Mexico City, Mexico - Barbara Botello, president of the National Confederation of Municipalities of Mexico, confirmed that 20 percent of the country’s mayors cannot read or write and have no experience preparing them for their elected position.

The association president said, "We are proposing professionalization for the municipal governments throughout the country, and if you have mayors or councilmen who do not meet certain objective standards required to assume the responsibility for his post, then public officials at all levels of government should be required to be trained to be more effective in the performance of the duties."

Of the qualifications of the 2,400 mayors located throughout Mexico, Barbara Botello said, "We would be talking about 20 percent of the people who hold the position of mayor and do not have the skills necessary to hold that office because they cannot read or write."

She noted that most of these mayors are found in very small towns, most of them located in the states of Guerrero, Chiapas and Oaxaca. "They are often people who never expected to reach the office and never prepared for it," she said.

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