Illapel
Encyclopedia
Illapel is a Chile
Chile
Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...

an city, which is the capital of the Choapa Province
Choapa Province
Choapa Province is one of the provinces making up the Coquimbo Region of Chile. It has an area of 10,079.8 km² and a population of 81,681. The capital of the province is the town of Illapel...

, Coquimbo Region
Coquimbo Region
The IV Coquimbo Region is one of Chile's 15 first order administrative divisions. It is some 400 km north of the capital, Santiago.The capital and largest city is La Serena, other important cities include the seaport Coquimbo and the agricultural centre...

. It lies along the Illapel River
Illapel River
Illapel River is a river of Chile located in the Coquimbo Region. One of its most important tributaries is Aucó Creek, to whose basin Las Chinchillas National Reserve belongs to....

 and marks the country's narrowest point along a parallel (94 km).It's located to the east of Los Vilos.

Administration

As a commune, Illapel is a third-level administrative division of Chile administered by a municipal council
Municipal council
A municipal council is the local government of a municipality. Specifically the term can refer to the institutions of various countries that can be translated by this term...

, headed by an alcalde
Alcalde
Alcalde , or Alcalde ordinario, is the traditional Spanish municipal magistrate, who had both judicial and administrative functions. An alcalde was, in the absence of a corregidor, the presiding officer of the Castilian cabildo and judge of first instance of a town...

 who is directly elected every four years. The 2008-2012 alcalde is Denis Cortés Vargas (IND
Independent (politician)
In politics, an independent or non-party politician is an individual not affiliated to any political party. Independents may hold a centrist viewpoint between those of major political parties, a viewpoint more extreme than any major party, or they may have a viewpoint based on issues that they do...

/JPM
Juntos Podemos Más
Juntos Podemos Más por Chile is a political coalition created in 2003, consisting of the Communist Party of Chile, the Humanist Party, the Christian Left Party of Chile, and several other smaller left-wing organizations.The...

).

Within the electoral divisions of Chile, Illapel is represented in the Chamber of Deputies
Chamber of Deputies of Chile
The Chamber of Deputies of the Republic of Chile is the lower house of Chile's bicameral Congress. Its organisation and its powers and duties are defined in articles 42 to 59 of Chile's current constitution....

 by Mrs. Adriana Muñoz (PDC
Christian Democratic Party
Christian democratic parties are those political parties that seek to apply Christian principles to public policy. The underlying Christian democracy movement emerged in 19th-century Europe, largely under the influence of Catholic social teaching, and it continues to be influential in Europe and...

) and Mr. Luis Lemus (Ind.
Independent (politician)
In politics, an independent or non-party politician is an individual not affiliated to any political party. Independents may hold a centrist viewpoint between those of major political parties, a viewpoint more extreme than any major party, or they may have a viewpoint based on issues that they do...

) as part of the 9th electoral district, (together with Combarbalá
Combarbala
Combarbalá is a Chilean city and commune, located in the Limarí Province, Coquimbo Region. The overall population of the commune is about 14.000 inhabitants, while the population of the city is about 6000 inhabitants...

, Punitaqui
Punitaqui
Punitaqui is a town and commune of Chile in the Limarí Province.-History:Punitaqui was once part of the Ovalle Department before the administrative restructuring of 1976.-1997 earthquake:...

, Monte Patria
Monte Patria
Monte Patria is a city and one of four communes in the Limarí Province of Chile's north-central IV Coquimbo Region.-Administration:As a commune, Monte Patria is a third-level administrative division of Chile administered by a Communal Council , headed by a directly elected alcalde...

, Salamanca
Salamanca, Chile
Salamanca is a Chilean city and commune in Choapa Province, Coquimbo Region. It is located east of Illapel, the province's administrative center, and north of Santiago, Chile...

, Los Vilos
Los Vilos
Los Vilos is both a Chilean coastal commune and a coastal city with over 9,000 inhabitants , located in the Province of Choapa, part of the IV Region of Coquimbo. Its main activity is fishing. The city also has a significant amount of tourism, mainly due to its two beaches: La Principal and Las...

, Canela
Canela
Canela, meaning Cinnamon in Portuguese, Spanish, and Italian, is a town located in the Serra Gaúcha of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. Both Canela and neighboring Gramado are important tourist resorts and they both draw many visitors each year. Ecotourism is very popular in the area and there are many...

). The commune is represented in the Senate
Senate of Chile
The Senate of the Republic of Chile is the upper house of Chile's bicameral National Congress, as established in the current Constitution of Chile.-Composition:...

 by Evelyn Matthei Fornet (UDI) and Jorge Pizarro Soto (PDC
Christian Democratic Party
Christian democratic parties are those political parties that seek to apply Christian principles to public policy. The underlying Christian democracy movement emerged in 19th-century Europe, largely under the influence of Catholic social teaching, and it continues to be influential in Europe and...

) as part of the 4th senatorial constituency (Coquimbo Region).

Demographics

According to the 2002 census
Census
A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population. The term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common...

 of the National Statistics Institute
National Statistics Institute (Chile)
The National Statistics Institute of Chile is a state-run organization of the Government of Chile, created in the second half of the 19th century and tasked with performing a general census of population and housing, then collecting, producing and publishing official demographic statistics of...

, Illapel spans an area of 2629.1 sqkm and has 30,355 inhabitants (14,940 men and 15,415 women). Of these, 21,826 (71.9%) lived in urban area
Urban area
An urban area is characterized by higher population density and vast human features in comparison to areas surrounding it. Urban areas may be cities, towns or conurbations, but the term is not commonly extended to rural settlements such as villages and hamlets.Urban areas are created and further...

s and 8,529 (28.1%) in rural areas. The population grew by 4.6% (1,348 persons) between the 1992 and 2002 censuses.

External links

Municipality of Illapel
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