Mexico - José Luis de la Cruz Gallegos, director of the Center for Research in Economics and Business at Monterrey Tech, Mexico State campus, released the results of a study he undertook entitled, "Is Mexico a Poor County?"

According to the study, although the greatest number of poor are found in 190 urban localities, particularly in large cities, there are 15 municipalities where poverty exceeds 97 percent of the city's total population and 15 others where "extreme" poverty exceeds 73 percent of their population.

The study shows that these municipalities are located in the states of Oaxaca, Guerrero, Veracruz, and Chiapas states in the south-southeast of Mexico.

These regional poverty problems result from the insufficient infrastructure, education, health services, and housing that exist in those municipalities which, in addition to income, are the factors used to determine whether poverty is moderate or extreme.

Some of the municipalities in Mexico with the largest percentages of it's population impoverished are:

• San Juan Tepeuxila, Oaxaca - 97.4%
• Aldama, Chiapas - 97.3%
• San Juan Cancuc, Chiapas - 97.3%
• Mixtla de Altamirano, Veracruz - 97%
• Chalchihuitán, Chiapas - 96.8%
• Santiago Textitlán, Oaxaca - 96.6%
• San Andrés Duraznal, Chiapas - 96.5%
• Santiago El Pinar, Chiapas - 96.5%
• Sitalá, Chiapas - 96.5%
• San Simón Zahuatlán, Oaxaca - 96.4%

The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (Cepal), a UN organization, indicated that Mexico and Honduras are the only two countries in the region where poverty has increased in the past year. In contrast, according to Cepal, in the majority of Latin America and the Caribbean, poverty rates have diminished.

Gallegos' study argues that it is essential that the government have an economic and social program in order to effectively solve this problem. "This is one of the fundamental issues the candidates for President of the Republic must take into consideration, since at the beginning of the next government Mexico will have more than 60 million Mexicans in poverty."