Chetumal (, , ; , ) is a city on the east coast of the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico. It is the capital of the state of Quintana Roo and the municipal seat of the Municipality of Othón P. Blanco. In 2020 it had a population of 169,028 people.
The city is situated on the western side of Chetumal Bay, near the mouth of the Río Hondo. Chetumal is an important port for the region and operates as Mexico's main trading gateway with the neighboring country of Belize. Goods are transported via a road connecting Chetumal with Belize City to the south, and also via coastal merchant ships. There is a commercial airport, Chetumal International Airport, with airline service. Because of its location on the Caribbean coastline, it is vulnerable to tropical cyclones; Hurricane Janet and Hurricane Dean, both Category 5 storms, made landfall near Chetumal in 1955 and 2007 respectively.
History
In Pre-Columbian times, a city called Chactemal (sometimes rendered as "Chetumal" in early European sources), probably today's Santa Rita in Belize, was the capital of a Maya state of the same name that roughly controlled the southern quarter of modern Quintana Roo and the northeast portion of Belize. This original Chetumal is now believed to have been on the other side of the Río Hondo, in modern Belize, not at the site of modern Chetumal.
During the Spanish conquest of Yucatán, the Maya state of Chetumal fought off several Spanish expeditions before finally being subjugated in the late 16th century.
The 1840s revolt of the indigenous Maya peoples against Mexican rule, known as the Caste War of Yucatán, drove all the Hispanic people from this region; many settled in Corozal Town, British Honduras (modern Belize).
The current site of Chetumal was established as a Mexican port town in 1898, originally under the name Payo Obispo. At the invitation of founder Othon P. Blanco, the early town was populated by settlers from Belize (including Caste War refugees and Englishmen).
The name of the town was officially changed to Chetumal in 1936.
Two hurricanes in the 1940s leveled the entire town; Chetumal was devastated a third time in 1955 by Hurricane Janet. After this, the town was rebuilt with more solid construction, with concrete blocks replacing wood as the usual material.
The population of Chetumal was small (about 5,000 in 1950) until the construction of highways linking it to the rest of Mexico in the 1960s and 1970s; the city then boomed with substantial migration from other parts of Mexico.
Foundation
The government of Porfirio Díaz decided to end the Maya revolt situation, resolving to fight the rebel Maya and to achieve this it definitively established the boundaries with British Honduras at the Rio Hondo, according to a treaty signed in 1893, also separated the new one from the state of Yucatan Federal Territory of Quintana Roo and sent the army to fight the Maya.
The first step in combating them was to prevent the trafficking of arms from Belize and to assert Mexican sovereignty at that end of the territory, so it was decided to build a fort and customs section at the point where the Hondo River feeds into Chetumal Bay, which they named Payo Obispo in honor of Payo Enríquez de Rivera, who as bishop of Guatemala had visited the region in the 1660s. An officer of the navy, Othón P. Blanco, suggested that as it was an unexplored place and without any certainty of what the terrain would be like, it would be better to send to the place a pontoon then anchored at the point of the bay or the Hondo River, which could serve as a barracks and customs section while a permanent establishment was being achieved, as the pontoon would allow for rapid mobility and increased surveillance. Blanco's suggestion was accepted and he was also appointed command of such pontoon and chief of the operation; the pontoon was built in New Orleans and Blanco gave it the name Pontón Chetumal, in memory of the Maya name for the region. He left New Orleans in late 1897 and, after making stops in Progreso, Yucatan and Cozumel, arrived at the mouth of the Hondo River on 22 January 1898.
Othón P. Blanco quickly organized the garrison and ordered the clearing of the coast, covered with mangrove, to establish a permanent population on the mainland, and also came into contact with Mexicans residing in Corozal and survivors of the Bacalar massacre and communicated their intentions to establish a new population, inviting them to return to Mexico.