Río Lagartos Municipality


Río Lagartos Municipality is a municipality in the Mexican state of Yucatán containing 249.09 km2 of land and is located roughly northeast of the city of Mérida.
WWW riolagartos.gob.mx

History

There is no accurate data on when the town was founded, but before the conquest, 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 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, 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:
CommunityPopulation
Entire Municipality 3,438
Las Coloradas1068 in 2005
Río Lagartos2127 in 2005

Local festivals

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

Tourist attractions