Catamarca Province

Catamarca

Basic data
( Details )	( Details )
Capital:	San Fernando del Valle de Catamarca
Surface:  - Total  share in Argentina	Rank 11 of 24 102,602 km² 3.7%
Population :  - Total 2010  - density	Rank 20 of 24 367,828 inhabitants 3.6 inhabitants / km²
ISO 3166-2 code:	AR-K
politics
Region :	Región Noroeste Argentino
Structure:	15 departments
Gobernador:	Lucía Corpacci
Website of the Province of Catamarca

Catamarca is a province in northwest Argentina . It borders in the north on the province of Salta , in the east on the provinces of Tucumán , Santiago del Estero and Córdoba , in the south on the province of La Rioja and in the west on Chile . The capital is San Fernando del Valle de Catamarca , which is often referred to as Catamarca for short .

geography

The province is mostly in mountainous terrain, with the exception of the southeast, which still belongs to the pampas , and the desert plateau of Campo de Belén in the center of the province. The mountain ranges to the east of this plain belong to the Sierras Pampeanas , to the west of which are the higher mountain ranges of the Andes . Since all mountain ranges run in a north-south direction, the provincial area is divided into three separate parts, between which there are two road connections today, but otherwise communication was relatively difficult, which hampered the province's economic development for a long time. The northwest part of the province belongs to the Puna plateau , it is extremely sparsely populated. Here lies the Laguna del Diamante , a highly alkaline, hostile lake, which is scientifically interesting because of its microorganisms.

In the province of Catamarca, at an altitude of 4,000 to 5,000 meters, there is also the Cerro Galán , with a size of 24 × 45 kilometers one of the largest calderas in the world, the crater of a volcano that formed around 2.2 million years ago.

climate

With the exception of the extreme northeast, the climate is dry and subtropical throughout the province. The vegetation is steppe-like, subtropical jungle areas can only be found in the northeast.

population

The province is very sparsely populated. Important cities are the provincial capital San Fernando del Valle de Catamarca (approx. 159,000 inhabitants), Santa María del Yocavil (11,600 inhabitants) in the northeast, Recreo (11,800 inhabitants) in the southeast as well as Andalgalá (12,000 inhabitants), Belén (12,200 inhabitants) and Tinogasta (11,500 inhabitants) in the west.

history

Settlement of the region goes back to at least the epoch around the turn of the times, as can be seen from finds near Palo Blanco . It is assumed that state-hierarchical social systems emerged in the region around this time, when the population made the move from hunters and gatherers to a sedentary culture dependent on agriculture . The Diaguita area was inhabited since the 11th century .

Around 1480 the Inca conquered the west of the area and incorporated it into their empire. The current provincial territory was then divided into the provinces of Tukma (from whose name Tucumán was probably derived), Chicoana (the north) and Kire-Kire . The Spanish arrived in the region in 1535 and founded the first settlement, San Pedro Mártir , in 1554 , which, however, could not last . Londres , which was founded four years later and is now the second oldest city in Argentina after Santiago del Estero , fared better . After numerous conflicts with the indigenous people, including the Gran Alzamiento Calchaquí (great Calchaquí uprising) in 1630, the Spanish gained the upper hand in the mid-17th century. In 1683 the provincial capital of San Fernando del Valle de Catamarca was founded.

In 1782 the province in the newly founded viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata was incorporated into the territory of San Miguel de Tucumán . As early as 1783 it was separated again and added to the further north Salta del Tucumán . The dependence on Tucumán continued until after independence in 1816.

In 1821 the area was split off from Tucumán and received the status of a province. It was not until 1853 that today's provincial area was largely unified, with the exception of the north-west, which initially belonged to Chile , then from 1899 to the Territorio Nacional de los Andes . This area was only dissolved in 1943 and the present Antofagasta de la Sierra Catamarca department was added.

In 1882 Catamarca had 102,000 inhabitants, who made a living from agriculture, which requires artificial irrigation, and from cattle breeding. The industry was then insignificant.

In the 20th century, the province's development stagnated for a long time. Even today it is still one of the poorest in the country despite a development spurt from around 1980. In 1990, the murder of a student, María Soledad Morales , paved the way for the intervention of the province, which until then had been ruled in a quasi-feudal manner by the Saadi family, who controlled the Peronist Party in the province and were implicated in this scandal , free. Since then, the province's politics have been dominated by the Unión Cívica Radical .

Administrative division

Catamarca Province - Administrative Division

The province of Catamarca is divided into 16 departments , to which 36 municipalities ( Municipios ) are assigned. As a municipality recognized places with more than 500 inhabitants. The municipalities cover the entire territory of the province, as they are directly adjacent to one another.

The provincial constitution recognizes the self-government of the municipalities. All municipalities with more than 10,000 inhabitants are entitled to self-government through their own municipal constitution (Carta orgánica). By November 2006, the following municipalities of Catamarcas had their own municipal constitution: San Fernando del Valle de Catamarca , Valle Viejo , Santa María del Yokavil , Recreo , Tinogasta , Belén , Andalgalá y Fray Mamerto Esquiú .

Below is the list of departments with their respective capitals:

Department	Capital	Area in km²	Population (2010)
Ambato	La Puerta	01,797	004,463
Ancasti	Ancasti	02,412	002,917
Andalgalá	Andalgalá	04,497	018,132
Antofagasta de la Sierra	Antofagasta de la Sierra	28.097	001,436
Belén	Belén	12,945	027,843
Capayan	Huillapima	04,284	016,085
Capital	San Fernando del Valle de Catamarca	00.684	159,703
El Alto	El Alto	02,327	003,570
Fray Mamerto Esquiú	San Jose	00.280	011,896
La Paz	Recreo	08,149	022,638
Paclín	La Merced	00.985	04.185
Poman	Saujil	04,859	010,776
Santa María	Santa María del Yokavil	05,740	022,548
Santa Rosa	Bañado de Ovanta	01,424	012,034
Tinogasta	Tinogasta	23,582	022,360
Valle Viejo	San Isidro	00.540	027,242

economy

In the north of the province of Catamarca is the most important mine in Argentina, Bajo de la Alumbrera , where copper and gold are extracted. However, the mine is extremely controversial among the Argentine public because of various environmental pollution allegations.

Agriculture also plays a role in the valleys , industry is almost only found in the Catamarca metropolitan area. The tourism is of little importance and focuses largely on the location of El Rodeo , which is located about 30 km from the state capital, as well as on the Valle Calchaquí lying town of Santa María del Yocavil .

Web links

Commons : Catamarca Province  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Tourism Guide ( Memento from December 18, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) (Spanish)
• Universidad Nacional de Catamarca (Spanish)

Coordinates: 28 ° 0 ′  S , 66 ° 0 ′  W