Ocosingo is a city and its surrounding

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 ...

(''

municipio ' (, ) and ' () are country subdivisions in Italy and several Hispanophone and Lusophone nations, respectively. They are often translated as "municipality". In the English language, a municipality often is defined as relating to a single city or ...

'') of the same name in the Mexican

state State may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State * ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States * ''Our S ...

of Chiapas.

Overview

The northeastern boundary of the municipality is the

Usumacinta River The Usumacinta River (; named after the howler monkey) is a river in southeastern Mexico and northwestern Guatemala. It is formed by the junction of the Pasión River, which arises in the Sierra de Santa Cruz (in Guatemala) and the Salinas ...

, along a portion where the river forms the international border with Guatemala. As of 2010, the municipality had a total population of 198,877, up from 170,280 as of 2005. As of 2010, the city of Ocosingo had a population of 41,878, up from 35,065 as of 2005. Other than the city of Ocosingo, the municipality had 1,387 localities, the largest of which (with 2010 populations in parentheses) were: Nueva Palestina (10,588), Frontera Corozal (5,184), Tenango (4,436), Abasolo (2,884), classified as urban, and Damasco (2,380), Taniperla (2,106), San Quintín (1,732), Cristóbal Colón (1,623),

Santo Domingo , total_type = Total , population_density_km2 = auto , timezone = AST (UTC −4) , area_code_type = Area codes , area_code = 809, 829, 849 , postal_code_type = Postal codes , postal_code = 10100–10699 ( Distrito Nacional) , webs ...

(1,584),

Cintalapa Cintalapa is a town and one of the 122 Municipalities of Chiapas, in southern Mexico. It covers an area of 2404.6 km². As of 2010, the municipality had a total population of 78,114, up from 64,013 as of 2005. The municipality had 943 loc ...

(1,571), Perla de Acapulco (1,527), Santa Elena (1,508),

El Censo ''El censo'' is a 1957 comedy play by Mexican dramatist Emilio Carballido. Plot The play opens in an unregistered sewing shop in La Lagunilla in 1945. A wealthy upper-class woman, Remedios, is being fitted for a new dress by two sisters, Herlind ...

(1,500), El Sibal (1,472), Nuevo Francisco León (1,420), El Zapotal (1,385), Las Tazas (1,381), Sibaca (1,359), Arroyo Granizo (1,349), Ubilio García (1,318), El Limonar (1,289), Patria Nueva (San José el Contento) (1,282),

Zaragoza Zaragoza, also known in English as Saragossa,''Encyclopædia Britannica'"Zaragoza (conventional Saragossa)" is the capital city of the Zaragoza Province and of the autonomous community of Aragon, Spain. It lies by the Ebro river and its tributari ...

(1,163),

Los Pinos Los Pinos (English: ''The Pines'') was the official residence and office of the President of Mexico from 1934 to 2018. Located in the Bosque de Chapultepec (Chapultepec Forest) in central Mexico City, it became the presidential seat in 1934, wh ...

(1,073), Ramón F. Balboa (1,065),

Agua Azul The Cascadas de Agua Azul (Spanish (language), Spanish for "Blue Water waterfall") are a series of waterfalls found on the Xanil River in the southern Mexico, Mexican state of Chiapas. They are located in the Municipality of Tumbalá, from Palen ...

(1,064), Lacandón (1,062), El Tumbo (1,044), and Lacanjá Tzeltal (1,030), classified as rural. Several notable

Maya Maya may refer to: Civilizations * Maya peoples, of southern Mexico and northern Central America ** Maya civilization, the historical civilization of the Maya peoples ** Maya language, the languages of the Maya peoples * Maya (Ethiopia), a popul ...

archaeological sites An archaeological site is a place (or group of physical sites) in which evidence of past activity is preserved (either prehistoric or historic or contemporary), and which has been, or may be, investigated using the discipline of archaeology and ...

are located in the municipality, including

Bonampak Bonampak (known anciently as ''Ak'e'' or, in its immediate area as ''Usiij Witz'', 'Vulture Hill') is an ancient Maya archaeological site in the Mexican state of Chiapas. The site is approximately south of the larger site of the people Yaxchilan, ...

Yaxchilan Yaxchilan () is an ancient Maya city located on the bank of the Usumacinta River in the state of Chiapas, Mexico. In the Late Classic Period Yaxchilan was one of the most powerful Maya states along the course of the Usumacinta River, with Pi ...

, and

Toniná Tonina (or Toniná in Spanish orthography) is a pre-Columbian archaeological site and ruined city of the Maya civilization located in what is now the Mexican state of Chiapas, some 13 km (8.1 mi) east of the town of Ocosingo. The sit ...

. The western portion of the municipality is in the Chiapas Highlands. The

Lacandon Forest The Lacandon Jungle ( Spanish: ''Selva Lacandona'') is an area of rainforest which stretches from Chiapas, Mexico, into Guatemala. The heart of this rainforest is located in the Montes Azules Biosphere Reserve in Chiapas near the border with Guat ...

covers the central and eastern foothills and lowlands. Protected areas in the municipality include Montes Azules and Nahá–Metzabok biosphere reserves.

History

Ocosingo was given city status on 31 July 1979. Ocosingo rose to national prominence during the Zapatista uprising of 1994. It was occupied by the EZLN along with several other towns in Chiapas (including San Cristóbal). The EZLN retreated from most towns before the arrival of the Mexican army but not so in Ocosingo. Thus, the town saw several days of intense fighting, leaving dozens of rebels, soldiers and civilians dead. EnteringOcosingo1

The body of a recently graduated doctor, Mariana Sánchez Dávalos, 24, was found in Nueva Palestina, Ocosingo, on January 29, 2021. Two months earlier she had denounced a sexual attack that had not been followed up by the state prosecutor (FGE). The lack of civil authority in the area made her job "high risk". Her death was classified a suicide, despite evidence of violence and the fact that she had been choked. Doctors and medical students throughout the state demanded an investigation, and #JusticiaparaMariana went viral on social media. Hundreds, mostly women, marched in

Tuxtla Gutiérrez Tuxtla Gutiérrez (, ) is the capital and the largest city of the Mexican southeastern state of Chiapas. It is the seat of the municipality of the same name, the most developed and populated in the state. A busy government, commercial and servic ...

San Cristóbal de las Casas San Cristóbal de las Casas (), also known by its native Tzotzil name, Jovel (), is a town and municipality located in the Central Highlands region of the Mexican state of Chiapas. It was the capital of the state until 1892, and is still cons ...

, and

Tapachula Tapachula de Córdova y Ordóñez, simply known as Tapachula, is a city and municipality located in the far southeast of the state of Chiapas in Mexico, near the Guatemalan border and the Pacific Ocean. It is one of the most important cities of ...

on January 31 to demand justice. On February 1, Olga Sánchez Cordero, Secretary of the Interior (SEGOB), said that Sánchez Dávalos′s death would be investigated as a

femicide Femicide or feminicide is a hate crime which is broadly defined as "the intentional killing of women or girls because they are female," but definitions of it vary depending on cultural context. In 1976, the feminist author Diana E. H. Russ ...

. Mariana′s body was cremated on February 2 without the family′s authorization, impeding a complete investigation into her death. The director of the health center where Mariana worked was arrested on February 6 for her possible participation in the case.

References

Link to tables of population data from Census of 2005
INEGI: Instituto Nacional de Estadística, Geografía e Informática
Chiapas
Enciclopedia de los Municipios de México {{Authority control Municipalities of Chiapas Chiapas Highlands