Nogales is a

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...

in the

state State most commonly refers to: * State (polity), a centralized political organization that regulates law and society within a territory **Sovereign state, a sovereign polity in international law, commonly referred to as a country **Nation state, a ...

Sonora Sonora (), officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Sonora (), is one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, comprise the Administrative divisions of Mexico, Federal Entities of Mexico. The state is divided into Municipalities of Sonora, 72 ...

in northwestern

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

, being the most densely populated municipality in Sonora. The name "Nogales" is the Spanish word for

walnut tree Walnut trees are any species of tree in the plant genus ''Juglans'', the type genus of the family (biology), family Juglandaceae, the seeds of which are referred to as walnuts. All species are deciduous trees, tall, with pinnate leaves , with ...

Geography

The northern boundary of the municipality is located along the U.S.—Mexico border. The seat of the municipality is the City of Nogales. The city is abutted on its north by the city of

Nogales, Arizona Nogales (; English: or ) is a city in and the county seat of Santa Cruz County, Arizona. The population was 20,837 at the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census and estimated 20,103 in 2019. Nogales forms part of the larger Tucson–Nogales L ...

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

History

The independent municipality of Nogales, which included the town of Nogales, was established on July 11, 1884. The municipality of Nogales covers an area of 1,675 km². Nogales was declared a city within the municipality on January 1, 1920.

Escobarista Rebellion

Early in March 1929, the Escobarista Rebellion exploded in Nogales, sponsored by Obregonistas, supporters of President

Álvaro Obregón Álvaro Obregón Salido (; 19 February 1880 – 17 July 1928) was a Mexican general, inventor and politician who served as the 46th President of Mexico from 1920 to 1924. Obregón was re-elected to the presidency in 1928 but was assassinated b ...

, who had been assassinated on July 17, 1928. General Manuel Aguirre, commanding the rebellious 64th Regiment, took power without firing a shot, causing ''federales'' from Naco to send a daily airplane to attack the rebels. It dropped a few bombs over Nogales without doing any damage, while the rebels fought back with machine guns from the roofs without doing any damage to the airplane. There was only one casualty, a woman who was scared by a bomb explosion and had a heart attack. That same month, a hooded man appeared at night driving a tank on Morley Street on the U.S. side, then entered Mexico to help the ''federales'' in Naco. It seems that the tank had been bought in 1927 for fighting the Yaquis, but U.S. officials prohibited it from leaving the U.S., and it had been kept in a warehouse in

Government

The municipality of Nogales was governed by the

Institutional Revolutionary Party The Institutional Revolutionary Party (, , PRI) is a List of political parties in Mexico, political party in Mexico that was founded in 1929 as the National Revolutionary Party (, PNR), then as the Party of the Mexican Revolution (, PRM) and fin ...

(PRI) from 1931 until the 2006 elections, when power shifted to the National Action Party (PAN). After more than seven decades of being in power, the PRI was ousted by PAN when long-time businessman and philanthropist Marco Antonio Martínez Dabdoub ran for the presidency of Nogales, and gained access to the municipal government after having won by 30,826 votes against 23,892 of his PRI opponent. The body of Cecilia Yépiz Reyna, former Secretary of Urban Development and Ecology, was found in a shallow grave near the border on March 6, 2021, after a three-month search. Her brother accused municipal president Jesús Pujol Irastorza ( MORENA), of the kidnapping and murder.

Municipal presidents

Assassination of a former Nogales official

On 5 January 2021, civil engineer Cecilia Yépiz Reyna, former secretary of Infrastructure, Urban Development and Ecology of the City of Nogales, disappeared. Later, on 7 March, her body was found: Yépiz had been clandestinely buried in a grave located on a site located 1.86 miles (3 kilometers) Southwest of the Mexico International Highway 15, kilometer 249 of the Nogales- Ímuris section. On 18 May 2021, the alleged perpetrator, Fernando "N", was arrested in the city of

San Luis Potosí San Luis Potosí, officially the Free and Sovereign State of San Luis Potosí, is one of the 32 states which compose the Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 59 municipalities and is named after its capital city, San Luis Potosí. It ...

transferred first to

Hermosillo Hermosillo (), formerly called Pitic (as in ''Santísima Trinidad del Pitic'' and ''Presidio del Pitic''), is a city in the center of the northwestern Mexican state of Sonora. It is the municipal seat of the Hermosillo municipality, the state's ...

, and then to Nogales.

Population

The 2005 census the official population of the municipality of Nogales was 193,517. At the latest census in 2010, the official numbers were 220,292 for the Municipality. The city and the municipality both rank third in the state in population, after

and

Ciudad Obregón Ciudad Obregón is a city in southern Sonora. It is the state's second largest city after Hermosillo and serves as the municipal seat of Cajeme. As of 2020, the city has a population of 436,484. Ciudad Obregón is south of the country's U.S.� ...

. The municipality includes many outlying but small rural communities. The only other localities with over 1,000 inhabitants are La Mesa (2,996) and Centro de Readaptación Social Nuevo (2,203) . Nogales is served by Nogales International Airport. The population growth is in part due to the influx of industry that has come since the opening of the

maquiladora A (), or (), is a factory that is largely duty (economics), duty free and tariff free. These factories take raw materials and assemble, manufacture, or process them and export the finished product. These factories and systems are present thro ...

industry through the National Industrialization Program, decades before the

North American Free Trade Agreement The North American Free Trade Agreement (, TLCAN; , ALÉNA), referred to colloquially in the Anglosphere as NAFTA, ( ) was an agreement signed by Canada, Mexico, and the United States that created a trilateral trade bloc in North America. The ...

(NAFTA). Manufacturing now accounts for 55% of the city's

gross domestic product Gross domestic product (GDP) is a monetary measure of the total market value of all the final goods and services produced and rendered in a specific time period by a country or countries. GDP is often used to measure the economic performanc ...

, and services are growing as well, most of this caused by the growing jobs in the city. Nogales is known for its recent enormous population growth which covers the hills along the central narrow north-south valley. Dispersed among the houses, the visitor will find a mixture of factories, stores, etc. In 2006, the southern half of the city experienced a modern urbanization development including shopping malls, wide avenues, and modern housing conglomerations.

Economy

The primary commercial artery is Federal Highway 15, which links the state with the U.S. as well as major cities in Mexico.

Tourism

Due to its location, Nogales is one of the most important ports of entry for the U.S. The downtown area used to have a large number of bars, strip clubs, hotels, restaurants, as well as curio stores, which sold a large variety of artesanias (handicrafts, leather art, handmade flowers, clothes) brought from the deeper central and southern states of Mexico. However, now downtown Nogales has forgotten those activities, due to two main causes: the recent violence in Mexico, and the barriers imposed by the US Government after

September 11, 2001 The September 11 attacks, also known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. Nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners, crashing the first two into ...

Manufacturing

Maquiladora A (), or (), is a factory that is largely duty (economics), duty free and tariff free. These factories take raw materials and assemble, manufacture, or process them and export the finished product. These factories and systems are present thro ...

s, or manufacturing plants, employ a large percentage of the population. Nogales' proximity to the U.S. and the abundance of inexpensive labor make it an efficient location for foreign companies to have manufacturing and assembly operations. Some of the companies that have established maquiladoras in Nogales include: Otis Elevator, The Chamberlain Group, Walbro, and Philips Avent. ;Production and export Approximately 92 establishments produce foreign exports. Sixty-five of these establishments are located in seven industrial parks, which employ approximately 25,400 workers, around 50 percent of the total employed population of the municipality. Also important to the economy is livestock for both foreign export and cattle breeding.

References

Link to tables of population data from Census of 2005
INEGI: Instituto Nacional de Estadística, Geografía e Informática

External links

Nogales, Ayuntamiento Digital
''(Official Website of Nogales, Sonora)''
Everything you want to know about Nogales - Bilingual
{{coord, 31, 18, N, 110, 56, W, source:kolossus-ruwiki, display=title Municipalities of Sonora