Mazatán, officially called Villa Mazatán, is one of the 122 municipalities in the state of Chiapas. It limits to the north with Huehuetán, to the southwest with Tapachula, to the east with the Gulf of Tehuantepec and to the northwest with Huixtla. It has an area of 386.6 km² and is located in the southwest of the state of Chiapas. In the census of population and housing carried out by the National Institute of Geography and Information Statistics in 2010, it registered a population of 26,573 inhabitants and an estimate up to 2015 of 28,895 inhabitants. The oldest known evidence of the human presence in Mazatán are the so-called chanchutos vestiges, which is attributed to an age of more than 5000 years.
During its history, the Mazatec territory has had several sedentary communities dedicated to agriculture and fishing. During the Mesoamerican preclassic period several ceremonial centers were established by the Mokayas located in the southeast and north of the municipality. The ceremonial center San Carlos was an important ceremonial center which was the cause of the disappearance of the maximum ceremonial center of the time. El Paso de la Amada between the years 900 a. C. And 800 a. C. Approximately. At the time of the conquest Mazatán was in charge under the Tuxtla Chico parish, later passing as an annex to the municipality of Tapachula and appears under the patronage of the Virgin Margarita Concepción. In the independent Mexico Mazatán is only a colony and becomes a municipality of Chiapas in 1942.
Compared to the rest of the municipalities of Chiapas, Mazatán presents less favorable socioeconomic indicators. Although, although it is a neighbor of the second most important economy in the state of Chiapas, this is the main factor that influences the non-urbanization of the municipality. The economic sector of Mazatán is mostly agricultural type that other types of urban services and a significant number of inhabitants have to move to other municipalities to meet their personal and work needs. Infrastructure and urban services are less developed or deficient, particularly in the case of the distribution of drinking water and drainage, which is one of the most important challenges for local governments. In general terms, the municipality has an average human development, but there are many contrasts within it.
The marginalization of neighborhoods in the peripheral areas of urban areas is much smaller compared to the colonies in the municipal seat. As in most border and non-border municipalities in the state of Chiapas, Mazatán receives waves of migrants from Central America, mainly from Guatemala and El Salvador. This situation means that in the fields of crops there is a higher number of undocumented workers than of Mexican workers.