Department of Antioquia

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Antioquia
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coat of arms
Data
Capital Medellin
governor Luis Fernando Suárez Vélez (2020-2023)
surface 63,612 km²
Population  (Total)
 - 2005 Census
 -  Population Density 		 
5,682,276 
89 inhabitants / km²
urbanization 82%
Literacy rate 87.2%
Number of parishes 125
Popular name antioqueño
Important cities Apartadó , Bello , Envigado , Rionegro , Santa Fe de Antioquia
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Location of Antioquia in Colombia

The Departamento de Antioquia [ anˈtjokja ] is a department in northwest Colombia . It consists of 125 municipios . Antioquia is surrounded by the departments of Córdoba , Sucre , Bolívar , Santander , Boyacá , Caldas , Risaralda and Chocó (starting clockwise from the north). In the far north, Antioquia borders the Caribbean Sea .

Characteristic

Natural resources

Antioquia is rich in natural resources. The mining plays a significant role. Mainly metals like gold , coal , platinum and non-metallic minerals are mined. But also coal, iron and lead . It is also rich in petroleum , iron , copper , lead, asbestos , zinc and marble and the region holds a leading role in Colombia's mining industry. In addition, it controls about 60% of the national cement production.

Industry

The industrial heart forms the metropolitan region of Valle de Aburrá with the center of Medellín , including food processing, electrical and textile industries. There are also some of the country's strategic industries with cotton , palm oil , automotive and paper, food, textiles, clothing, cardboard, paper, publishing and printing, chemicals and detergents.

Due to sufficient and regular rainfall, Antioquia's water abundance is immense. There are numerous reservoirs to generate electricity: Guatapé-El Peñol , Jaguas, dam Playas , dam Punchiná , Riogrande II 's Miraflores dam Porce II , dam Porce III and the dam Troneras , Ituango dam , La García, La Fe and Piedras Blancas.

Agriculture

In addition to coffee and bananas, palm oil is one of the most exported agricultural goods in Colombia. Agriculture leads the way in national milk production with the largest dairy cooperative in Latin America, Colanta . In addition to the metropolis of Medellín, the Las Orquídeas National Park is one of the main attractions.

Administrative division

The 125 municipalities of Antioquia are in the list of Municipios in the Departamento de Antioquia .

history

The region was first explored by Europeans by Rodrigo de Bastidas , Juan de la Cosa and Vasco Núñez de Balboa in 1500 and 1501. Alonso de Ojeda put the first Spanish fortification in San Sebastián de Urabá on the Gulf of Urabá in 1510 . Gaspar de Rodas founded several inland cities in the 1580s. Medellín was founded in 1616. Until the 19th century, the province was one of the poorest provinces in New Granada . In 1829 and 1851 it was affected by civil wars. In the federalist era from 1856 to 1885, it experienced an economic boom. Mining and industry - especially in Medellín - as well as animal husbandry and the cultivation of coffee and bananas also developed above average and led to strong population growth. The province, which is also large in terms of area, gained considerable political weight within the Colombian state.

The positive economic development made the region the target of rebels of the FARC as well as many armed local gangs. It is now a center of cocaine and other drug trafficking. In the Bajo Cauca sub-region , gold and silver are illegally mined by the FARC and local gangs.

population

About 80 percent of the population are of European descent (originally supposedly mainly of Basque descent), around 11 percent Afro-Colombian, less than 1 percent indigenous. Around 1000 people still live around Caimán Nuevo who speak Tule , a language of the Chibcha family.

In the 1950s to the beginning of the 1970s there was renewed strong population growth with growth rates of almost three percent per year. The impoverished sub-region of Bajo Cauca is characterized by still high population growth, a low average age of the population and by rampant violence in the slums ( barrios piratas ).

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