Ciudad de Lázaro Cárdenas

Plenty of people in the area still call it 'La Uno'. The nickname goes back to the 1950s, when the region's first hydrocarbon pumping station, known as Estación La Uno, was built here and a settlement grew up around it. On 29 October 1971 it was renamed Villa Lázaro Cárdenas, after the president who nationalised Mexico's oil, and on 11 February 2016 it was raised to the rank of city.

It lies in the north of Puebla state, where the mountains fall away toward the Gulf coast, at around 355 m and close to the Veracruz line; Poza Rica is about half an hour's drive. The climate is hot and humid. Growth has been quick: 708 people in 1960, 5,022 in 1980 and 13,344 at the 2020 census, which makes it the biggest community in Venustiano Carranza municipality, larger than the municipal seat itself. The federal encyclopedia of municipalities lists trade as its main activity.

The oil connection is celebrated every 18 March at the Fiesta del Petróleo, held since 2011 to mark the 1938 expropriation, with a parade of schools from across the region, sports, cultural events and concerts. A monument to General Lázaro Cárdenas del Río went up in town in 2013. The San Marcos river, one of the two rivers that cut through the lowest parts of the municipality, can be seen from town. The municipal patron fiesta, for the Virgin of Guadalupe on 12 December, with jaripeo, dances and a fair, is held in the seat, Agua Fría, about 10 km away.