The City of Mexico or Mexico City is the Federal District (abbreviated DF), capital of the United Mexican States and the seat of the federal powers of the Union, constituting one of its 32 states. Commonly, in the rest of the country, it is abbreviated Mexico or also the Federal District, while abroad it is usually simply called Mexico City. [2] . Since January 30, 2016, the official name is Mexico City.
According to abbreviationfinder, Mexico City is the political and economic center of the country. Its metropolitan area is the ninth most populated in the world, and the most populated in North America. Mexico City occupies the eighth place among the richest cities in the world, having a GDP of 315,000 million dollars that, it is estimated, will double by 2020, placing it in seventh place only behind Tokyo, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, London and Paris.
Form of Government
Mexico City is the seat of the powers of the Union (presidential, legislative and judicial) which differentiates it from the different regions of Mexico, although it has the constitutional status of a Federal State.
It is considered a territory that does not belong to any particular state but to all equally, that is, to the entire federation (hence its name). Therefore, between 1927 and 1997 the President of the Republic exercised the administration of the entity through the Department of the Federal District, which was headed by a regent.
In 1993, the status of the Federal District was modified with the approval of the Federal District Government Statute, which recognized the citizens of the capital the right to elect their representatives to an Assembly of Representatives. This body functioned between 1991 and 1997, when it was replaced by the Legislative Assembly of the Federal District (ALDF). In 1997, the date on which the first ALDF legislature took office, the citizens of the capital were also able to elect by universal suffrage the Head of Government of the Federal District. However, under the territory scheme of the federation, it still has limited powers and its decisions are subject to the presidential veto or the Congress of the Union.
With regard to the Congress of the Union, the Federal District is represented on equal terms with any other state – something that does not happen in the case of other federal capitals such as the District of Columbia in the United States of America. In the Senate, the Federal District is represented by 3 senators, two elected by relative majority and one assigned to the first minority; and in the Chamber of Deputies by the number of districts according to their population size.
Political division
The Federal District was created in 1824 with the territory corresponding to a circle whose center was the Zócalo and had a radius of twenty leagues. In 1898 the limits were established between the neighboring states and the Federal District. Since then, the capital’s perimeter has not undergone major modifications, except for minor changes in the eastern boundary, made not without the displeasure of some communities in the area, which became part of the State of Mexico. See population of Mexico.
The capital’s territory is divided into 16 delegations. Each one is headed by a delegational head since 2000, elected by universal suffrage. Unlike the municipalities, the delegations do not have councils. Instead, the Citizen Participation Law of the Federal District contemplates the formation of Citizen Committees by territorial units.
Each delegation is made up of towns, neighborhoods and neighborhoods. Towns and neighborhoods are denominations that correspond to neighborhood units of great antiquity, some of them date from pre-Hispanic times. The colonies were born from the expansion of the urban area of Mexico City in the surrounding lands.
The Political Constitution of the United Mexican States provides that Mexico City is the Federal District, the seat of the powers of the Federation. However, it also provides that their residence may be transferred to any other part of the country, if so ordered by the Congress of the Union. In this case, Mexico City would become the State of the Valley of Mexico, on equal terms with the other states of the Union and with the new territorial limits that Congress assigns to it.
However, since the eighties, small movements have flourished that fight for the erection of the Federal District in the thirty-second state of the Mexican Union. These movements have been taken up by political parties, especially those on the left. For example, the Popular Socialist Party in 1986 presented one of the first proposals to convert the Federal District into the state of Anahuac, in 1986, just the year after the disastrous performance of the federal government in the context of the 1985 earthquake. Although the proposal was not approved, it was the milestone that marked the beginning of the political reform that allows the residents of the Federal District elect the heads of government of the entity and their territorial demarcations. It should be noted that the struggle for the erection of the Anahuac state has not ceased, at least in the speech, and that on some occasions it is incorporated in the proposals of the legislators of the Legislative Assembly of the Federal District and the representatives of the city of Mexico in the Congress of the Union.
