Sucumbíos Province

Sucumbíos Province
Provincia de Sucumbíos

flag

Location in Ecuador

Basic data

Capital

Nueva Loja

population

152,587 (2005,)

- Share in Ecuador

1.2%

- Rank in Ecuador

Rank 16 of 22

- density

8 inhabitants per km²

surface

18,612 km²

- Share in Ecuador

7.3%

- Rank in Ecuador

Rank 7 of 22

License Plate

K

Set up

1989

prefect

Darwin Lozada ( PRE )

governor

Nancy Morocho

Seats in the
National Congress

2 of 100

structure

7 cantons

ISO 3166-2

ECU

no homepage

Sucumbíos is a province of the Republic of Ecuador . It is located in the northern part of the Ecuadorian part of the Amazon basin and has around 150,000 inhabitants on an area of 18,600 km². The provincial capital is Nueva Loja also called Lago Agrio .

geography

Cuyabeno National Park

Sucumbíos is the northernmost province of the Amazon lowlands in the east of the country and borders in the north on Colombia (provinces Nariño and Putumayo ), in the east on Peru ( region Loreto ), in the south on the provinces Orellana and Napo and in the west on Pichincha , Imbabura and Carchi . Sucumbíos is the only Ecuadorian province that borders on two other states.

The western part of the province lies in the Eastern Cordillera of the Andes, where most of the rivers that flow through the province arise. The highest mountain in the province is the active Reventador volcano (3485 m). The eastern part of the province is part of the actual Amazon basin , with tropical rainforest and tropical humid climate.

The most important river in the province is the Aguarico , which flows in the Nueva Loja and flows into the Río Napo on the border with Peru . Other important rivers are the Putumayo , which forms the state border with Colombia in the north, and the Coca and Napo in the south.

history

The area of today's province of Sucumbíos has long been a poorly developed wilderness overgrown with tropical rainforest, in which almost exclusively indigenous peoples such as the Secoya , the Cofán , the Siona and the so-called Amazonia Kichwa lived.

The canton of Sucumbíos became part of the newly created province of Napo-Pastaza in 1920.

The economic and administrative center of the province, Nueva Loja, was founded as an oil production center around 1970 and was settled mainly by migrant workers from the Loja province . It became the capital of the canton of Lago Agrio in the province of Napo in 1979. The name of the canton goes back to American oil workers who were reminded of Sour Lake in Texas and who translated its name into Spanish. In 1989 Sucumbíos became the 21st province of Ecuador.

As a border region with Colombia, individual groups of guerrilla fighters or paramilitaries keep pushing across the border into the province of Sucumbíos, although there is no fighting, but criminal offenses (robberies, car thefts, kidnappings). As part of the US American Plan Colombia , according to local information disputed by the US Embassy, parts of the province of Sucumbíos are also to be affected when Colombian coca fields are destroyed from the air, which is said to have contributed to diseases of the local population. In addition, refugees from the Colombian Departamento de Putumayo are settling in many border towns in the province .

In August 2005, a strike in the provinces of Sucumbíos and Orellana paralyzed the country's oil exports. The strikers demanded a larger share of the oil revenues for the two provinces and the termination of the Ecuadorian state's contracts on concessions to multinational mining and processing companies. Ultimately, after the military intervened, an agreement was signed with President Palacio .

On March 1, 2008, there was a significant foreign policy incident when, during the bombing of a camp of the Colombian guerrilla organization FARC on Ecuadorian territory by Colombian aircraft and subsequent invasion of ground troops, FARC leaders Raúl Reyes (alias Luis Édgar Devia ) and 24 more people were killed. The bombing took place 1,800 m from the Colombian-Ecuadorian border near the indigenous settlement of Santa Rosa in the canton of Putumayo without prior consultation with the Ecuadorian authorities. Ecuador then expelled the Colombian ambassador and increased its troop presence on the border. See: Armed Conflict in Colombia

economy

Making cassava flour

The most important mineral resource in the province is crude oil , the extraction of which since the early 1970s has made up by far the largest part of the value added in today's province. Oil production makes Sucumbíos one of the most economically important provinces in the country. However, it has led to the largest oil disaster in Ecuador since 1967 , in which the Texaco company was particularly involved.

In addition to the oil production, a little agriculture is practiced. Above all tropical products ( oil palms , bananas , coffee , cocoa , pineapples ) and corn are grown. Pasture farming hardly takes place (officially). In the rivers that z. Some are gold-bearing, fishing is also practiced . Tropical woods are also felled.

Tourism is becoming increasingly important. The Cuyabeno NP in particular offers an incomparable variety of tropical birds and caimans . In addition to the Reserva de Producción Faunística Cuyabeno , Reserva Biológica Limoncocha and Reserva Ecológica Cayambe-Coca are also worth mentioning.

Infrastructure

Nueva Loja (Lago Agrio) has a national airport and road connections via Papallacta to Quito and Colombia . There are daily buses to Nueva Loja from the main cities of Ecuador. There are also serious environmental problems around Nueva Loja due to pollution by petroleum and residues.

Two major oil pipelines run from Nueva Loja to Esmeraldas , a port city on the Pacific, the state-owned Oleoducto Transecuatoriano and the recently built (and controversial) Oleoducto de Crudos Pesados (OCP) by private investors .

politics

Darwin Lozada of the Partido Roldosista Ecuatoriano has been prefect of the province since March 2006 . Previously, Guillermo Muñoz ( CFP ) , who was elected in 2004, was deposed by the provincial council, but resisted this decision for weeks. The prefect shares its responsibilities with the mayors of the canton's capitals. The most influential of these is the one of the capital Nueva Loja, Maximo Abad of the left Movimiento Popular Democrático .

The governor appointed by the Ecuadorian government is currently Nancy Morocho.

Administrative division

The province of Sucumbíos is currently divided into seven cantons, these are (in chronological order of their establishment):

Sucumbíos (established around 1920 as a canton of the Napo-Pastaza province; capital: La Bonita )
Putumayo (established in 1969 as a canton of the Napo province; capital: Puerto El Carmen de Putumayo )
Lago Agrio (established in 1979 as a canton of the Napo province, capital: Nueva Loja )
Shushufindi (established in 1984; capital: Shushufindi )
Gonzalo Pizarro (established in 1986, named after the conquistador Gonzalo Pizarro (1502–1548), capital: Lumbaqui )
Cascales (established in 1990, capital: El Dorado de Cascales )
Cuyabeno (established in 1998, capital: Tarapoa )