ABSTRACT
In all of Mexico, 10 percent of the people earn 50 percent of the total income; the other 90 percent includes groups who live in extreme poverty, mostly in rural areas. The Mexican government has provided support for those services considered most important in rural areas: roads, electricity, health, and education. Most other services are practically non existent, especially in smaller rural villages. The government of Mexico has followed a model of economic development directed towards substitution of imports and the construction of great irrigation projects to raise productivity in agriculture for export. The Mexican government has put great effort into the provision of electricity, particularly since the early 1950s, and it is one of the more widely available services in the country. Nevertheless, there are still more than 79,800 small settlements without electricity involving about 9.2 million rural inhabitants, while only 1.1 million urban residents are without it.
