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By Barbara Schaffer

In this magazine, we have written much about the peoples of the coast: their customs, music, food and crafts. But we have missed something of equal interest, something that cannot be photographed, visited, experienced or purchased, and yet that has attracted the attention of the outside world. I speak of the unusual autonomy enjoyed by each of Oaxaca's 570 municipios (counties).

Although Mexico, with a federal government and 32 states, plus the DF, is replete with competing mazes of bureaucracies, the municipality is the basic form of local governance. Our federal and state taxes end up here, when it comes to community services. The teachers are paid by the state and follow a national curriculum, but the municipalities build the schools. Public works, primary health care, water, markets, police - these are some of the responsibilities of a municipal government.

The roots of the municipal system date back to pre-Hispanic Mexico, but local government was also an integral part of the colonial regime. The Constitution of 1917 recognizes the importance of the "Free Municipality" as a territorial division having certain, fundamental, administrative responsibilities. Mexico has 2,435 municipalities; more than 1/5 of them are in the state of Oaxaca.

It can be argued either way as to whether it's a good thing for Oaxaca (pop. 3.6 million) to have so many small municipalities in a country where most are quite large. The entire state of Baja California (pop. 2.8 million) only has five. But one thing is certain, and that is that Oaxacans are closer to their local governments than are most other Mexicans.

San Pedro Amuzgos

In 1995 the State of Oaxaca took the radical step of allowing each of its municipalities to decide on its own form of elections. Prior to that year, the candidates for municipal president, tax collector, and various commissioners ran as members of a political party, and the voting, at least in theory, was by secret ballot. The reality was that the PRI party controlled the great majority of the local governments. The new law allowed each municipality to decide if it wanted to choose its officials according to its own traditional practices (usos y costumbres) or if it wanted to continue with the political party system.


At least since the 1960s, indigenous rights groups had been demanding political autonomy for native communities throughout Mexico. The new law satisfied many of these demands by giving legal recognition to already established practices. But it wasn't just to protect indigenous rights that two successive PRI governors - Heladio Ramírez López (1986-1992) and Diodoro Carrasco Altamiro (1992-1998) - pushed the legislation through. Since 1980 the PRI had been losing deputies in state elections, and supporting direct democracy was seen as a way of staunching the flow. It was better not to have any official PRI connection with the municipal governments than to have the PRD or PAN win another local election.

Most of the 418 municipalities which chose usos y costumbres had been PRI strongholds. The 152 which went for keeping the party system tended to have a history of multiparty elections. Locally, San Pedro Mixtepec voted for party elections, and Santa María Colotepec opted for usos y costumbres.

Traditional Practices

The basic model (with many possible variations) starts with the selection of candidates by the municipality's Council of Elders. The Elders, almost always men, have attained to this office by having, over the years, donated their time and money to a prescribed number of functions ranging from serving as constable to sponsoring the yearly feast of the patron saint. (Not so long ago, the first step on the ladder was being the town messenger, which included running from village to village.)

Palacio municipal, Jamiltepec

The Elders present their list to the municipal assembly which then debates on the merits of the candidates and has the final vote. It is up to each municipality, to decide, according to its traditions, who is included in the communal general assembly. In most communities all adults born in the municipality have the right to participate in the assembly, but that is far from being the universal experience.

In some municipalities, only people living in the county seat (cabecera) can vote, in others non-Catholics are excluded, and 80 of the 418 municipalities (almost 20%) do not allow women to vote in municipal elections. (In some others women do not participate without their being a formal prohibition.)

Although it may shock our liberal, one person-one vote sensibilities, the system of usos y costumbres is not meant as a step away from democracy but rather as a recognition of the right of indigenous people to follow their own traditional political practices. Thus where consensus is seen as higher virtue than simply getting the most votes, voting is done by voice, by standing behind a candidate, or by drawing a line on a black board.

San Pedro Amuzgos

Does the system work? Not always, judging by the relatively high number of contested elections that have to be referred to the state for mediation. But few, if any, of the municipalities which chose usos y costumbres in 1995 have voted to return to the former system of party politics.

Santa María Colotepec

As may be expected, local traditions have changed enormously in recent years in Colotepec, a municipality of over 13,000 inhabitants, many living in Puerto Escondido. Here the general assembly includes every resident with a federal voting card, even naturalized citizens, and anyone who wants to may run for office. Since around 2000, the assembly has voted by secret ballot. In this case, usos y costumbres means that voters must go to the county seat of Colotepec for the meeting of the general assembly to cast a ballot, and candidates cannot run under the auspices of a political party.

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