Naco, Sonora
Encyclopedia
Naco is a Mexican town and municipality
located in the northeast part of Sonora
state on the border with the United States. It is directly across from the unincorporated town of Naco, Arizona
. The name Naco comes from the Opata language
and means nopal
cactus. The town saw fighting during the Mexican Revolution
and during a rebellion led by General José Gonzalo Escobar in 1929. During the second conflict, an American pilot by the name of Patrick Murphy volunteered to bomb federal forces for the rebels, but mistakenly bombed Naco, Arizona instead. Today, the town has been strongly affected by the smuggling of drugs, people and weapons across the international border.
rail line. Until 1901, the area was part of the municipality of Fronteras
, then part of the municipality of Cananea. It became an independent municipality in 1937.
There was a major miners’ strike here in 1906, which is seen as a precursor to the Mexican Revolution in 1910. The instability from this strike resulted in troops on both sides of the border facing each other.
During the Mexican Revolution, the town would change hands various times. At stake was the revenue from the custom’s house and when Arizona voted itself dry in 1915, revenue from the saloon
s that cropped up. One of the major battles
occurred in 1913. General Ojeda, who was in command of Mexican federal troops in Sonora, moved this force of Yaquis and regular army soldiers from Agua Prieta
to Naco as rebel forces closed in on 12 March. Ojeda fought against the rebels from his Naco base for a number of days before the Yaquis decided to cross the border into the U.S. and surrender. Ojeda continued to fight with the men he had left but eventually the rebels overran Naco on 13 April, with Ojeda and the rest of his men also crossing the border to escape.
A more important confrontation took place here called the Siege of Naco. The siege was the longest sustained battle of the Mexican Revolution lasting 119 days from 1914 to 1915. The conflict directly or indirectly involved or affected all of the major players of the Revolution and affected the final outcome of the conflict. The battle was fought between forces loyal to Francisco Villa (called Villistas) and forces loyal to the Constitutionalist faction of Venustiano Carranza
and Alvaro Obregon
. The battle was prompted by Governor Jose Maria Maytorena’s decision to challenge Constitutionalist forces under command of Plutarco Elías Calles
in Sonora for control of this state in the fall of 1914. Maytorena’s forces attacked Calles’ forces in Nogales and forced them to retreat to Naco. Here the Constitutionalists dug in and Maytorena began a siege, trying to overrun Naco’s defenses for nearly four months. The protracted conflict claimed heavy losses on both side and property damage to Naco, Arizona, prompting fears of US citizens violating federal neutrality laws. Extra troops were sent to nearby Fort Huachuca to protect U.S. interests, with cavalry regiments placed along the border to make sure the fighting did not spill across it. This resulted in several cavalry soldiers being wounded by stray bullets. U.S. Army Chief of Staff Hugh L. Scott was sent to broker a truce, and succeeded with the signing of the Treaty of Naco on 15 January 1915.
During the 1920s, with the Arizona side remaining dry due to Prohibition
, Naco make money off of saloons and gambling, giving it a seedy reputation.
In early 1929, José Gonzalo Escobar led a rebellion against the government of Emilio Portes Gil
. Mexican federal troops dug in around Naco and were almost under constant attack by the rebels. The battles became something of a spectator sport on the Arizona side of the border with people coming from as far as Bisbee
to watch. While the occasional stray bullet would send these spectators towards cover, both sides in the conflict were careful as they did not want U.S. Armed Forces coming across the border to retaliate.
Patrick Murphy was an aviator who owned his own bi-winged airplane and performed tricks with it. Murphy decided to help the rebels by offering to build homemade bombs and drop them on federal positions. His offer was accepted by the rebels, who promised a reward. The bombs were made by filling pipes with dynamite, scrap iron, nails and bolts then putting the pipes in old leather suitcases. Murphy made two attempts on 31 March and 1 April but the bombs failed to explode. A third bomb hit the customs house, spraying spectators on the Arizona side of the border. Murphy made four more bombs which were dropped between 4 and 6 April. The first hit a trench, killing two federal soldiers, but the other three landed on the Arizona side of the border, hitting various buildings in Naco, Arizona. The next day, U.S. government troops arrived and disabled Murphy’s plane, and Murphy escaped to Mexican rebel lines and crossed back to the U.S. when the rebellion ended, and was briefly jailed for his violation of neutrality laws. Murphy would become the first person working for a foreign entity to bomb U.S. soil.
At 2:30 A.M., October 21, 1974, President Luis Echeverría
took a moonlight walking tour of the town, which concluded with his promise of industry, money, construction, and welfare for the impoverished town.
, Naco is called “un pueblo chico, olvidado de Dios” (A small village forgotten by God). Due to the fighting in the first half of the 20th century, almost every old house in Naco has holes from gun battles. The Naco Hotel, with its meter-thick mud walls, used to advertise its bulletproof rooms.
The border crossing at Naco is open 24 hours a day but permits for foreign cars are not available here. Naco’s downtown is small but it is popular with southern Arizona residents who come here to buy prescription medications, food, alcoholic beverages and crafts such as pottery, sombreros, piñatas, glassware, leather, clothing and other items. Many products are sold in open-air markets, which have a reputation for counterfeit products. There are also about eighty established business that cater to both locals and Arizona residents. Due to the difference in drinking age (18 in Mexico, 21 in Arizona) the Galaxy disco is popular on weekends.
Part of the economy here is catering to the migrants heading north with guesthouses, hotels, restaurants and stores selling jackets and blankets.
Rodolfo Santos is the publisher and editor of the Naco newspaper El Mirador. This newspaper has exposed corruption and abuse at the local orphanage, leading to charges against the director. Prior to that, the newspaper uncovered corruption of the former municipal president, Vicente Torres, forcing state officials to investigate and remove the president from office. However, Santos will not take on organized crime, because doing so would put the newspaper’s families in danger. The newspaper is located at the Santos family home, which also has a shop selling school uniforms. It has been around only since 2006 and is Naco’s first permanent newspaper. While its investigative reporting has earned it a reputation, it remains a community newspaper, publishing local items of interest such as quinceañera
s, school news, cultural events and more. However, life for journalists can be hazardous, especially those who report on organized crime. The newspaper is printed in Bisbee, Arizona and distributed free there, Naco, Cananea, Agua Prieta and Rio Sonora.
More visible are the migrants looking to cross the border illegally into the United States. Because the California border is all but sealed since the Border Patrol’s Operation Guardian, many migrants have come to the Arizona border between Agua Prieta and Nogales, with Naco in between. This changed Naco starting from the 1990s as it became one of the preferred routes for “coyotes” (also called polleros or enganchadores) or smugglers who offer to take migrants across. Providing lodging for migrants is a growing business in Naco, where the rate is between 200 and 300 pesos
per night per person. Many of these lodgings are filled with people who cannot cross the border. One example is the Hospedaje Santa María, which is a run-down, two-story building.
About 400 people a day are deported back to Mexico between Naco and Agua Prieta and 45% of the deaths of migrants occur on the Arizona border. Especially on weekends, one can see Mexicans who have been deported here from Arizona on the main road, Francisco I. Madero, heading to the bus station. Some of those who fail to cross or are deported to here stay, working to earn money for another attempt or to go home or live permanently. These workers put a strain on the municipality’s insufficient medical services. An organization from Naco, Arizona, called Naco Wellness, has been working to help deported immigrants with health issues, both on the U.S. side of the border and on the Mexican side, working with Mexican authorities.
As for weapons, a recent arrest was of an American woman who was caught in November 2009 smuggling forty one AK-47
s in her vehicle.
Newspaper editor Rodolfo Santos says that if people get close to the wall, the Border Patrol calls the Mexican police. However, the wall is not stopping people from coming here to try to cross. Santos figures about half the town makes a living either by housing migrants or as “coyote” guides.
The area of 1,085 hectares in the municipality is dedicated to agriculture, growing mostly alfalfa
, beans, corn and animal feed. Farming depends on irrigation from about 25 wells and two small dams. Most livestock here is cattle, which are raised on 162,000 hectares, and whose water needs are met by an additional 36 wells and natural springs. There are facilities that raise calves for export to the United States as well. Industry is based on four maquiladora
s which employ about 700 workers and produce electronics, textiles and rugs, and workshops that produce wood, iron and metal furniture. There is also mining of lime and copper.
The most rugged part of the municipality is in the south, in which is the San José mountain range. Other areas are semi flat, with low mountains and mesas. At the western edge is Magallanes mountain range. The main river here is called the Punta de Agua, which begins in the United States and continues on into Agua Prieta. The area has a relatively dry climate with high temperatures averaging 39 °C in the summer and 9 °C in the winter. The rainy season is in the summer with an annual rainfall of about 466.0 millimeters. There are three types of vegetation here. Most of the municipality is arid grassland, with forests at the highest elevations. In some other areas, vegetation is mixed. Wildlife mostly consists of reptiles and amphibians such as the turtle, and the rattlesnake and small mammals such as the bat, the lynx
and opossum. There are bird species and some deer as well.
Naco is located on the border with Arizona. There are plans to reactivate shipping through this port via the rail line between here and Benson, Arizona
. This project only requires that eight km of rail line be rehabilitated. The goal is to open a new rail port of entry that will connect with Guaymas
.
In the last election for municipal president, the two principle candidates were tied with 1,274 votes each, prompting an official recount by federal officials.
Municipalities of Mexico
Municipalities are the second-level administrative division in Mexico . There are 2,438 municipalities in Mexico, making the average municipality population 45,616...
located in the northeast part of Sonora
Sonora
Sonora officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Sonora is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into 72 municipalities; the capital city is Hermosillo....
state on the border with the United States. It is directly across from the unincorporated town of Naco, Arizona
Naco, Arizona
Naco is a census-designated place in Cochise County, Arizona, United States. Its population was 833 at the 2000 census. It is across the United States–Mexico border from Naco, Sonora. The Naco port of entry is open 24 hours per day....
. The name Naco comes from the Opata language
Opata language
Ópata is the name of the Uto-Aztecan language spoken by the Opata people of northern central Sonora in Mexico...
and means nopal
Nopal
Nopales are a vegetable made from the young cladode segments of prickly pear, carefully peeled to remove the spines. These fleshy pads are flat and about hand-sized. They can be purple or green...
cactus. The town saw fighting during the Mexican Revolution
Mexican Revolution
The Mexican Revolution was a major armed struggle that started in 1910, with an uprising led by Francisco I. Madero against longtime autocrat Porfirio Díaz. The Revolution was characterized by several socialist, liberal, anarchist, populist, and agrarianist movements. Over time the Revolution...
and during a rebellion led by General José Gonzalo Escobar in 1929. During the second conflict, an American pilot by the name of Patrick Murphy volunteered to bomb federal forces for the rebels, but mistakenly bombed Naco, Arizona instead. Today, the town has been strongly affected by the smuggling of drugs, people and weapons across the international border.
History
Before the arrival of Europeans, the area was dominated by the Nahua and Opata peoples. Naco, Sonora, along with Naco, Arizona, came into being in 1897 as a border crossing to connect copper mines on both sides. Naco, Sonora was officially founded in 1900 with the construction of the Naco-CananeaCananea
-Economy:Mining is the main source of revenue for Cananea and will be for the foreseeable future. Eighty percent of the population is directly or indirectly supported by mining companies in Cananea. The first and most important mining company is Mexicana de Cananea, S.A. de C.V. owned by and...
rail line. Until 1901, the area was part of the municipality of Fronteras
Fronteras
Fronteras is the seat of Fronteras Municipality in the northeast of the Mexican state of Sonora. The elevation is 1,120 meters and neighboring municipalities are Agua Prieta, Nacozari and Bacoachi. The area is 2839.62 km², which represents 1.53% of the state total.-Geography:Fronteras is located...
, then part of the municipality of Cananea. It became an independent municipality in 1937.
There was a major miners’ strike here in 1906, which is seen as a precursor to the Mexican Revolution in 1910. The instability from this strike resulted in troops on both sides of the border facing each other.
During the Mexican Revolution, the town would change hands various times. At stake was the revenue from the custom’s house and when Arizona voted itself dry in 1915, revenue from the saloon
Bar (establishment)
A bar is a business establishment that serves alcoholic drinks — beer, wine, liquor, and cocktails — for consumption on the premises.Bars provide stools or chairs that are placed at tables or counters for their patrons. Some bars have entertainment on a stage, such as a live band, comedians, go-go...
s that cropped up. One of the major battles
Battle of Naco
The Battle of Naco, or the First Battle of Naco due to a later siege was a battle of the Mexican Revolution between Constitutionalist forces and Mexican government forces. Rebel forces under General Alvaro Obregon defeated the Mexican Army garrison and captured Naco, Sonora .-Background:During the...
occurred in 1913. General Ojeda, who was in command of Mexican federal troops in Sonora, moved this force of Yaquis and regular army soldiers from Agua Prieta
Agua Prieta
Agua Prieta is a pueblo and municipality in the northeastern corner of the Mexican state of Sonora . It stands on the U.S.–Mexico border, adjacent to the town of Douglas, Arizona, USA. The municipality covers an area of 3,631.65 km²...
to Naco as rebel forces closed in on 12 March. Ojeda fought against the rebels from his Naco base for a number of days before the Yaquis decided to cross the border into the U.S. and surrender. Ojeda continued to fight with the men he had left but eventually the rebels overran Naco on 13 April, with Ojeda and the rest of his men also crossing the border to escape.
A more important confrontation took place here called the Siege of Naco. The siege was the longest sustained battle of the Mexican Revolution lasting 119 days from 1914 to 1915. The conflict directly or indirectly involved or affected all of the major players of the Revolution and affected the final outcome of the conflict. The battle was fought between forces loyal to Francisco Villa (called Villistas) and forces loyal to the Constitutionalist faction of Venustiano Carranza
Venustiano Carranza
Venustiano Carranza de la Garza, was one of the leaders of the Mexican Revolution. He ultimately became President of Mexico following the overthrow of the dictatorial Huerta regime in the summer of 1914 and during his administration the current constitution of Mexico was drafted...
and Alvaro Obregon
Álvaro Obregón
General Álvaro Obregón Salido was the President of Mexico from 1920 to 1924. He was assassinated in 1928, shortly after winning election to another presidential term....
. The battle was prompted by Governor Jose Maria Maytorena’s decision to challenge Constitutionalist forces under command of Plutarco Elías Calles
Plutarco Elías Calles
Plutarco Elías Calles was a Mexican general and politician. He was president of Mexico from 1924 to 1928, but he continued to be the de facto ruler from 1928–1935, a period known as the maximato...
in Sonora for control of this state in the fall of 1914. Maytorena’s forces attacked Calles’ forces in Nogales and forced them to retreat to Naco. Here the Constitutionalists dug in and Maytorena began a siege, trying to overrun Naco’s defenses for nearly four months. The protracted conflict claimed heavy losses on both side and property damage to Naco, Arizona, prompting fears of US citizens violating federal neutrality laws. Extra troops were sent to nearby Fort Huachuca to protect U.S. interests, with cavalry regiments placed along the border to make sure the fighting did not spill across it. This resulted in several cavalry soldiers being wounded by stray bullets. U.S. Army Chief of Staff Hugh L. Scott was sent to broker a truce, and succeeded with the signing of the Treaty of Naco on 15 January 1915.
During the 1920s, with the Arizona side remaining dry due to Prohibition
Prohibition in the United States
Prohibition in the United States was a national ban on the sale, manufacture, and transportation of alcohol, in place from 1920 to 1933. The ban was mandated by the Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution, and the Volstead Act set down the rules for enforcing the ban, as well as defining which...
, Naco make money off of saloons and gambling, giving it a seedy reputation.
In early 1929, José Gonzalo Escobar led a rebellion against the government of Emilio Portes Gil
Emilio Portes Gil
Emilio Cándido Portes Gil was President of Mexico from 1928 to 1930.-Biography:Portes Gil was born in Ciudad Victoria, the capital of the state of Tamaulipas in northeast Mexico....
. Mexican federal troops dug in around Naco and were almost under constant attack by the rebels. The battles became something of a spectator sport on the Arizona side of the border with people coming from as far as Bisbee
Bisbee, Arizona
Bisbee is a city in Cochise County, Arizona, United States, 82 miles southeast of Tucson. According to 2005 Census Bureau estimates, the population of the city was 6,177...
to watch. While the occasional stray bullet would send these spectators towards cover, both sides in the conflict were careful as they did not want U.S. Armed Forces coming across the border to retaliate.
Patrick Murphy was an aviator who owned his own bi-winged airplane and performed tricks with it. Murphy decided to help the rebels by offering to build homemade bombs and drop them on federal positions. His offer was accepted by the rebels, who promised a reward. The bombs were made by filling pipes with dynamite, scrap iron, nails and bolts then putting the pipes in old leather suitcases. Murphy made two attempts on 31 March and 1 April but the bombs failed to explode. A third bomb hit the customs house, spraying spectators on the Arizona side of the border. Murphy made four more bombs which were dropped between 4 and 6 April. The first hit a trench, killing two federal soldiers, but the other three landed on the Arizona side of the border, hitting various buildings in Naco, Arizona. The next day, U.S. government troops arrived and disabled Murphy’s plane, and Murphy escaped to Mexican rebel lines and crossed back to the U.S. when the rebellion ended, and was briefly jailed for his violation of neutrality laws. Murphy would become the first person working for a foreign entity to bomb U.S. soil.
At 2:30 A.M., October 21, 1974, President Luis Echeverría
Luis Echeverría
Luis Echeverría Álvarez served as President of Mexico from 1970 to 1976.-Early history:Echeverría joined the faculty of the National Autonomous University of Mexico in 1947 and taught political theory...
took a moonlight walking tour of the town, which concluded with his promise of industry, money, construction, and welfare for the impoverished town.
The town
Today, the town layout is based on two principal north-south avenues and 12 smaller east-west streets. Only the two avenues are fully paved. In the capital of HermosilloHermosillo
Hermosillo is a city and municipality located centrally in the northwestern Mexican state of Sonora. It is the capital and main economic center for the state and region. It contains almost all of the state's manufacturing and has thirty percent of its population...
, Naco is called “un pueblo chico, olvidado de Dios” (A small village forgotten by God). Due to the fighting in the first half of the 20th century, almost every old house in Naco has holes from gun battles. The Naco Hotel, with its meter-thick mud walls, used to advertise its bulletproof rooms.
The border crossing at Naco is open 24 hours a day but permits for foreign cars are not available here. Naco’s downtown is small but it is popular with southern Arizona residents who come here to buy prescription medications, food, alcoholic beverages and crafts such as pottery, sombreros, piñatas, glassware, leather, clothing and other items. Many products are sold in open-air markets, which have a reputation for counterfeit products. There are also about eighty established business that cater to both locals and Arizona residents. Due to the difference in drinking age (18 in Mexico, 21 in Arizona) the Galaxy disco is popular on weekends.
Part of the economy here is catering to the migrants heading north with guesthouses, hotels, restaurants and stores selling jackets and blankets.
Rodolfo Santos is the publisher and editor of the Naco newspaper El Mirador. This newspaper has exposed corruption and abuse at the local orphanage, leading to charges against the director. Prior to that, the newspaper uncovered corruption of the former municipal president, Vicente Torres, forcing state officials to investigate and remove the president from office. However, Santos will not take on organized crime, because doing so would put the newspaper’s families in danger. The newspaper is located at the Santos family home, which also has a shop selling school uniforms. It has been around only since 2006 and is Naco’s first permanent newspaper. While its investigative reporting has earned it a reputation, it remains a community newspaper, publishing local items of interest such as quinceañera
Quinceañera
Quinceañera , sometimes called "Fiesta de quince años", "Fiesta de Quinceañera", "Quince años" or simply "quince", is the celebration of a girl's fifteenth birthday in parts of Latin America and elsewhere in communities of immigrants from Latin America...
s, school news, cultural events and more. However, life for journalists can be hazardous, especially those who report on organized crime. The newspaper is printed in Bisbee, Arizona and distributed free there, Naco, Cananea, Agua Prieta and Rio Sonora.
The smuggling problem
The Naco area has major problems with the smuggling of drugs and people north and weapons south. It is one of the main routes into the United States, ranking in the top 25 of Mexico’s 100 border municipalities as a haven for drug traffickers. Shootings related to drug trafficking have occurred here such as the street murders of two near the Hotel Cowboy in 2009. Federal troops have been stationed here due to the violence, which has the population divided. While the security they can provide is welcome, there is concern about the violation of human rights.More visible are the migrants looking to cross the border illegally into the United States. Because the California border is all but sealed since the Border Patrol’s Operation Guardian, many migrants have come to the Arizona border between Agua Prieta and Nogales, with Naco in between. This changed Naco starting from the 1990s as it became one of the preferred routes for “coyotes” (also called polleros or enganchadores) or smugglers who offer to take migrants across. Providing lodging for migrants is a growing business in Naco, where the rate is between 200 and 300 pesos
Mexican peso
The peso is the currency of Mexico. Modern peso and dollar currencies have a common origin in the 15th–19th century Spanish dollar, most continuing to use its sign, "$". The Mexican peso is the 12th most traded currency in the world, the third most traded in the Americas, and by far the most...
per night per person. Many of these lodgings are filled with people who cannot cross the border. One example is the Hospedaje Santa María, which is a run-down, two-story building.
About 400 people a day are deported back to Mexico between Naco and Agua Prieta and 45% of the deaths of migrants occur on the Arizona border. Especially on weekends, one can see Mexicans who have been deported here from Arizona on the main road, Francisco I. Madero, heading to the bus station. Some of those who fail to cross or are deported to here stay, working to earn money for another attempt or to go home or live permanently. These workers put a strain on the municipality’s insufficient medical services. An organization from Naco, Arizona, called Naco Wellness, has been working to help deported immigrants with health issues, both on the U.S. side of the border and on the Mexican side, working with Mexican authorities.
As for weapons, a recent arrest was of an American woman who was caught in November 2009 smuggling forty one AK-47
AK-47
The AK-47 is a selective-fire, gas-operated 7.62×39mm assault rifle, first developed in the Soviet Union by Mikhail Kalashnikov. It is officially known as Avtomat Kalashnikova . It is also known as a Kalashnikov, an "AK", or in Russian slang, Kalash.Design work on the AK-47 began in the last year...
s in her vehicle.
The wall
Since the 1990s, metal walls have been built along sections of the U.S.-Mexico border, including the area between the two Nacos to slow illegal immigration. The wall here is four meters high and made of steel. It currently extends 7.4 km, but there are plans to extend it another 40 km. Security here was further tightened after 11 September 2001, which led to the closing of many businesses on the Arizona side of the wall. Illegal border crossing surged here after the passage of NAFTA and the successful sealing of the California-Mexico border. The Border Patrol credits the wall and better surveillance technology with cutting the number of captured border crossers near Naco by half in 2006. People on both sides of the wall have mixed feelings about it.Newspaper editor Rodolfo Santos says that if people get close to the wall, the Border Patrol calls the Mexican police. However, the wall is not stopping people from coming here to try to cross. Santos figures about half the town makes a living either by housing migrants or as “coyote” guides.
The municipality
As municipal seat, the town of Naco is the governing authority for 128 other localities, most of which have only one or two residents and only two - Cuauhtémoc Ejido (189), and San Pedro (108) have more than eight residents according to the 2010 census. The total municipal population is 6,401 (as of 2010) of whom 6,064 or 94.7% live in the town proper. The municipality has a territory of 651.8 square kilometers and it borders the municipalities of Fronteras, Agua Prieta and Cananea. The United States border is on the north.The area of 1,085 hectares in the municipality is dedicated to agriculture, growing mostly alfalfa
Alfalfa
Alfalfa is a flowering plant in the pea family Fabaceae cultivated as an important forage crop in the US, Canada, Argentina, France, Australia, the Middle East, South Africa, and many other countries. It is known as lucerne in the UK, France, Australia, South Africa and New Zealand, and known as...
, beans, corn and animal feed. Farming depends on irrigation from about 25 wells and two small dams. Most livestock here is cattle, which are raised on 162,000 hectares, and whose water needs are met by an additional 36 wells and natural springs. There are facilities that raise calves for export to the United States as well. Industry is based on four maquiladora
Maquiladora
A maquiladora or maquila is a concept often referred to as an operation that involves manufacturing in a country that is not the client's and as such has an interesting duty or tariff treatment...
s which employ about 700 workers and produce electronics, textiles and rugs, and workshops that produce wood, iron and metal furniture. There is also mining of lime and copper.
The most rugged part of the municipality is in the south, in which is the San José mountain range. Other areas are semi flat, with low mountains and mesas. At the western edge is Magallanes mountain range. The main river here is called the Punta de Agua, which begins in the United States and continues on into Agua Prieta. The area has a relatively dry climate with high temperatures averaging 39 °C in the summer and 9 °C in the winter. The rainy season is in the summer with an annual rainfall of about 466.0 millimeters. There are three types of vegetation here. Most of the municipality is arid grassland, with forests at the highest elevations. In some other areas, vegetation is mixed. Wildlife mostly consists of reptiles and amphibians such as the turtle, and the rattlesnake and small mammals such as the bat, the lynx
Lynx
A lynx is any of the four Lynx genus species of medium-sized wildcats. The name "lynx" originated in Middle English via Latin from Greek word "λύγξ", derived from the Indo-European root "*leuk-", meaning "light, brightness", in reference to the luminescence of its reflective eyes...
and opossum. There are bird species and some deer as well.
Naco is located on the border with Arizona. There are plans to reactivate shipping through this port via the rail line between here and Benson, Arizona
Benson, Arizona
-Transportation:Benson Airport is located 3 miles north west of the city.Benson is served by Interstate 10 to the north, which travels directly to downtown Tucson....
. This project only requires that eight km of rail line be rehabilitated. The goal is to open a new rail port of entry that will connect with Guaymas
Guaymas
Guaymas is a city and municipality located in the southwest part of the state of Sonora in northwestern Mexico. The city is located 117 km south of the state capital of Hermosillo, and 242 miles from the U.S. border, and is the principal port for the state. The municipality is located in the...
.
In the last election for municipal president, the two principle candidates were tied with 1,274 votes each, prompting an official recount by federal officials.
Adjacent municipalities and counties
- Agua Prieta MunicipalityAgua PrietaAgua Prieta is a pueblo and municipality in the northeastern corner of the Mexican state of Sonora . It stands on the U.S.–Mexico border, adjacent to the town of Douglas, Arizona, USA. The municipality covers an area of 3,631.65 km²...
- east - Fronteras Municipality - southeast
- Cananea Municipality - southwest and west
- Cochise County, ArizonaCochise County, Arizona-2010:Whereas according to the 2010 U.S. Census Bureau:*78.5% White*4.2% Black*1.2% Native American*1.9% Asian*0.3% Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander*4.0% Two or more races*9.6% Other races*32.4% Hispanic or Latino -2000:...
- north
External links
- Naco, Ayuntamiento Digital (Official Website of Naco, Sonora)