El Corte River (in Spanish ''Río El Corte'', meaning "The Cut River") is the primary tributary of the

Coatzacoalcos River The Coatzacoalcos is a large river that feeds mainly the south part of the state of Veracruz; it originates in the Sierra de Niltepec and crosses the state of Oaxaca in the region of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, flowing for toward the Gulf of M ...

, flowing through the Mexican states of

Oaxaca Oaxaca ( , also , , from nci, Huāxyacac ), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Oaxaca ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Oaxaca), is one of the 32 states that compose the political divisions of Mexico, Federative Entities of Mexico. It is ...

and

Veracruz Veracruz (), formally Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave (), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave), is one of the 31 states which, along with Me ...

to the

Gulf of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico ( es, Golfo de México) is an oceanic basin, ocean basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, largely surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of ...

Geography

The river originates in the mountains to the east of the

Isthmus of Tehuantepec The Isthmus of Tehuantepec () is an isthmus in Mexico. It represents the shortest distance between the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific Ocean. Before the opening of the Panama Canal, it was a major overland transport route known simply as the Te ...

, a lowland corridor between the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific Ocean. In its upper reaches it flows westward through the Zoque Forest (Selva Zoque), an ecologically important zone with high biological diversity, part of the

Mesoamerican Biological Corridor The Mesoamerican Biological Corridor (MBC) is a region that consists of Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, and some southern states of Mexico. The area acts as a natural land bridge from South America to North ...

. It is home to

cichlids Cichlids are fish from the family (biology), family Cichlidae in the order Cichliformes. Cichlids were traditionally classed in a suborder, the Labroidei, along with the wrasses (Labridae), in the order Perciformes, but molecular studies have c ...

among many other species of fish. The river provides water to the township of

Santa María Chimalapa Santa María Chimalapa is a town and municipality in Oaxaca in south-western Mexico. It is part of the Juchitán District in the west of the Istmo de Tehuantepec region. Environment The municipality has an area of 3572.31 km², much of it ...

and to

Cuauhtémoc Cuauhtémoc (, ), also known as Cuauhtemotzín, Guatimozín, or Guatémoc, was the Aztec ruler (''tlatoani'') of Tenochtitlan from 1520 to 1521, making him the last Aztec Emperor. The name Cuauhtemōc means "one who has descended like an eagle" ...

, the most important arable and livestock region of the state of Oaxaca. Running north through the Isthmus, the river joins the Coatzacoalcos River which trends in a roughly northeastly direction to the gulf.

Development

During the Mexican colonial period, the

Uxpanapa Uxpanapa is a municipality in the southeastern part of the state of Veracruz, adjacent to the state of Oaxaca), in Mexico. It is bordered by the municipalities of Jesús Carranza, Hidalgotitlán, Minatitlán, and Las Choapas in Veracruz, as well ...

colony to the north established settlements on the river, which is easily navigable, and began to exploit the forest. From 1731 to 1747, the forests around Santa María Chimalapa were an important source of giant pines, used for masts and beams by the

Spanish Navy The Spanish Navy or officially, the Armada, is the maritime branch of the Spanish Armed Forces and one of the oldest active naval forces in the world. The Spanish Navy was responsible for a number of major historic achievements in navigation, ...

. The trees were floated down El Corte (which owes its name to the cutting of these trees) to

Coatzacoalcos Coatzacoalcos () 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 munic ...

, and from there were taken to the

shipyards A shipyard, also called a dockyard or boatyard, is a place where ships are built and repaired. These can be yachts, military vessels, cruise liners or other cargo or passenger ships. Dockyards are sometimes more associated with maintenance a ...

Havana Havana (; Spanish: ''La Habana'' ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of the La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.

. The Zoque Forest today is under pressure from forestry and forest fires, human population growth, agrarian conflict, cattle production, subsistence hunting and illegal trafficking of threatened species, development and infrastructure projects and narco-trafficking. The

World Wide Fund for Nature The World Wide Fund for Nature Inc. (WWF) is an international non-governmental organization founded in 1961 that works in the field of wilderness preservation and the reduction of human impact on the environment. It was formerly named the Wor ...

, with financial assistance from

USAID The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is an independent agency of the U.S. federal government that is primarily responsible for administering civilian foreign aid and development assistance. With a budget of over $27 bi ...

is developing Watershed Management Plans for El Corte (Santa Maria Chimalapa) and Espíritu Santo (San Miguel Chimalapa) rivers to alleviate these threats. Projects under the

Puebla-Panama Plan The Mesoamerica Integration and Development Project, or in Spanish (PM), is a mechanism by which 10 countries centered on Central America implement regional projects for development and integration. The 10 participating countries are Belize, C ...

, such as an industrial corridor to the west of the Zoque forest around the trans-isthmus highway, and rural industrialization through tree and coffee plantations and cattle corridors, may threaten the river's ecology. In June 2008 the State of Oaxaca was considering construction of a storage dam in the Río El Corte Basin in the Chimalapa sub-region, with the potential to irrigate 100,000 hectares of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec and to supply water to the Salina Cruz Refinery.

References

External links

* *{{cite web , url=https://www.panoramio.com/photo/1372184 , title=Rápidos del Río El Corte , work=Panoramia , accessdate=2010-06-26 Geography of Mesoamerica Rivers of Oaxaca Rivers of Veracruz