Southern Mexico

Southern Mexico is an informally defined region of Mexico that most often means the three states of Chiapas, Guerrero and Oaxaca, sometimes called South-3, though wider definitions add Michoacán, Puebla, Tabasco, Veracruz or the states of the Yucatán Peninsula. It is a rugged land split by several mountain ranges, including the southern end of the Sierra Madre del Sur in Oaxaca, and it lies near the boundary between the North American and Cocos plates, where large earthquakes recur every year or two. A large share of its people live in communities of fewer than 2,500 residents. The region has a larger indigenous population than most of Mexico, with many language families, and it is among the least developed parts of the country, with high poverty and a lower human development score than the national figure.