Guainía Department
Encyclopedia
Guainía is a department
Departments of Colombia
Colombia is an unitary republic formed by thirty-two departments and a Capital District . Each department has a Governor and a Department Assembly , elected by popular vote for a four-year period. The governor cannot be re-elected in consecutive periods...

 of Colombia
Colombia
Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...

. It is in the east of the country, bordering Venezuela
Venezuela
Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...

 and Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...

. Its capital is Inirida. In 1963 Guainía was split off from Vaupés. The northern part and the Inírida River are included in the Orinoco river basin; the rest is part of Amazonia. The Guaviare River is the main area of colonization, many colonos come from the Colombian Andean zone, most of them from Boyacá. They are followed by the llaneros, people from the Eastern plains. The main population is composed by Native Indians, the big ethnic groups are the Puinave (from the makú-puinave family) and the curripaco (from the Arawak family). There are a total of 24 ethnic groups in the department, many of them speak four Indian languages besides Spanish and Portuguese.

The department is known for its coca crops and the guerrilla presence, but many in Colombia ignore the beauty landscape, the variety in food and the Indians
Indigenous peoples in Colombia
The indigenous peoples in Colombia comprise a large number of distinct ethnic groups who inhabited the country's present territory prior to its discovery by Europeans around 1500.-Origins:...

 deep sense of hospitality. Colonization, narcotraffic and war are displacing the original population and pushing many of them into force displacement. Before the Mapiripán massacre
Mapiripán Massacre
The Mapiripán Massacre was a massacre of civilians that took place in Mapiripán, Meta Department, Colombia. The massacre was carried out from July 15 to July 20, 1997, by the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia , an outlawed right-wing paramilitary group backed by elements of the government.On...

, in the near department of Meta, the area was an island of peace inside violent Colombia. After 1996, the expansion of paramilitary forces ("self-defenses") lead them to the Guaviare River
Guaviare River
The Guaviare is a tributary of the Orinoco located in Colombia.The Guaviare has its source in two other rivers, the Ariari and the Guayabero, which in turn have their own sources in the eastern part of the Andes. At long, it is the longest river on the Orinoco and is navigable for of its total...

 and Inírida surroundings. Now the presence of state military has strengthen and the capture of Fernandinho Beira-Mar, a leading Brazilian narcotrafficker, prompted the department to the headlines. It occurred in Barrancominas, the second biggest population. In the political arena, the natives had won important places, like the Inírida mayor office and the sit of the governor. On January 20, 2006, the governor, Efrén de Jesús Ramírez Sabana, was put out of office because he was condemned by a Villavicencio judge in a case of nourishing unattendance. The outsted governor is ethnically a Sikuani, he won office by the Autoridades Indígenas de Colombia, AICO (Colombian Indigenous Authorities) with a high percentage.

Municipalities

There's only one municipality in Guainía: Inírida, the capital. The rest of the territory is subdivided in corregimientos departamentales, a pending figure due to public disorder. This case happens only in Amazonas, Vaupés and Vichada. Barrancominas is the second biggest population and its main corregimiento; it is located in the Guaviare River.

The Guainía corregimientos are:
  1. Cacahual
    Cacahual
    Cacahual is a town and municipality located in the Guainía Department, Republic of Colombia....

  2. Guaviare
    Guaviare, Guainía
    Guaviare is a town and municipality located in the Guainía Department, Republic of Colombia....

  3. La Guadalupe
    La Guadalupe
    La Guadalupe is a town and municipality in the Guainía Department, Republic of Colombia. La Guadalupe limits with to north of Departmental Corregimeinto of San Felipe, The south and west with Brasil, and east with Venezuela...

  4. Morichal Nuevo
    Morichal Nuevo
    Morichal Nuevo is a town and municipality located in the Guainía Department, Republic of Colombia....

  5. Pana Pana
    Pana Pana
    Pana Pana is a town and municipality located in the Guainía Department, Republic of Colombia....

  6. Puerto Colombia
    Puerto Colombia, Guainía
    Puerto Colombia is a town and municipality located in the Guainía Department, Republic of Colombia....

  7. San Felipe
    San Felipe, Guainía
    San Felipe is a town and municipality located in the Guainía Department, Republic of Colombia....



Most of the territory is inside Indian resguardos, a figure more autonomous than United States reservations. Land owners dislike this because this lands can not be sold, taken or prescript. One of the bigger resguardos is Chorro Bocón, in the medium Inírida River
Inírida River
-References:*Rand McNally, The New International Atlas, 1993....

.

External links

Guainía Secretary of Education
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