Santa María Huatulco is a town and municipality in Oaxaca in south-western Mexico. It is part of the Pochutla District in the east of the Costa Region. The meaning of Huatulco, or Guatulco Coatulco is, "where they worship the tree", referring to an ancient legend.

Oaxaca is a state in Southwest Mexico that is divided into 570 municipalities, more than any other state in Mexico. According to Article 113 of the state's constitution, the municipalities are grouped into 30 judicial and tax districts to facilitate the distribution of the state's revenues. It is the only state in Mexico with this particular judicial and tax district organization. Oaxaca is the tenth most populated state with 4,132,148 inhabitants as of the 2020 Mexican census and the fifth largest by land area spanning 93,757.6 square kilometres (36,200.0 sq mi).