Los Ríos Province

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Los Ríos
Province Provincia de Los Ríos
flag
Bandera de Los Ríos.svg
Location in Ecuador
Galápagos Esmeraldas Carchi Imbabura Sucumbios Orellana Napo Pichincha Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas Manabí Cotopaxi Tungurahua Bolívar Los Ríos Guayas Cañar Chimborazo Pastaza Morona Santiago Azuay Santa Elena El Oro Loja Zamora Chinchipe Kolumbien PeruLocation in Ecuador
About this picture
Basic data
Capital Babahoyo
population 716.106 (2005,)
- Share in Ecuador 5.4%
- Rank in Ecuador Rank 4 of 22
- density 115 inhabitants per km²
surface 6,254 km²
- Share in Ecuador 2.4%
- Rank in Ecuador Rank 14 of 22
License Plate R.
Set up 1860
prefect Jorge Marun ( PRE )
governor Camilo Salinas
Seats in the
National Congress
5 out of 100
structure 12 cantons
ISO 3166-2 EC-R
www.los-rios.gov.ec ( Memento from July 5, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
Climate diagram of Pichilingue near Quevedo

Los Ríos (German: "The Rivers") is a province of the Republic of Ecuador . It is located in the coastal lowlands of Ecuador and is characterized by a water-rich system of rivers that arise on the western slopes of the Andes and are the source and inflow of the Río Guayas . Los Ríos has about 750,000 inhabitants on an area of ​​6250 km². Their capital is Babahoyo .

Location and geography

Los Ríos is located in the coastal region in western Ecuador, in a north-south direction in the center of the country. It is bordered by the Guayas Province to the south and west, the Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas Province to the north, and the Cotopaxi and Bolívar provinces to the east .

The province lies in the coastal lowlands, which means that most of Los Ríos is at a low altitude. Especially in the northeast of the province there are mountain ranges or hills of up to 500 meters high, which are promontories of the Andes.

The climate is tropical with an annual average temperature of around 23 ° C and low seasonal fluctuations. From around June to December the climate is dry and cooler ( summer ), from December to June it is rainy and hotter ( winter ). Most of the province is wet savanna . It is located in Tropical Rainforest in Los Ríos.

The distinctive river system that gave the province its name made the area a trading center for goods even before colonization. Due to the abundance of water and the multitude of its rivers, Los Ríos is one of the most fertile provinces for tropical agriculture. The main river is the Río Babahoyo , which arises in the capital of the same name at the confluence of the Río Catarama and the Río San Pablo . In its further course towards the Pacific coast of the Río Babahoyo take the water of many other rivers (u. A. Río Vinces , Río Jujan and Rio Yaguachi ) before he was in Guayaquil with the Río Daule to Río Guayas combined, 50 kilometers downstream in the Gulf of Guayaquil flows into.

Next to Babahoyo, Quevedo , Vinces and San Jacinto de Buena Fé are the largest cities in the province. Quevedo is the most populous city in the province; it has a very high percentage of the population of Chinese immigrants and is a trading center and transport hub between the Andean highlands and the coast.

Economy and Infrastructure

Agriculture is the most important branch of the economy in Los Ríos. The province is the most important producer of cocoa in Ecuador and the second most important of coffee . In addition, bananas , oil palms and passion fruit are grown.

There is also a timber industry , which entails the deforestation of tropical forests. The main industrial sectors are paper production , furniture construction and the agricultural industry.

In addition, handicrafts (including basketry) and all kinds of low-paid services form the livelihood of many people.

history

The area of ​​today's province was a focus of the Chorrera culture , which is dated to around 1500 to 500 BC. The culture was named after the first significant site of its artifacts, the Hacienda Chorrera. There are also traces of the Valdivia culture .

At the time of colonization by the Spaniards, the area was inhabited by tribes of the Babas and Babahoyos, who are counted among the Huancavilca .

The present province finally achieved its independence in 1822, Babahoyo and Baba formed cantons of the province of Guayaquil (today province of Guayas ) since the law on the territorial division of Greater Colombia of 1824 .

On October 6, 1860, under President Gabriel García Moreno, the new province was established, the capital of which was today's Babahoyo, which was then called Bodegas. A few years later, Babahoyo, consisting mainly of wooden and cane houses, burned down and was re-established in 1869 on the opposite, left-hand side of the Babahoyo River.

politics

Jorge Marún from the Partido Roldosista Ecuatoriano is prefect of the province . He left his party in early 2006, but rejoined it in August. He was previously traded as a presidential candidate for the 2006 elections. Los Ríos is one of the PRE's strongholds. However, the mayor of the capital Babahoyo, Johnny Terán, belongs to the social Christian party PSC .

Camilo Salinas has held the post of governor appointed by the president since September 2007.

Cantons

The province of Los Ríos is currently divided into thirteen cantons. These are (in the chronological order of their establishment):

  1. Babahoyo (established in 1824 as a canton of the Greater Colombian province of Guayaquil; administrative seat: Babahoyo )
  2. Vinces (established in 1845, administrative seat: Vinces )
  3. Puebloviejo (established in 1846, administrative seat: Puebloviejo )
  4. Baba (established in 1858; administrative seat: Baba; Baba was established alongside Babahoyo as a canton of the Greater Colombian province of Guayaquil as early as 1824; however, this was dissolved again in 1855 and Vinces was incorporated)
  5. Urdaneta (established in 1913, administrative seat: Catarama)
  6. Quevedo (established in 1943, administrative seat: Quevedo )
  7. Ventanas (established in 1952, administrative headquarters: Ventanas )
  8. Montalvo (established in 1984, administrative seat: Montalvo; named after the writer Juan Montalvo (1832–1889)).
  9. Palenque (established in 1990, administrative headquarters: Palenque)
  10. Buena Fé (established in 1992, administrative headquarters: San Jacinto de Buena Fé )
  11. Valencia (established in 1995, administrative headquarters: Valencia)
  12. Mocache (established in 1996, administrative headquarters: Mocache)
  13. Quinsaloma (established in 2007, administrative headquarters: Quinsaloma)

Remarks

  1. ^ INEC, Población total y tasas brutas de natalidad, mortalidad general, mortalidad infantil y materna según regiones y provincias de residencia habitual, año 2005 ( Memento of June 8, 2006 in the Internet Archive ), accessed on October 13, 2007.
  2. El Prefecto Jorge Marun al Volvió PRE ( Memento of 27 September 2007 at the Internet Archive ), El Comercio ; Retrieved August 24, 2006.

Coordinates: 1 ° 20 ′  S , 79 ° 31 ′  W