Catemaco Municipality

Catemaco.

Catemaco with 46,702 inhabitants in 2010 is one of the 212 municipalities that make up the Mexican state of Veracruz. It is located in the center of the Sierra de Los Tuxtlas, in the southeastern center of the state. Its head is the city of Catemaco.

The municipality of Catemaco is located in the vicinity of a homonymous lake body, the Catemaco Lagoon, which is one of the main tourist attractions, due to its lake gastronomic specialties (tegogolos, mojarras, Catemaco mojarras and several endemic species of fish), as well as for being an important center of the ancestral tradition of witchcraft.

Toponymy

From Nahuatl, caltlemaco; cally, house; tletnaitl, censer; co: in, so it could be interpreted as; at [person] 's house! censer, although it can also be interpreted as; calli, houses, tematli, burn, place of burned houses.

Geography

The municipality of Catemaco is located in the central southeast area of the state, in the Sierra de los Tuxtlas, between the parallels 18° 16' and 18° 36' north latitude and the meridians 94° 52' and 95° 10' west longitude, with an altitude between 10 and 1400 m, and with a territorial extension of 661,193 km².

Hydrography

View of the Laguna de Catemaco

Within the Papaloapan hydrographic region in the Papaloapan Basin, with the sub-basins of the Tecolapilla River, Catemaco Lagoon and the San Andrés River, it is irrigated by perennial streams such as the Hueyapan, Zapoapan, Sábalo, Arrecife, Agua Caliente, Two Diamonds, Huatzinapan, Coxcoapán, Ahuacapan, Chuniapan, Cuetzalapan, Basura, La Palma, El Salvador, Yohualtajapan, Michapan, La Candelaria, Escaceba, La Margarita, El Salado, El Carrizal San Juan and Huilapan. And the intermittent current of the Hueyapillo.

Municipal boundaries

It has administrative limits with the following municipalities and/or geographical features, depending on its location:

	North: Gulf of Mexico	Northeast: Mecayapan
West: San Andrés Tuxtla		This: Tatahuicapan de Juárez
	South: Hueyapan de Ocampo, Soteapan

Climate

The climate of the municipality is humid-temperate most of the year with some hot periods during the summer.

Average Catemaco climate parameters
Month	Ene.	Feb.	Mar.	Open up.	May.	Jun.	Jul.	Ago.	Sep.	Oct.	Nov.	Dec.	Annual
Average temperature (°C)	25	26	30	31	33	31	30	30	30	28	27	25	29
Temp. medium (°C)	17	18	20	21	23	23	22	22	22	21	19	18	21
Total precipitation (mm)	73	24	20	30	64	246	350	362	357	258	144	101	2029
Source: National Meteorological Service

Tourism

The city of Catemaco is known throughout the world for witchcraft. It has become a very important vein for the local economy.

Nanciyaga

Nanciyaga is a private property, open to the public for ecotourism purposes, which covers 4 hectares, and is one of the last remnants of jungle on the shore of the Catemaco lagoon, and consists of a village in the jungle with guided tours.

Parties

• 2 February; La Candelaria Fair
• 4-16 July; Fiesta de Virgen del Carmen

Government and administration

The government of the municipality is in charge of its City Council, which is elected by universal, direct and secret vote for a period of three years that are not renewable for the immediately subsequent period but not continuously. It is made up of the Municipal President, a single trustee and four aldermen, elected by relative majority and by the principle of proportional representation. They all begin to exercise their position on January 1 of the year following their election.

Administrative Subdivision

For its internal regime, the municipality, in addition to having a head and blocks, is divided into rancherías and congregations, the latter having sub-agents and municipal agents as holders, who are elected through auscultation, consultation citizen or secret vote in processes organized by the City Council.

Legislative representation

For the election of local deputies to the Congress of Veracruz and federal deputies to the Congress of the Union, the municipality is integrated into the XXV San Andrés Tuxtla local electoral district with head office in the city of San Andrés Tuxtla and the electoral district federal XIX San Andrés Tuxtla with head in the city of San Andrés Tuxtla.

Twinnings

• Ixtaczoquitlán Mexico
• Santiago Tuxtla Mexico
• Chiapa de Corzo Mexico

Fonts

• National Institute for Federalism and Municipal Development, ed. (2005). "Enciclopedia de los Municipios de México". Archived from the original on 21 May 2007. Consultation 2011.