Administrative division of Peru

Peru

According to its constitution, the Republic of Peru is a decentralized unitary state divided into 24 departments or regions . These are divided into 195 provinces (Spanish Provincias , Sg. Provincia ) and these in turn into 1828 districts (Spanish Distritos , Sg. Distrito ). The city of Callao has a special status as Provincia Constitucional (constitutional province), but like the city of Lima, it does not belong to any region.

history

When the Spanish viceroyalty of Peru became the Republic of Peru, the Spanish directorships of Peru were converted into seven departments in 1821. After this transformation the following departments existed: Arequipa, Ayacucho, Cusco, Junín, La Libertad, Lima and Puno. These departments were in turn divided into 56 provinces and 439 districts. In the following decades, more and more departments were formed, until in 1980 Ucayali was the last (24th) department to emerge from the existing Loreto .

In 1988, by order of the government under Alan García Pérez, the 24 departments were combined into twelve regions. With this step began the somewhat hasty "regionalization" of Peru. Under Alberto Fujimori , who made use of centralism for his authoritarian government, the process of regionalization was stopped and in 1992 the regions were again divided into 24 departments. It was not until the elections of 2001. Members from all 24 regions and were Province Callao in Congress sent. At the same time, Alejandro Toledo Manrique was also elected to the presidency, through which decentralization found a revival from 2002 onwards.

Law No. 27680 of March 6, 2002 reformed the Peruvian constitution accordingly. Among other things, decentralization was classified as constitutionally relevant and permanent state policy. The division of the country into regions, departments, provinces and districts is also highlighted. The regionalization process begins with the election of a regional government in the existing departments and in the constitutional province of Callao. According to this, regions could be formed by referendum on the basis of adjacent departments. So far, however, every attempt to merge two or more former departments in a new region has failed (in 2005 all attempts to merge different regions were rejected by referendum). Therefore, all 24 departments with the new 24 regions are territorially identical. Callao remains an independent province, but is still considered a region with its own regional government alongside the municipal administration under the provincial mayor.

After the constitutional amendment, Law No. 27783 "Fundamentals of Decentralization" was passed on July 17, 2002, which is based on the aforementioned constitutional content. It regulates the structure, organization and self-government of the regions and urban governments, as well as the decentralization of administration, economy, production, finance and taxation. As for the Lima region, all the competencies and tasks of a regional government have been transferred to the municipal administration of the Lima City Province. As a result, the Lima City Province is practically separated from the Lima Region. Since then, the seat of government in the Lima region has been the city of Huacho .

On November 18, 2002, Law No. 27867 came into force, which regulates the structure, organization, competencies and tasks of regional governments .

Overview table

The population figures are based on estimates from 2015.

Departments in Peru

Administrative division of Peru
No.	region	Area in km²	Residents	Capital
1.	Amazon	39,249.13	422,600	Chachapoyas
2.	Ancash	35,914.81	1,148,600	Huaraz
3.	Apurímac	20,895.79	458,800	Abancay
4th	Arequipa	63,345.39	1,287,200	Arequipa
5.	Ayacucho	43,814.80	688,700	Ayacucho
6th	Cajamarca	33,317.54	1,529,800	Cajamarca
7th	Cusco	71,986.50	1,316,700	Cusco
8th.	Huancavelica	22,131.47	495,000	Huancavelica
9.	Huánuco	36,848.85	860,500	Huánuco
10.	Ica	21,327.83	787.200	Ica
11.	Junín	44,197.23	1,350,800	Huancayo
12.	La Libertad	25,499.90	1,859,600	Trujillo
13.	Lambayeque	14,231.30	1,260,700	Chiclayo
14th	Lima region	32,129.31	839.469	Huacho
15th	Loreto	368,851.95	1,039,400	Iquitos
16.	Madre de Dios	85,300.54	137,300	Puerto Maldonado
17th	Moquegua	15,733.97	180,500	Moquegua
18th	Pasco	25,319.59	304.200	Cerro de Pasco
19th	Piura	35,892.49	1,844,100	Piura
20th	Puno	71,999.00	1,415,600	Puno
21st	San Martín	51,253.31	840.800	Moyobamba
22nd	Tacna	16,075.89	341,800	Tacna
23.	Tumbes	4,669.20	237,700	Tumbes
24.	Ucayali	102,410.55	495,500	Pucallpa
	Callao	146.98	1,010,300	Callao
	Lima Metropolitana	2,672.28	9,838,300	Lima
	Peru	1,285,197.60	31,151,600	Lima

Judiciary

The judiciary of Peru organizes its activities through judicial districts (Distritos Judiciales). There are a total of 28 judicial districts across Peru. In contrast to the administrative division into departments, which deal with identity and historical roots in a certain territory, the division of the territory into judicial districts was more pragmatic. The communication channels and the number of processes that each court can efficiently create were included in the planning. The jurisdiction is the responsibility of the local courts (juzgados) in a judicial district. Each judicial district is subject to a Corte Superior (Higher Court), which mainly acts as a court of appeal , whose judgments can still be appealed by cassation . The Corte Suprema de la República (Supreme Court of the Republic) in Lima decides on cassation . The President of the Corte Suprema de la República is also the President of the nationwide judiciary.

useful information

• In the history of Peru, the departments were formed around a large city, which is why many of the departments also bear the name of their capital
• Even if the department capitals usually claim to be the economic and cultural center of the region, there are notorious rivalries such as B. in the Ancash department (Chimbote and Huaraz), in the Apurímac (Andahuaylas and Abancay) department, in the San Martín department (Tarapoto and Moyobamba), in the Moquegua department (Ilo and Moquegua), in the Amazonas department (Chachapoyas and Bagua) and in the department Puno (Juliaca and Puno).
• In the 20th century, the population of the provinces of Lima and Callao increased significantly, which is why both cities have grown together. That's why people often talk about a metropolis Lima-Callao .
• The Lima airport is actually located in the province of Callao.

See also

• Flags and coats of arms of the departments of Peru

Web links

Commons : Official maps of Peru  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Instituto Nacional de Estadística e Informática del Peru
• Atlas del Perú
• Organización territorial del Perú
• Regionalización del Perú
• Departamentos del Perú

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Laws on decentralization in Peru - Law No. 27680 ( Memento of the original of March 5, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
2. ↑ Basics of decentralization - Law No. 27783
3. ↑ Peru: Regions & Agglomerations - Population Statistics in Maps and Charts. Retrieved November 9, 2017 .