Río Lagartos Municipality (

Spanish language Spanish ( or , Castilian) is a Romance languages, Romance language of the Indo-European language family that evolved from colloquial Latin spoken on the Iberian peninsula. Today, it is a world language, global language with more than 500 millio ...

: "river of alligators") is a

municipality 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 ...

in the

Mexican Mexican may refer to: Mexico and its culture *Being related to, from, or connected to the country of Mexico, in North America ** People *** Mexicans, inhabitants of the country Mexico and their descendants *** Mexica, ancient indigenous people ...

state of Yucatán containing (249.09 km²) of land and is located roughly northeast of the city of Mérida.

History

There is no accurate data on when the town was founded, but before the

conquest Conquest is the act of military subjugation of an enemy by force of arms. Military history provides many examples of conquest: the Roman conquest of Britain, the Mauryan conquest of Afghanistan and of vast areas of the Indian subcontinent, t ...

, it was part of the chieftainship of Ecab. After colonization, it became the Spanish colony's northeastern port. Before 1580, Antonio Rodríguez convinced the Yucatecan Governor Guillén de las Casas to appoint him as guard of the port. Rodríguez negotiated with the chieftains Chuyubchuen, Kikil, Panabá and Sucopó to provide him with indigenous workers to mine salt, fish or make ashes for soap. He secured almost a monopoly on the native workers requiring any Spaniard wanting to open a new enterprise to negotiate with him to rent workers. Yucatán declared its independence from the Spanish Crown in 1821, and in 1825 the area was assigned to the Valladolid Municipality. In 1905, it was assigned to the

Tizimín Municipality Tizimín Municipality is one of the 106 municipalities of Yucatán with a municipal seat of the same name. The municipality is located in the north-east of the Mexican state of Yucatán, and it is the largest municipality in the state with a territ ...

and in 1988 it was confirmed as head of its own municipality.

Governance

The municipal president is elected for a three-year term. The town council has four councilpersons, who serve as Secretary and councilors of health, education, public security and cemeteries.

Communities

The head of the municipality is

Río Lagartos Río Lagartos is a town in the state of Yucatán, Mexico. The town lies 42 kilometres north of Tizimín. Mérida is approximately 230 kilometres further west. Río Lagartos is located at a lagoon, the Ria Lagartos, which is part of a natural rese ...

, Yucatán. The municipality has 36 populated places besides the seat including Las Coloradas, El Edén, Paraíso, San Pablo, Santa Cruz, Santa Pilar Trejo, Santa Rita, Serrano, Tacxahan, and Zabich. The significant populations are shown below:

Local festivals

Every year on 25 July there is a festival to patron of the town, Saint James the Apostle.

Tourist attractions

* Birding tours * Cenote Chiquila * Cenote Peten Tuchja * Cenote San Luis Culemix * Cenote San Manuel * Cenote San Pedro * Cenote Santa Pilar

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rio Lagartos Municipalities of Yucatán