Tuxpan, Veracruz

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"Tuxpan" redirects here. For other uses, see Tuxpan (disambiguation).

Tuxpan (or Túxpam, fully Túxpam de Rodríguez Cano) is both a municipality and city located in the Mexican state of Veracruz. The population of the city was 78,523 and of the municipality was 134,394 inhabitants, according to the INEGI census of 2005, residing in a total area of 1,051.89 km² (406.14 sq mi). The municipality includes many smaller outlying communities, the largest of which are Alto Lucero and Santiago de la Peña.

Tuxpan or Túxpam (IPA: [ˈtuʃpan]) in Nahuatl, the language of the ancient Aztecs, literally means "Place of Rabbits" (compound of Tochtli "rabbit" and -pan "place").

The city is located on the banks of the Tuxpan River, which reaches the Gulf of Mexico a few kilometers downstream (11 km). Being the nearest port to Mexico City, Tuxpan is an important commercial link for Mexican imports and exports. Tuxpan is now primarily a grain port, with emphasis on soybeans and maize. Off-shore links to oil pipelines are used to transfer petroleum products to and from tanker ships operated by PEMEX, Mexico's state-owned oil company. As part of the PEMEX operations and infrastructure in the city, a facility on the river manufactures and maintains oil rigs for use in the Gulf of Mexico.

Sometimes referred to as the "Puerto de Tuxpan", the port is able to handle supertanker sized cargo ships. Due to increasing commercial shipping traffic in the city of Veracruz, Tuxpan is now the headquarters for the Mexican Navy's Gulf fleet. As such, it is the home port for several military vessels including 3 frigates named Allende, Abasolo and Victoria. These ships were originally Knox-class frigates built in the 1960s. They were purchased from the US Navy in the mid to late 1990s after their decommissioning.

[edit] References

Link to tables of population data from Census of 2005 INEGI: Instituto Nacional de Estadística, Geografía e Informática
Veracruz Enciclopedia de los Municipios de México