Title VII. The Territorial Organization of the State
Article 161
The national territory, for political and administrative purposes, is divided into provinces and municipalities; their number, limits, and denomination are established by the law.
The law may establish other divisions or attribute regimes of administrative subordination and systems of special regulation to the municipalities or other territorial demarcations as it determines, based on their geographic location or their economic and social importance. In all cases, the representation of the people through the organs of people’s power must be guaranteed.
Administrative districts may be organized within the municipalities, in accordance with the law.
Article 162
Provinces enjoy juridical personhood with all the legal effects thereof and are organized by the law as an intermediate level between the Government of the Republic and the municipalities. The have a territorial extension that is equivalent to the total of the municipal territories within their territorial demarcation, which is under the direction of a provincial government.
Article 163
The municipality is the local society, organized by the law, that constitutes the primary, fundamental political unit in the organization of the nation; a municipality enjoys autonomy and juridical personhood, including all the legal effects thereof, with a territorial extension determined according to the necessary economic and social relations of its population as well as the interests of the nation, with the purpose of satisfactorily achieving the local necessities. A municipality is supported through its own funds in addition to allocations that it receives from the Government of the Republic for the purposes of economic progress, the social development of its territory, and for other goals of the State, under the direction of a Municipal Assembly of People’s Power and its Council of Administration.
Article 164
The autonomy of the municipality includes the election of its authorities, the ability to decide how to use its resources as well as the exercise of the competencies that correspond to it in accordance with the Constitution and the laws.
The autonomy is exercised in accordance with the principles of solidarity, coordination, and collaboration with the other territories of the country and without harming the interests of the nation.
