Coatzacoalcos (; formerly known as Puerto México; ; Zapotec: ; Popoluca: ) is a major port city in the southern part of the Mexican state of Veracruz, mostly on the western side of the Coatzacoalcos River estuary, on the Bay of Campeche, on the southern Gulf of Mexico coast. The city serves as the municipal seat of the municipality of the same name. The city had a 2020 census population of 212,540, making it the third-largest city in the state after Veracruz and Xalapa. The municipality covers a surface area of and reported a population of 310,698 persons. The municipality population in 2015 was 319,187 a decrease of 9% over 2020.
Etymology
Coatzacoalcos comes from a Nahuatl word meaning 'site of the Snake' or 'where the snake hides'. According to the legend, this is where the god Quetzalcoatl made his final journey to the sea in around 999 and promised to return.
History
thumb|left|Coatzacoalcos waterfront, circa 1904
Coatzacoalcos sits within the Olmec heartland. Excavations in 2008 for a tunnel under the Coatzacoalcos River indicate a substantial pre-Hispanic population.
By the time the Spanish arrived, Coatzacoalcos was an important center of regional trade and the capital of an extensive polity covering much of the modern Olmeca Region and perhaps reaching into the westernmost portions of the state of Tabasco. At some point there was a conflict with the Aztec garrison at Tuxtepec, and Aztec pochteca were later allowed safe passage in order to travel to Tabasco, though it never became an Aztec subject state. Nahuas were the predominant ethnicity, speaking the local Isthmus dialect, but the region was also inhabited by many Popolucas speaking Mixe-Zoque languages. Small Mixtec and Zapotec populations were reported in the Relaciones geográficas, but not much is known about them.
In 1522, Hernán Cortés ordered Gonzalo de Sandoval to fund a settlement near Guazacualco. Sandoval named it Villa del Espíritu Santo.
San Martín Tuxtla is an active volcano lying northwest of Coatzcoalcos in the Sierra de los Tuxtlas. It erupted in 1664, in May 1793 with large ash falls and lava flows, and most recently in 1796.
The town was elevated to the category of port in 1825 and the name was changed to Coatzacoalcos.
Coatzacoalcos became a very important crossroads during the oil boom of the 1970s, connecting the Yucatán Peninsula and oil fields in Campeche to the rest of Mexico and to the port of Salina Cruz in Oaxaca on the Pacific coast.
Geography and climate
The city is located at where the Coatzacoalcos River debouches into the Bay of Campeche. Overland it is connected by road and rail to the Pacific Ocean about away. This location has prompted plans for an interoceanic waterway across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, or for a much expanded railroad system, for over a century.
In the Köppen climate classification the climate is classified as Am for a tropical monsoon climate. A typical year sees more than of rainfall. Lying on the Gulf of Mexico, Coatzacoalcos has been struck by several hurricanes and tropical storms such as Hurricane Diana in August 1990, Hurricane Mitch in November 1998, Tropical Storm Larry in October 2003, Hurricane Stan in October 2005, Hurricane Dean in August 2007, Tropical Storm Marco in October 2008, Tropical Storm Hermine in early September 2010, Hurricane Karl in mid September 2010, Tropical Storm Matthew in late September 2010, Hurricane Richard in October 2010 and Hurricane Agatha in late May 2022. The winter months are cooler and drier than the summer months. Occasionally, cold high pressure cells from North America drift south across the Gulf of Mexico and drive strong Tehuano winds across the Isthmus, with very strong wind concentration taking place in Chivela Pass in Oaxaca.
Economy
thumb|right|Train ferry [[MV Bali Sea of CG Railway at Coatzacoalcos port facilities]]
The city's industry is dominated by the petrochemical sector. Four big industrial petrochemical complexes are located near the city (Pajaritos, Cosoleacaque, Morelos and Cangrejera) making it one of the most important concentrations of its kind in the world. The state-owned Pemex Petroquímica subsidiary is headquartered in Coatzacoalcos and 85% of its production is concentrated there.