Piedras Negras is a border city in northeastern Mexico, in the state of Coahuila, located in front of the city of Eagle Pass, Texas, United States, on the banks of the Rio Grande, and was known as the City of Porfirio Díaz.1888 to 1911. It is one of the twenty most competitive cities with the best quality of life in the country, according to the figures released by the Mexican Institute for Competitiveness. The municipality is located in the North Region of Coahuila, has a population of 163,595 inhabitants and an extension of 914.2 km2.
It limits to the north with the municipality of Jiménez, to the south with the municipality of Nava, to the west with the municipality of Zaragoza and to the east with the city of Eagle Pass. In 2003, the Secretariat of Social Development, the National Institute of Statistics, Geography in Information Technology and the National Council of Population CONAPO formed a working group in charge of formulating an exhaustive and systematic delimitation of the metropolitan areas of the country, consolidating the Metropolitan of Piedras Negras, formed by the municipalities of Piedras Negras and Nava, and has an approximate population of 200,000 inhabitants. In addition, Piedras Negras is part of the Piedras Negras Binational Metropolitan Area - Eagle Pass. In 2010, according to the marginalization rates estimated by CONAPO, Piedras Negras is one of the cities with the lowest urban marginalization in all of Mexico, and the second in the state of Coahuila, surpassed only by Ciudad Acuña.
The city has several places of entertainment. In November 2005 the Plaza de las Culturas was inaugurated, with smaller replicas of the pyramids of Teotihuacán, Chichen Itza and the pyramid of the 365 niches, as well as a planetarium, a library, and several bars and restaurants, right at the entrance from one of the international bridges. Another interesting point for tourism, is the historic center, because it contains buildings that combine the history and modernity of this growing city. There we can find the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Guadalupe and the Zaragoza market among others, by history, and on the other hand the Museum of the Northern Frontier, the José Vasconcelos Auditorium, the Chapulín Museum, located in buildings of great legacy historic for the community.
Piedras Negras is characterized as one of the most violent frontiers, such as the massacre of Allende-Piedras-Negras during the government of Humberto Moreira and the assassination of the candidate for local deputy Fernando Puron Johnston on June 8,2018. He is currently suffering from constant insecurities that have affected the population of this city as of March 2019.