Top: Panoramic view of Coatzacoalcos's downtown Middle: Olmec Archaeology Museum, Cathedral of Saint Joseph Bottom: National flag at the seafront, stairways at the riverside front
Coatzacoalcos (Spanish:[koatsakoˈalkos]; Nahuatl languages: Koatzakwalko; Zapotec: Niniashi; Popoluca: Puertu) is a major port city in the southern part of the Mexican state of Veracruz, mostly on the western side of the Coatzacoalcos River estuary, on the Bay of Campeche, on the southern Gulf of Mexico coast. The city serves as the municipal seat of the municipality of the same name. The city had a 2020 census population of 212,540, making it the third-largest city in the state after Veracruz and Xalapa. The municipality covers a surface area of 471.16 km2 (181.916 sq mi) and reported a population of 310,698 persons. The municipality population in 2015 was 319,187 a decrease of 9% over 2020.[1]
Etymology
Coatzacoalcos comes from a Nahuatl word meaning "site of the Snake" or "where the snake hides."[2] According to the legend, this is where the god Quetzalcoatl made his final journey to the sea in around 999 and he made his promise to return.
History
Coatzacoalcos waterfront, circa 1904
Coatzacoalcos sits within the Olmec heartland. Excavations in 2008 for a tunnel under the Coatzacoalcos River indicate a substantial pre-Hispanic population.[3]
By the time of the Spanish arrival the area was under Mayan influence. In 1522, Hernán Cortés ordered Gonzalo de Sandoval to fund a settlement near Guazacualco. Sandoval named it Villa del Espíritu Santo.[4]
San Martín Tuxtla is an active volcano lying northwest of Coatzcoalcos in the Sierra de los Tuxtlas. It erupted in 1664, in May 1793 with large ash falls and lava flows, and most recently in 1796.[5]
The town was elevated to the category of port in 1825 and the name was changed to Coatzacoalcos.[4]
The municipality of Coatzacoalcos was established 22 December 1881, with the town as its seat.[4] In 1900 the town name was changed to Puerto México. In 1911 it was elevated to city, and in 1936 the name was changed to the current Coatzacoalcos.[4]
On 23 July 1940, Coatzacoalcos welcomed refugees from the Spanish Civil War who sought asylum in Mexico after travelling across the Atlantic aboard the SS Santo Domingo.[4]
In 1959, the city suffered damage from an Mw 6.4 earthquake.[6]
Coatzacoalcos became a very important crossroads during the oil boom of the 1970s, connecting the Yucatán Peninsula and oil fields in Campeche to the rest of Mexico and to the port of Salina Cruz in Oaxaca on the Pacific coast.
The city's industry is dominated by the petrochemical sector. Four big industrial petrochemical complexes are located near the city (Pajaritos, Cosoleacaque, Morelos and Cangrejera) making it one of the most important concentrations of its kind in the world. The state-owned Pemex Petroquímica subsidiary is headquartered in Coatzacoalcos and 85% of its production is concentrated there.[10]
In 2020, the municipality reported a population of 310,698 inhabitants, 212,540 residing in the municipal seat,.[1] which makes it the 3th largest in the state after Veracruz and Xalapa. Other townships include Olmec City (24,085 hab.), Allende (23,351 hab.), Villa San Martín (15,659 hab.) and Puerto Esmeralda (9,585 hab.).[1] Coatzacoalcos is the seat of a Metropolitan Area, which together with the municipalities of Ixhuatlán del Sureste and Nanchital de Lázaro Cárdenas del Río had a population of 354,606 in 2020.
Coatzacoalcos has been a transportation hub for hundreds of years. It is connected via air, water, road, and rail to
the surrounding region and the rest of the world.
The Port of Coatzacoalcos (Puerto México) is an international port of entry that provides transhipment of oil and petrochemicals.
After an upgrade to the railway along the Tehuantepec Route was opened in 1907 by Porfirio Díaz the port saw an increase of shipping via the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, particularly from the American-Hawaiian Steamship Company. The port saw a decrease in traffic after the opening of the Panama Canal from 1914 on, but traffic has started to build up since the oil boom of the 1970s. The railway is now known as the Ferrocarril Transístmico ("Trans-Isthmic Railroad").
Mexican Federal Highway 180 follows the southern shore of the Bay of Campeche through Coatzacoalcos to the Yucatán Peninsula. Highway 180 and a rail line to Allende have been carried over the Coatzacoalcos River via the 1910 built Coatza I bridge for more than a century. A second cable stayed bridge known as Coatza II or Antonio Dovalí Jaime was built to the south to carry more road traffic over the river. It was constructed starting in 1979 and was opened by President Miguel de la Madrid Hurtado on 17 October 1984.[14]Coatza II has a center span of 288 metres (945 ft) and an overall length of 698.25 metres (2,290.8 ft).[15] A ferry operates between the city of Coatzacoalcos and Allende, which in 2017 was supplemented by a 1.1-kilometre (0.68 mi) underwater tunnel that carries four lanes of traffic.[4] Coatzacoalcos is also the northern terminus of Mexican Federal Highway 185, which links it with the Pacific Ocean at Salina Cruz, Oaxaca, on the other side of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec.
^"Acerca de Pemex Petroquímica" (in Spanish). Pemex. Archived from the original on 20 January 2019. Retrieved 22 March 2011. integrado por Pemex Petroquímica Organismo Subsidiario de Petróleos Mexicanos, el cual tiene ubicadas sus oficinas centrales en la Ciudad de Coatzacoalcos, Veracruz
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