Playa Grande is the administrative centre of the municipality

Municipality

A municipality is essentially an urban administrative division having corporate status and usually powers of self-government. It can also be used to mean the governing body of a municipality. A municipality is a general-purpose administrative subdivision, as opposed to a special-purpose district...

 of Ixcán

Ixcán

Ixcán is a municipality in the Guatemalan department of El Quiché. Its administrative centre can be found in Playa Grande. The municipality consists of 176 communities, called aldeas. It has an area of 1575 km2...

 in the Guatemala

Guatemala

Guatemala is a country in Central America bordered by Mexico to the north and west, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, Belize to the northeast, the Caribbean to the east, and Honduras and El Salvador to the southeast...

n department

Departments of Guatemala

||Guatemala is divided into 22 departments :#Alta Verapaz#Baja Verapaz#Chimaltenango#Chiquimula#Petén#El Progreso#El Quiché#Escuintla#Guatemala#Huehuetenango#Izabal#Jalapa#Jutiapa#Quetzaltenango#Retalhuleu#Sacatepéquez...

 of El Quiché.

Native Mayan languages

Mayan languages

The Mayan languages form a language family spoken in Mesoamerica and northern Central America. Mayan languages are spoken by at least 6 million indigenous Maya, primarily in Guatemala, Mexico, Belize and Honduras...

 spoken in the area include, among many others, Uspantek

Uspantek language

The Uspanteko is a Mayan language of Guatemala, closely related to K'iche'. It is spoken in the Uspantán and Playa Grande Ixcán municipios, in the Department El Quiché. It is also one of only three Mayan languages to have developed contrastive tone...

 and Q'eqchi', although Spanish

Spanish language

Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...

 is also common.

Its annual festival is held from the 15th to the 17th of May.

Playa Grande has an airport. Its International Air Transport Association

International Air Transport Association

The International Air Transport Association is an international industry trade group of airlines headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, where the International Civil Aviation Organization is also headquartered. The executive offices are at the Geneva Airport in SwitzerlandIATA's mission is to...

 code is PKJ.

Xalalá hydroelectric dam

The Xalalá hydroelectric dam is a proposed development project in Ixcán. It is controversial because it will flood 31.8 km² and displace twelve Q'eqchi' Maya

Q'eqchi' people

Q'eqchi are one of the Maya peoples in Guatemala and Belize, whose indigenous language is also called Q'eqchi'....

 communities.http://www.nisgua.org/get_involved/speakers_tour/2006/LetterXalala2006.pdf
It is a project of the Plan Puebla Panama

Plan Puebla Panama

The Puebla-Panama Plan is a multi-billion dollar development plan formally initiated in 2001, which is intended to "promote the regional integration and development" of the nine southern states of Mexico with all of Central America and Colombia...

. The dam is opposed by the Organizational Commission of the Community Consultation of Good Faith,
Ixcán, which wants the Instituto Nacional de Electrificación (INDE) to complete consultations with local indigenous groups

Indigenous peoples

Indigenous peoples are ethnic groups that are defined as indigenous according to one of the various definitions of the term, there is no universally accepted definition but most of which carry connotations of being the "original inhabitants" of a territory....

 pursuant to the International Labor Organization Convention No. 169, Article 7. The municipal government called for such a consultation on 2007-04-20.http://www.nisgua.org/themes_campaigns/index.asp?id=2867

See also

• Ixcán
  Ixcán
  Ixcán is a municipality in the Guatemalan department of El Quiché. Its administrative centre can be found in Playa Grande. The municipality consists of 176 communities, called aldeas. It has an area of 1575 km2...
  
  
• El Quiché
• List of airports in Guatemala
• Plan Puebla Panama
  Plan Puebla Panama
  The Puebla-Panama Plan is a multi-billion dollar development plan formally initiated in 2001, which is intended to "promote the regional integration and development" of the nine southern states of Mexico with all of Central America and Colombia...
  
  
• Guatemalan Civil War
  Guatemalan Civil War
  The Guatemalan Civil War ran from 1960-1996. The thirty-six-year civil war began as a grassroots, popular response to the rightist and military usurpation of civil government , and the President's disrespect for the human and civil rights of the majority of the population...
  
  
• Mayan languages
  Mayan languages
  The Mayan languages form a language family spoken in Mesoamerica and northern Central America. Mayan languages are spoken by at least 6 million indigenous Maya, primarily in Guatemala, Mexico, Belize and Honduras...
  
  
• Uspantek language
  Uspantek language
  The Uspanteko is a Mayan language of Guatemala, closely related to K'iche'. It is spoken in the Uspantán and Playa Grande Ixcán municipios, in the Department El Quiché. It is also one of only three Mayan languages to have developed contrastive tone...
  
  
• Q'eqchi' language

External links

• Servicio de Información Municipal (in Spanish)