Río Chixoy
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Río Chixoy upper course: Río Negro, lower course: Río Salinas |
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| Data | ||
| location | Guatemala | |
| River system | Usumacinta | |
| Drain over | Río Usumacinta → Gulf of Mexico | |
| source | between Sierra Madre de Chiapas and Sierra de los Cuchumatanes , southwest of Huehuetenango | |
| confluence | with the Río La Pasión at the Guatemalan-Mexican border crossing Pipiles to the Río Usumacinta Coordinates: 16 ° 28 ′ 47 ″ N , 90 ° 32 ′ 37 ″ W 16 ° 28 ′ 47 ″ N , 90 ° 32 ′ 37 ″ W
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| length | 400 km | |
| Drain |
MQ |
555 m³ / s |
| Reservoirs flowed through | Chixoy reservoir | |
| Medium-sized cities | Coban | |
| Small towns | Cubulco , Rabinal , San Cristóbal Verapaz | |
The Río Chixoy , also called Río Negro in the upper reaches, and Río Salinas in the lower reaches , is a 400 km long river in Guatemala . It rises between the northeastern foothills of the Guatemalan Sierra Madre and the Sierra de los Cuchumatanes , southwest of the city of Huehuetenango . On its way to the east, the river partially forms the border between the Huehuetenango department and its neighbors Totonicapán and Quiché . The latter crosses the Río Negro in a west-east direction and then flows into Baja Verapaz in the Chixoy reservoir . From there it flows as Río Chixoy first briefly in north and west direction and then meanders in north direction to the Mexican border, where it divides the departments Alta Verapaz and Quiché up to there . To the northwest of the Chixoy reservoir, the river also separates the Cuchumatanes in the west from the Verapaz mountains in the east. As Rìo Salinas, the river forms the border between the Department of El Peten and Mexico for about 100 km . At the Pipiles border crossing, the Salinas meets the Río La Pasión , which together form the Río Usumacinta , which then flows into the Gulf of Mexico in the north .
The mean annual discharge of the Río Chixoy (or Río Negro or Río Salinas) is about 555 m³ / s. From 1977 the river between Rabinal and Cobán near Santa Ana was dammed and a large hydroelectric power station was built. Several communities were forcibly relocated for the over 140 km² reservoir of the Chixoy dam . The protests resulted in several massacres of the indigenous population between 1980 and 1982, with government forces accusing the local population of supporting the left-wing guerrillas in the civil war . The village of Río Negro was particularly hard hit.
Another power plant with a 32 km² reservoir is to be built near the Mexican border near Playa Grande in the municipality of Ixcán.
