Municipalities of Mexico

In Mexico, municipalities should not be confused with cities (Spanish: ciudades). Cities are locality-level divisions that are administered by the municipality, although some larger cities are consolidated with its own municipality and form a single level of governance. In addition, the 16 boroughs of Mexico City are considered municipality equivalent, this makes the total number of municipality-level divisions to be 2,478.

The internal political organization and their responsibilities are outlined in the 115th article of the 1917 Constitution and detailed in the constitutions of the states to which they belong. Municipalities are distinct from cities, a form of Mexican locality, and are divided into colonias (neighborhoods); some municipalities can be as large as full states, while cities can be measured in basic geostatistical areas or city blocks.

Structure

All Mexican states are divided into municipalities. Each municipality is autonomous; citizens elect a municipal president (Spanish: presidente municipal) who heads a municipal council (Spanish: ayuntamiento), responsible for providing all the public services for their constituents. This concept, which originated after the Mexican Revolution, is known as a municipio libre (free municipality).

The municipal president is elected by first-past-the-post voting system for a three-year term and cannot be reelected for the next immediate term. The municipal council consists of a cabildo (chairman) with a síndico and several regidores (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 municipal government) while the rest elect representatives to a presidencia auxiliar or junta auxiliar (auxiliary presidency or council). In that sense, a municipality in Mexico is roughly equivalent to the counties of the United States, whereas the auxiliary presidency is equivalent to a township. Nonetheless, auxiliary presidencies are not considered a third-level administrative division since they depend fiscally on the municipalities in which they are located.

North-western and south-eastern states are divided into small numbers of large municipalities (e.g. Baja California is divided into only seven municipalities), and therefore they cover large areas incorporating several separated cities or towns that do not necessarily conform to one single conurbation. Central and southern states, on the other hand, are divided into many 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. Although an urban area might cover an entire 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. Since 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.

Some municipalities in Mexico are subdivided into internal, third-level administrative organizations. All municipalities of Baja California are subdivided into boroughs, or delegaciones. Mexicali municipality, for example, is divided into 14 boroughs besides the City of Mexicali, which comprises the municipal seat and three additional metropolitan boroughs. Querétaro municipality is subdivided into seven boroughs. Nonetheless, the heads of government of the boroughs are not elected by the residents but rather appointed by the municipal president.

Mexico City is a special case in that it is not organized into municipalities. As a result of the Political Reforms enacted in 2016, it is no longer designated as a Federal District and became a city, a member entity of the Mexican federation, seat of the Powers of the Union and the capital of Mexico. Mexico City is divided in 16 boroughs, officially called demarcaciones territoriales, substituting the old delegaciones. The boroughs are considered as third-level territorial divisions for statistical data collection and cross-country comparisons.