El Salto. The industrial municipality Jalisco must organize before boasting about nearshoring
- Editorial
- Jun 12
- 4 min read
El Salto is already one of Jalisco’s most important industrial pieces. But that economic strength raises an uncomfortable question: can a municipality grow as a manufacturing platform without being overwhelmed by its own industry?
A municipality under pressure, not a showcase
El Salto is not an industrial promise. It is a fact. Data México records a 2020 population of 232,852 inhabitants and municipal exports above 12.12 billion dollars in 2024. The industrial real estate market confirms it as well: reports based on CBRE note that, in 2025, El Salto concentrated 78% of the new industrial construction in the Guadalajara market.
That figure should make Jalisco proud. But it should also make it uncomfortable. When a municipality becomes a logistics, manufacturing and export node, the question is no longer how many companies arrive. The question is who organizes the territory that receives them.
“El Salto does not need more speeches about nearshoring; it needs rules capable of turning industry into a city.”
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The problem: fast industry, slow city
El Salto has grown faster than many of its urban capacities. IIEG documents that its population increased 26.94% between 2015 and 2020. That pace means more housing, commutes, water, drainage, security, roads and pressure on neighborhoods that did not always grow with planning.
Industry is not the problem. The problem is allowing it to move at a different speed than the city. When industrial buildings multiply but urban services do not grow at the same rhythm, development stops feeling like opportunity and starts feeling like a social burden.
In El Salto, that tension has an environmental component that cannot be ignored. Pollution in the Santiago River is not a new issue. Mexico’s National Human Rights Commission documented environmental and health risks in communities near the river, and the Jalisco State Human Rights Commission issued a macro recommendation in 2009 regarding pollution in that waterway. For that reason, any serious conversation about nearshoring must include sanitation, environmental oversight and industrial co-responsibility.
The government decision: organize before boasting
The administration led by Ma. Elena Farías Villafán does not arrive in an empty municipality; it arrives in a territory where the economy is already pushing, but governance must catch up. Her responsibility is not to invent El Salto’s industrial vocation. It is to turn it into a more organized, measurable and demanding municipal model.
The mayor needs to place three decisions at the center: territorial planning with clear industrial criteria, metropolitan coordination with Jalisco and neighboring municipalities, and a public-services agenda linked to business growth. If El Salto receives more investment, it must demand more infrastructure, more urban mitigation and more environmental responsibility.
Here is the political point: inaugurating projects or accompanying business announcements is not enough. The municipal government must show the ability to sit down with developers, industrial parks, the state government and citizens under a basic rule: whoever benefits from territory must help sustain it.
Observable results: the engine already exists
El Salto does work economically. It has a strategic location, industrial parks, proximity to Guadalajara’s airport, connection with manufacturing chains and an export weight that few Mexican municipalities can boast. It also has a young population and a labor base linked to the automotive, electronics, logistics and manufacturing sectors.
But in “Municipalities that Work,” the criterion cannot be only how much a municipality produces. The evaluation must be more demanding: if it produces so much, why should it not work better? If it contributes so much to Jalisco, why should its urban, environmental and social infrastructure not match its economic weight?
What remains unresolved
El Salto needs to organize housing growth around industrial employment, reduce commute times, strengthen connecting roads, improve basic services, monitor discharges, make budget priorities transparent and build an environmental health agenda that does not depend only on state or federal speeches.
It also needs a different narrative. This is not about selling it as a mere receiver of nearshoring. It is about turning it into the test case for a new municipal industrial pact: investment, yes, but with city; jobs, yes, but with decent housing; growth, yes, but with water, mobility and environment.
The mayor under scrutiny
Ma. Elena Farías Villafán leads the 2024–2027 administration and was registered by Jalisco’s Electoral Institute as the municipal president in the council. She receives a municipality with 232,852 inhabitants, strong industrial weight, historic environmental pressure and a reference budget above 811 million pesos for the 2024–2025 cycle, according to local reports on municipal expenditure approval.
“Ma. Elena Farías’ test will not be attracting factories, but proving that the municipality can govern them without being overwhelmed by them.”
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If she manages to organize priorities, demand co-responsibility and turn industry into urban well-being, El Salto can become a national example. If she does not, it will be a warning: a municipality can produce greatly and still fall short as a city.
Lessons for other municipalities
The lesson for Mexico is direct. Nearshoring does not land on promotion maps; it lands on streets, permits, drainage systems, industrial parks, transport routes and neighborhoods where the workforce lives. Municipalities that fail to organize that landing will end up paying costs that never appear in investment presentations.
El Salto has everything it needs to be a municipality that works. But the bar must be higher because its economy already is. Jalisco can present it as an industrial engine only if it also dares to demand order, sustainability and effective government from it. The question is not whether El Salto can attract more industry. The question is whether it can prove that an industrial city can also be a livable city.
Written by: Editorial
Sources consulted
Data México - Economic profile of El Salto. Open source
IIEG Jalisco - Municipal diagnosis of El Salto 2024. Open source
IEPC Jalisco - Municipal council integration, El Salto 2024. Open source
El Salto Municipal Development and Governance Plan 2024-2027. Open source
CNDH - Recommendation 134/2022 on Santiago River pollution. Open source
CEDHJ - Macro recommendation 1/2009 on Santiago River pollution. Open source
Líder Empresarial - El Salto concentrates 78% of new industrial development in Guadalajara. Open source
Real Estate Market & Lifestyle - El Salto as an industrial development epicenter in Jalisco. Open source
El Salto City Hall Transparency Portal. Open source
Partidero - El Salto approves expenditure budget. Open source
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