The Río Verde is a river in the state of

Oaxaca Oaxaca, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Oaxaca, is one of the 32 states that compose the political divisions of Mexico, Federative Entities of the Mexico, United Mexican States. It is divided into municipalities of Oaxaca, 570 munici ...

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 ...

. It is formed by the confluence of the Atoyaquillo and Colorado Rivers near the village of

Santiago Ixtayutla Santiago Ixtayutla is a town and municipality in Oaxaca in south-western Mexico. It is located in the Jamiltepec District in the west of the Costa Region The Costa Region or Costa Chica lies on the Pacific coast of the state of Oaxaca, Mexico, s ...

and flows south to its mouth at El Azufre on the

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

, on the western border of

Lagunas de Chacahua National Park The Lagunas de Chacahua National Park (), created in 1937, is a national park located in the Municipality of Villa de Tututepec de Melchor Ocampo in the Mexican state of Oaxaca, about 54 km west of Puerto Escondido, near a village called Z ...

. Its major tributary is the Atoyac, which drains the

Oaxaca Valley The Central Valleys () of Oaxaca, also simply known as the Oaxaca Valley, is a geographic region located within the modern-day state of Oaxaca in southeastern Mexico. In an administrative context, it has been defined as comprising the districts of ...

and flows into the Río Verde at

Paso de la Reina Paso or PASO may refer to: People * Fernando del Paso (born 1935), Mexican novelist * Juan José Paso, (1758–1833), Argentine politician Other uses * Paso (float), an elaborate float made for religious processions * Paso (theatre), a seventeen ...

, where a proposal to build a large

hydroelectric Hydroelectricity, or hydroelectric power, is Electricity generation, electricity generated from hydropower (water power). Hydropower supplies 15% of the world's electricity, almost 4,210 TWh in 2023, which is more than all other Renewable energ ...

dam project has been opposed by local communities. The combined length of the Atoyac and lower Verde rivers is and the river system as a whole drains a

watershed Watershed may refer to: Hydrology * Drainage divide, the line that separates neighbouring drainage basins * Drainage basin, an area of land where surface water converges (North American usage) Music * Watershed Music Festival, an annual country ...

of , which has a mean natural

surface runoff Surface runoff (also known as overland flow or terrestrial runoff) is the unconfined flow of water over the ground surface, in contrast to ''channel runoff'' (or ''stream flow''). It occurs when excess rainwater, stormwater, meltwater, or other ...

of per year. The watershed covers almost a fifth of Oaxaca state and is home to over a third of its population, and faces serious degradation issues as a result of pollution and

overexploitation Overexploitation, also called overharvesting or ecological overshoot, refers to harvesting a renewable resource to the point of diminishing returns. Continued overexploitation can lead to the destruction of the resource, as it will be unable to ...

. Well-studied

Mesoamerica Mesoamerica is a historical region and cultural area that begins in the southern part of North America and extends to the Pacific coast of Central America, thus comprising the lands of central and southern Mexico, all of Belize, Guatemala, El S ...

n civilizations flourished in the valleys of Oaxaca, Ejutla and Nochixtlán, all of which lie in the Verde–Atoyac basin. The floodplains of the lower Río Verde valley also began to support large populations and complex society in the Late

Formative period Several chronologies in the archaeology of the Americas include a Formative Period or Formative stage etc. It is often sub-divided, for example into "Early", "Middle" and "Late" stages. The Formative is the third of five stages defined by Gord ...

(400–100 BC). The site of Río Viejo emerged as a regional centre during the Miniyua phase (150 BC–100 AD), developing massive public architecture by the Late Classic period (550–800 AD). In the Postclassic period development shifted away from the floodplains to the city-state of

Tututepec Tututepec (Mixtec languages, Mixtec: ''Yucu Dzaa'') is a Mesoamerica, Mesoamerican archaeological site. It is located in the lower Río Verde (Oaxaca), Río Verde valley on the coast of Mesoamerican geography#Oaxaca, Oaxaca. The city was the capita ...

, located in the foothills about 16 km east of Río Viejo. In the context of

freshwater fish Freshwater fish are fish species that spend some or all of their lives in bodies of fresh water such as rivers, lakes, ponds and inland wetlands, where the salinity is less than 1.05%. These environments differ from marine habitats in many wa ...

biogeography Biogeography is the study of the species distribution, distribution of species and ecosystems in geography, geographic space and through evolutionary history of life, geological time. Organisms and biological community (ecology), communities o ...

, the Verde–Atoyac basin is considered the southern extent of the

Nearctic realm The Nearctic realm is one of the eight biogeographic realms constituting the Earth's land surface. The Nearctic realm covers most of North America, including Greenland, Central Florida, and the highlands of Mexico. The parts of North America t ...

on the Pacific coast.

Hydroelectric plant

At least five activists were murdered in

2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

for their opposition to the construction of a hydroelectric plant on the river.

References

{{reflist, 30em Rivers of Oaxaca