish terms for country subdivisions
National  /  Federal	distrito federal  /  cantón · departamento · estado · provincia · comunidad autónoma · región
Regional  /  Metropolitan	comarca · comuna · municipalidad · municipio · merindad · corregimiento · anteiglesia  /  delegación · parroquia
Urban  /  Rural	barrio · colonia · fraccionamiento  /  comisaría · ranchería · parroquia  · Vereda
Historical subdivisions in italics