Santa Cruz Department

Santa Cruz Department (red)
Symbols
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Basic data
Country	Bolivia
Capital	Santa Cruz de la Sierra
surface	370,621 km²
Residents	2,655,084 (2012 census)
density	7.2 inhabitants per km²
ISO 3166-2	BO-S
Website	www.santacruz.gob.bo (Spanish)
politics
prefect	Rubén Costas

Coordinates: 17 °  S , 62 °  W

The Santa Cruz Department is located in eastern Bolivia . It has an area of ​​370,621 km² and (according to the 2012 census) 2,655,084 inhabitants. The capital is Santa Cruz de la Sierra .

geography

The Department of Santa Cruz extends from the Cordillera Oriental on the eastern edge of the Andes into the flat lowlands of the Amazon basin and the Gran Chaco . Santa Cruz borders Brazil to the east and Paraguay to the southeast . Within Bolivia, Santa Cruz is bordered by the Beni department in the north, the Cochabamba department in the west and the Chuquisaca department in the southwest.

The climate is tropical with a rainy season in summer. Cold southerly winds of polar origin ( Surazos ) can cause short-term cold spells , especially in winter. The vegetation in the lowlands ranges from the tropical rainforest in the humid north of the department to wet forests and wet savannas to dry forests in the dry Gran Chaco .

population

The population of Santa Cruz Department has increased more than tenfold over the past sixty years:

year	Residents	source
1950	244 658	census
1976	710 724	census
1992	1 364 389	census
2001	2,029,471	census
2012	2,655,084	census

In the 2001 census in Santa Cruz Department, 16.95% of the population over 15 years of age identified themselves as Quechua , and another 20.49% named another indigenous ethnic group (including Aymara , Guaraní , Chiquitano and Mojeño ). 62.56% did not belong to any indigenous ethnic group.

An important reason for the rapid population increase since the middle of the last century is the partly state-sponsored resettlement of people from the barren highlands of the Altiplano in the west of the country to the fertile lowlands. Following the agrarian reform of 1953, so-called agrarian colonization areas were created in the Departamento de Santa Cruz, in which immigrants were settled in planned villages, usually consisting of 40 families per village. The resettlement programs came to an end in the 1960s due to the high costs they caused, their limited success (project goals: import substitution of agricultural goods in the lowlands, strengthening of national unity, demographic relief of the highlands, etc.) and the controversial work of the colonization authorities (INC / INRA) in the award of land and land titles in the criticism. On the other hand, there are positive approaches to intercultural coexistence between high and lowland populations (example San Julián, cf. Bibliography).

As in the colonization areas (San Julián, Yapacaní, etc.), the population in the capital Santa Cruz de la Sierra is also highly ethnic due to the high level of immigration. In addition to settlement areas for lowland residents or immigrants from the highlands, there are also colonies of Plautdietsch -speaking Russian mennonites in the Departamento de Santa Cruz , who first settled from Paraguay in the 1950s. Later Russian mennonites from Mexico, Canada and Belize joined them. In 2016 there were around 70,000 Russian mennonites in the Santa Cruz Department. To the south of the capital lies the Palmasola prison settlement, which is also inhabited by prisoners on remand and in which riots broke out in 2001.

Provinces

The Santa Cruz Department is divided into 15 provinces:

index	province	Residents 2012	2001 residents	Provincial capital
07-01	Andrés Ibáñez Province	1,653,001	1,260,549	Santa Cruz de la Sierra
07-02	Ignacio Warnes Province	108,888	53,231	Warnes
07-03	José Miguel de Velasco Province	69,742	56,702	San Ignacio de Velasco
07-04	Ichilo Province	92,721	70,444	Buena Vista
07-05	Chiquitos Province	82,429	59,754	San Jose de Chiquitos
07-06	Sara Province	42,278	37,733	Portachuelo
07-07	Cordillera Province	120.111	101,733	Lagunillas
07-08	Vallegrande Province	26,576	27,429	Vallegrande
07-09	Florida Province	32,842	27,447	Samaipata
07-10	Obispo Santistevan Province	181.169	142,786	Montero
07-11	Province of Ñuflo de Chavez	116,545	93.997	Concepción
07-12	Ángel Sandoval Province	14,415	13,073	San Matías
07-13	Manuel María Caballero Province	23,267	20,010	Comarapa
07-14	Germán Busch Province	42,830	33.006	Puerto Suarez
07-15	Guarayos Province	48,301	31,577	Ascención de Guarayos

Biggest cities

By far the largest and most important city in the department is the capital Santa Cruz de la Sierra .

city	2012 census	2001 census
Santa Cruz de la Sierra	1,653,001	1,116,059
Montero	107.294	78.294
Warnes	77,668	17,872
La Guardia	76.123	29,745
Yapacaní	30,952	14,589
Camiri	28,855	26,505
San Ignacio de Velasco	23,126	19,401
San Julian	20,687	6,585

The place Samaipata is also known as a tourist destination .

politics

Autonomy referendum

See also Bolivia / Internal Political Tensions

On May 4, 2008, a referendum took place on extensive autonomy based on the Spanish model . After a ruling by the National Electoral Court, which banned the referendum due to a lack of legal requirements, Bolivia's President Evo Morales called it unconstitutional. Proponents of the referendum, however, described it in accordance with the currently valid constitution of Bolivia. The Bolivian army warned of a threat to the country's territorial integrity. According to the departmental government of Santa Cruz, 350,000 people responded "with peaceful demonstrations to the [central] government's threats against democracy."

The background to the referendum and the referendums taking place in other departments in June 2008 are the internal contradictions in Bolivia. The eastern departments in the lowlands are richer in raw materials and more prosperous than the western departments in the highlands. In addition, the conservative political forces are for autonomy and the left-wing political forces are for the status quo . The autonomy advocates of the eastern departments criticize the government for the plan to spend a larger part of the income from the east in the poorer west. The socialist president bases his power on the indigenous parts of the population, while the people of Spanish descent tend to support the conservative forces. The advocates of autonomy stand for a free market economy, the socialist opponents of autonomy for an economy with substantial state participation.

The turnout was about 61%. According to initial results, more than 80% of the electorate voted in favor of autonomy. Bolivian sources say 84%. 11.5% agreed with "no" and 1.3% left a blank.

Rubén Costas, Prefect of Santa Cruz Department, welcomed the result as a victory. He announced that he would make “Bolivia the most decentralized country in Latin America”. President Morales, on the other hand, described the referendum as a failure for autonomy because of the low turnout compared to earlier elections, but said he was aware that at least a large part of the population was making demands for autonomy.

Regional elections 2010

Overall result of the regional elections on April 4, 2010 in the Department of Santa Cruz:

electoral legitimate		electoral participation	valid votes		VERDES	MAS-IPSP	TODOS	FA	MSM	FCN
1,225,072		1,052,426	979.123		515,370	374.326	43,929	25,031	11,530	8,937
		85.9%	93.0%		52.6%	38.2%	4.5%	2.6%	1.2%	0.9%

economy

Agriculture

The region around the capital Santa Cruz de la Sierra is used intensively for agriculture , while forestry predominates in the wooded north . Agriculture and forestry as well as the processing of agricultural and forestry products are the economic focus of the Santa Cruz Department.

energy

The region also has the second largest natural gas reserves in South America . In the 1990s these were privatized . Demands for the withdrawal of privatizations led to the overthrow of Bolivia's President de Lozada. In 2005, under President Mesa, the upper class and business associations tried to forestall these efforts by demanding autonomy for the region.

tourism

In Santa Cruz there are as World Heritage of UNESCO protected Jesuit Missions of the Chiquitos and the Fortress of Samaipata and the as World Heritage protected Noel Kempff Mercado National Park . Another attraction is the Amboró National Park . In 1967 Che Guevara was captured and killed in the village of La Higuera on the western edge of the department .

Bibliography

• Johannes Winter (2006): Bolivia - Poverty welds together. Approaches for an intercultural coexistence beyond all fragmentation. In: eins - Entwicklungspolitik Information Nord-Süd, vol. 11–12 (June), pp. 42–45, 2006.
• Johannes Winter (2005): Integration processes in rural Bolivia. Examples from the Department of Santa Cruz. In: Workbooks of the Latin America Center. / CeLA, No. 91. Münster. Download: (PDF; 1.7 MB)
• Sevilla, Rafael and Benavides, Ariel (2001): Bolivia - the misunderstood country? Horlemann, Bad Honnef.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d} Instituto Nacional de Estadística (INE) ( Memento of the original from February 26, 2014 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. ↑ INE - Instituto Nacional de Estadística Bolivia 2012 ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
3. ↑ Instituto Nacional de Estatística (INE) ( Memento of the original of October 27, 2009 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. : Censo de Población y Vivienda 2001  
4. ↑ The press : Bolivia: The lowlands quietly say "Adiós" (May 4, 2008)
5. ↑ ^{a b} AFP: The richest region in Bolivia votes for autonomy in a referendum , May 5, 2008 ( Memento of January 24, 2013 in the web archive archive.today )
6. ↑ El Diario : Llegó la hora de la verdad para el referéndum por la autonomía ( Memento of the original of May 8, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. accessed on May 4, 2008 
7. ↑ ORF : Bolivia: Controversial referendum in Santa Cruz (May 4, 2008)
8. ↑ La Razón (newspaper, La Paz): FFAA ven que el Estatuto afecta la seguridad interna ( Memento of the original of June 8, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. accessed on May 4, 2008 
9. ↑ Departmental Government Santa Cruz ( Memento of the original dated November 30, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (Spanish)  
10. ↑ El Diario: Victoria del Sí en consulta perfila un acuerdo nacional ( Memento of the original dated May 8, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved May 5, 2008 
11. ↑ Deutsche Welle : Defeat for Morales: Santa Cruz wants more autonomy (May 5, 2008)
12. ↑ El Diario (La Paz): El “Sí” triunfó con más del 84% de votos en consulta autonómica ( Memento of the original of May 8, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. accessed on May 5, 2008 
13. ↑ Back strengthening for Santa Cruz in Bolivia , NZZ, May 6, 2008
14. ^ The Santa Cruz Problem , Telepolis, May 5, 2008
15. ↑ Acta de computo Nacional Electoral Departamentales, Municipales y Regional 2010

Web links

Commons : Departamento Santa Cruz  - Collection of images

• Information about Santa Cruz and the lowlands of Bolivia on bolivialine
• Information about the department on the website of the Bolivian Embassy in Berlin
• Website of the Prefecture of the Department of Santa Cruz (Spanish)
• Video of the advocates of autonomy on Youtube (Spanish with English subtitles)
• SantaCruz-Online Virtual Travel Guide with detailed information about the Dep. Santa Cruz