Istmo de Tehuantepec is the largest region of the state 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 Federative Entities of Mexico. It is divided into 570 municipaliti ...

, located in southwestern

Mexico Mexico (Spanish language, Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a List of sovereign states, country in the southern portion of North America. It is borders of Mexico, bordered to the north by the United States; to the so ...

Geography

It covers the southern part 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 T ...

, the shortest route between the

Gulf of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico ( es, Golfo de México) is an 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 the United ...

and the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the conti ...

before the

Panama Canal The Panama Canal ( es, Canal de Panamá, link=no) is an artificial waterway in Panama that connects the Atlantic Ocean with the Pacific Ocean and divides North and South America. The canal cuts across the Isthmus of Panama and is a condui ...

was opened. The Istmo region has two districts,

Juchitán District Juchitán District is located in the east of the Istmo de Tehuantepec region of the State of Oaxaca, Mexico, covering the southern part of a low-lying corridor through the mountains that separates the Gulf of Mexico from the Pacific ocean. The dis ...

and

Tehuantepec District Tehuantepec District is located in the west of the Istmo Region of the State of Oaxaca, Mexico. It includes the cities of Salina Cruz and Tehuantepec Tehuantepec (, in full, Santo Domingo Tehuantepec) is a city and municipality in the southeas ...

, and 41

municipalities A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...

. The region contain the largest part of the ''Selva Zoque'' (Zoque Forest) ecological region, that extends into adjacent

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 ...

and Chiapas states. It is an area of significant ecological importance, including the largest intact tropical cloud forest in Central America. It also has lowland

tropical rainforest Tropical rainforests are rainforests that occur in areas of tropical rainforest climate in which there is no dry season – all months have an average precipitation of at least 60 mm – and may also be referred to as ''lowland equa ...

tropical dry forest The tropical and subtropical dry broadleaf forest is a habitat type defined by the World Wide Fund for Nature and is located at tropical and subtropical latitudes. Though these forests occur in climates that are warm year-round, and may receive ...

Sierra Madre de Oaxaca pine-oak forests Sierra (Spanish for "mountain range" and "saw", from Latin '' serra'') may refer to the following: Places Mountains and mountain ranges * Sierra de Juárez, a mountain range in Baja California, Mexico * Sierra de las Nieves, a mountain range i ...

and

Sierra Madre del Sur pine-oak forests Sierra (Spanish for "mountain range" and "saw", from Latin '' serra'') may refer to the following: Places Mountains and mountain ranges * Sierra de Juárez, a mountain range in Baja California, Mexico * Sierra de las Nieves, a mountain range i ...

, and Chimalapas montane forests. The forest is also home to 300 species of

native Native may refer to: People * Jus soli, citizenship by right of birth * Indigenous peoples, peoples with a set of specific rights based on their historical ties to a particular territory ** Native Americans (disambiguation) In arts and entert ...

orchid Orchids are plants that belong to the family Orchidaceae (), a diverse and widespread group of flowering plants with blooms that are often colourful and fragrant. Along with the Asteraceae, they are one of the two largest families of flowerin ...

s, representing 27% of known Mexican orchid species and 60% of recorded Mexican orchid genera.

Economy

The region has cement and lime plants. The main industry is the Pemex

oil refinery An oil refinery or petroleum refinery is an industrial process plant where petroleum (crude oil) is transformed and refined into useful products such as gasoline (petrol), diesel fuel, asphalt base, fuel oils, heating oil, kerosene, lique ...

in the port of

Salina Cruz Salina Cruz is a major seaport on the Pacific coast of the Mexican state of Oaxaca. It is the state's third-largest city and is the municipal seat of the municipality of the same name. It is part of the Tehuantepec District in the west of the ...

, the largest city in Istmo de Tehuantepec, located on the Pacific coast at the

Gulf of Tehuantepec Gulf of Tehuantepec () is a large body of water on the Pacific coast of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, southeastern Mexico, at . Many (but not all) Pacific hurricanes form in or near this body of water. A strong, gale-force wind called the Tehu ...

. The isthmus has extensive livestock production operations. Crops include sesame, coffee, rice, sorghum, pineapple, banana, coconut, melon, and sugarcane. Fishing cooperatives harvest shrimp and other seafood from the Pacific. The government has plans to develop the trans-Isthmus of Tehuantepec corridor, including improving transportation routes, developing an industrial zone along the highway, and expanding the petroleum and petrochemical industries in

. Other plans include creating coffee plantations and cattle corridors; expanding production of beans, maize, and chili; and using the bio-genetic resources of native medicinal plants. The proposed 2021 budget contemplates MXN $4,133 billion (US $199.3 million), and 18.% increase over 2020, for the ''Corredor Multimodal Interoceánico Istmo de Tehuantepec'' (

Isthmus of Tehuantepec Interoceanic Corridor An isthmus (; ; ) is a narrow piece of land connecting two larger areas across an expanse of water by which they are otherwise separated. A tombolo is an isthmus that consists of a spit or bar, and a strait is the sea counterpart of an isthmus ...

2017 Chiapas earthquake

The 2017 Chiapas earthquake severely damaged buildings in the region on 7 September 2017. It measured 8.2 on the

moment magnitude scale The moment magnitude scale (MMS; denoted explicitly with or Mw, and generally implied with use of a single M for magnitude) is a measure of an earthquake's magnitude ("size" or strength) based on its seismic moment. It was defined in a 1979 pape ...

and a maximum

Mercalli intensity The Modified Mercalli intensity scale (MM, MMI, or MCS), developed from Giuseppe Mercalli's Mercalli intensity scale of 1902, is a seismic intensity scale used for measuring the intensity of shaking produced by an earthquake. It measures the eff ...

of IX (''Violent'') and occurred approximately south of

Pijijiapan Pijijiapan is a town and municipality in the Mexican state of Chiapas, on the coast of the Pacific Ocean about midway between the border with the state of Oaxaca and the international frontier with Guatemala. As of 2010, the municipality had a ...

off the Chiapas coast in the

References

External links

Regions of Oaxaca {{Oaxaca-geo-stub

Geography

Economy

2017 Chiapas earthquake

See also

References

External links