Department of the Caquetá

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Caquetá
flag
coat of arms
Data
Capital Florencia
governor Arnulfo Gasca Trujillo (2020-2023)
surface 88,965 km²
Population  (Total)
 - 2005 Census
 -  Population Density
 
420,337 
5 inhabitants / km²
urbanization 43.2%
Literacy rate 80%
Number of parishes 16
Popular name
Important cities San Vicente del Caguán , Solano , Cartagena del Chairá
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Location of Caquetá in Colombia

The Departamento del Caquetá is a department in southern Colombia . It borders clockwise (starting in the east) with the departments of Vaupés , Amazonas , Putumayo , Cauca , Huila , Meta and Guaviare .

The agriculture is the backbone of Caquetá. Are cultivated maize , cocoa and sugar cane . For some time now, the cultivation of rubber has played an increasingly important role. The cattle and pig farming is for the department of great importance.

Geology and geography

In contrast to the landscapes of the Departamentos de Meta and Casanare, which are comparable in landscape, no crude oil has yet been produced in the Departamento del Caquetá . However, deposits are known near the city of Morelia . Since January 2006 concrete measures for their geophysical prospecting have been in progress.

The department is located on the eastern edge of the Andes and extends far into the Amazon basin . The southern border of the forms to the current area of the Amazon belonging Rio Caquetá .

The south-east of Caquetá is cut by the equator . The climate is therefore tropical and hot and humid. In the capital, Florencia , the average annual temperature is 27 ° C.

There are two national parks in the area of ​​Caquetá : the Parque Nacional de la Cueva de los Guácharos, designated in 1960 with 9000 hectares on the eastern edge of the Cordillera in the border area to Huila , and the Parque Nacional Natural Chiribiquete (41,548 km²) founded in 1989 and expanded in 2013 and 2018. . The latter is a table mountain rising from the Amazon basin . A visit is currently not advisable due to the difficult security situation (see chapter "Security"), and there is no tourist infrastructure in the Serranía de Chiribiquete.

The Río Caquetá is the breakthrough de Chiribiquete a raging Canyon by the Serrania Chorros del Araracuara . The river narrows here to a width of only 50 meters. This makes it impossible to use the Río Caquetá for cross-border shipping.

history

The first European to reach the area of ​​today's Caquetá was the Venezuelan governor Georg Hohermuth von Speyer , who reached the region east of the Amazon to the Río Putumayo on behalf of the Augsburg merchant family of the Welser in search of the legendary El Dorado .

Due to its location on the other side of the Cordilleras on the edge of the Amazon basin, Caquetá became "European" very late. The oldest city foundation is Florencia (1902). It goes back to the missionary efforts of the Capuchin Order. Rubber extraction and cattle breeding formed the economic basis for opening up the region in the early days.

After the uprisings in Bogotazo were suppressed , the Turbay family gained a great deal of influence in Caquetá and determined the country's political and economic development for decades.

With the start of the FARC's guerrilla activities in 1964, Caquetá soon became one of the most restless and dangerous regions in Colombia. From 1998 to 2002, the then Colombian President, Andrés Pastrana , granted the FARC the establishment of a self-governing demilitarized zone in the region around San Vicente del Caguán .

colonization

The population is thin; only the edge of the mountain is continuously populated. More than half of the inhabitants of Caquetá live in the capital Florencia. Along the Río Caquetá there are isolated, small settlements that have no road connection to the rest of the country. The department currently has a total of 16 communities, most of which are located in the western part of the country.

In the Amazon basin there are numerous ethnic minorities of Indian origin who enjoy a special autonomous status.

Administrative division

The Departamento del Caquetá consists of 16 municipalities. The population figures are based on the 2005 DANE census and extrapolated for 2018.

local community Population 2018
Albania 6,434
Belén de los Andaquíes 11,721
Cartagena del Chairá 34,953
Currillo 11,829
El Doncello 22,267
El Paujil 21,148
Florencia 181.493
La Montañita 24,140
Milan 11,829
Morelia 3,829
Puerto Rico 33,623
San Jose del Fragua 15,223
San Vicente del Caguan 71,704
Solano 25,074
Solita 9,139
Valparaíso 11,772

Infrastructure

Caquetá can be reached by land on an asphalt road that crosses the Cordillera from Neiva , the capital of the Departamento del Huila . Most of the other places can be reached by an asphalt road from Florencia. Florencia has a regional airport with daily flights from Bogotá .

The east of Caquetá is largely undeveloped. Most of the towns along the Río Caquetá and its tributaries can only be reached via the river. The starting point is the small port of Puerto Arango , about 20 km north of Florencia on the Río Hacha.

Due to the rapids of Araracuara, the Río Caquetá is not suitable for continuous navigation. The therefore sparse freight traffic to the east (Brazil, Peru) goes via a road connection over the isthmus between the rivers Río Putumayo and Río Caquetá at the height of Puerto Leguízamo , on the border with Ecuador on the continuously navigable Río Putumayo.

On the Río Caquetá is the settlement of Solano , which is important for the traffic connection into the Amazon region. Solano can only be reached by plane or ship.

The medical care provided by a central hospital in the capital Florencia is above average by Colombian standards; however, the hospital was damaged by a bomb attack in 2006. The medical infrastructure is particularly stressed by the numerous civil war victims, in most cases civilians.

economy

Caquetá has almost no industry . Agriculture and animal husbandry form the economic basis . There are a few food processing companies that produce primarily for the local market. The most important employer is therefore the regional government of Caquetá itself, which runs some of the most important companies as state companies.

However, there are always significant economic problems. The state-run "Licorera del Caquetá" has come to the brink of bankruptcy due to management errors; Since the Caquetá cultural institute is financed from the income from alcohol sales, the effects of a business problem are always linked to the deterioration of the regional infrastructure.

Caquetá's daily milk production is currently around 700,000 liters. Most of this production is pasteurized in a Nestlé plant in Florencia , then processed into dry milk in Valledupar, approx. 1000 km away .

In addition to milk production, meat production is also of great economic importance.

97% of the commercial added value in the department comes from small and very small businesses, so-called "microempresas". In 2004, due to the above-average poverty, the regional government launched an investment program aimed at promoting private investments and creating new jobs, primarily in the agro-industrial sector. Although the program is showing initial successes, there can be no talk of an easing of the economic situation.

The published unemployment rate is 24%. As everywhere in Colombia, more than half of the workers are employed in the so-called informal economy .

The economic development in Caquetá is supported by foreign governmental and non-governmental organizations. So was z. B. with the help of USAid , a US government organization for development aid , built a large rubber processing plant in 2005 . However, this does not meet the needs of the region; With the currently approx. 5000 hectares of cultivation area, the processing time of the entire production is approx. two days per month. The rest of the time the system is idle.

Both GTZ and Diakonie have already carried out or supported projects and collaborations in Caquetá.

Coca cultivation still has an economic importance that should not be underestimated . The northern part of Caquetá is particularly badly affected.

safety

The security situation in Caquetá is currently difficult. In fact, the government only controls the capital and an area of ​​around 60 km to the north and south. In the north, around the town of San Vicente del Caguán , the demilitarized so-called " Zona de Despeje ", self-administered by the FARC , was located until 2001 . Since it was recaptured by the Colombian army, attacks by the FARC have been carried out very frequently in this region. There is also a strong paramilitary presence.

In particular, the regions around the localities of Cartagena del Chairá and San Vicente del Caguán are particularly endangered; the guerrilla forces regularly attack here.

Due to the difficult security situation in Caquetá, families are being displaced from rural areas on a large scale. According to statistics from the regional government, 37,762 people were evicted from their land between 1998 and 2004, mainly by the left-wing FARC. The city of Florencia took in 82.07% of these refugees during this period. This rapid and undesirable growth leads to considerable infrastructural and economic emergencies.

Web links

Departmental Government website (Spanish)

Individual evidence

  1. Extrapolation of the population of Colombia on the official DANE website