The Chixoy River or Río Chixoy is a river in
Guatemala. The river is called Río Negro from its sources in the highlands of
Huehuetenango
Huehuetenango () is a city and municipality in the highlands of western Guatemala. It is also the capital of the department of Huehuetenango. The city is situated from Guatemala City, and is the last departmental capital on the Pan-American High ...
and
El Quiché
EL, El or el may refer to:
Religion
* El (deity), a Semitic word for "God"
People
* EL (rapper) (born 1983), stage name of Elorm Adablah, a Ghanaian rapper and sound engineer
* El DeBarge, music artist
* El Franco Lee (1949–2016), American p ...
until it reaches the
Chixoy hydroelectric dam (located at ), where the
Río Salamá and Rio Carchela converge with the Río Negro. After the Chixoy dam, the river is called Río Chixoy and flows northwards, marking the departmental limits between
Alta Verapaz
Alta Verapaz () is a department in the north central part of Guatemala. The capital and chief city of the department is Cobán. Verapaz is bordered to the north by El Petén, to the east by Izabal, to the south by Zacapa, El Progreso, and ...
and El Quiché, until it reaches the border with
Mexico
Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...
. From there on it continues along the border for another as the
Salinas river until it finally converges with the
Río la Pasión (at ) to form the
Usumacinta
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 ...
river which flows into the
Gulf of Mexico
The Gulf of Mexico ( es, Golfo de México) is an ocean basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, largely surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United ...
.
The Chixoy river's water discharge of is Guatemala's highest. This was one of the main reasons for selecting this river for the construction of the Chixoy Hydroelectric dam. Guatemala's National Institute for Electricity (INDE) is planning the construction of another hydroelectric dam on the Chixoy river. The proposed location of the
Xalalá hydroelectric dam is situated at .
in the municipality of
Ixcán
Ixcán is a municipality in the Guatemalan department of El Quiché. Its administrative centre is the town of Playa Grande. The municipality consists of 176 communities, called ''aldeas''. It has an area of 1693 km2. It is the northernmo ...
, El Quiché.
See also
*
Chixoy hydroelectric dam
*
Río Negro Massacre
Rio or Río is the Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, and Maltese word for "river". When spoken on its own, the word often means Rio de Janeiro, a major city in Brazil.
Rio or Río may also refer to:
Geography Brazil
* Rio de Janeiro
* Rio do Sul, a ...
References
External links
Map of Guatemala including the river
Chixoy
Geography of Guatemala
Usumacinta River
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