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Choco Department
Choco is a department of Colombia known for its large Afro-Colombian population. It is in the west of the country, and is the only Colombian department to have coastlines on both the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean sea. It also has all of Colombia's border with Panama. Its capital is Quibdo.
Despite having an incredibly diverse geography, unique ecosystems and unexploited resources, Choco is one of the Departments in Colombia with the worst human conditions for living. On March 2007 Colombian media reported the death of some 50 children due to starvation in less than three months, this created awareness of the grave condition Choco inhabitants are facing. Despite being the world's rainiest lowland, with close to 400 inches of annual precipitation [*] Choco's capital Quibdo was left without water. [*]
History
The Department was created in 1944 but it was never legally established. [*] Due to its low population, inhospitable topography, and distance from Bogota, it has received little attention from the Colombian government. During the government of military dictator Gustavo Rojas Pinilla Choco was to be eliminated as a department and divided between Antioquia Department and Valle del Cauca Department, but Pinilla's intentions were thwarted by the 1957 ''coup d'etatof General Gabriel Paris Gordillo.
Colombian armed conflict
Until 1993 Choco was a relatively peaceful province. However with the coming of the Ejercito Popular de Liberacion(EPL) there ensued a three-way stuggle between the federal military, the incoming guerillas and the local paramilitary, with the serious consequence of massive population displacement. By 1997, although the military did not control much of the province, the internal Autodefensas Unidas Campesinas(Farmers United for Self-Defence) controlled about 75% of the territory.
On May 2, 2002 in the Colombian town of Bojaya (with its urban centre also referred to as Bellavista). FARC guerrillas seized the town in an attempt to take control of the Atrato River region from AUC paramilitaries, in the process killing approximately 119 civilians in an apparently indiscriminate attack with improvised homemade mortars assembled with gas cylinders parts (known in Spanish as pipetaor Cilindro bomba''). This massacre became known as the Bojaya massacre.
Geography
The Choco Department makes up most of the ecoregion known as El Choco that extends from Panama to Ecuador.
In the municipality of Lloro which holds the Highest Average Annual Precipitation record measured at 523.6 inches which makes it the wettest place in the world. Three large rivers drain the Choco Department, the Atrato River, the San Juan River and the Baudo River, each one with many tributaries. The Baudo Mountains on the coast and the Cordillera Occidental are cut by low valleys with an altitude less than 1,000 meters that form most of the territory. Most of the Choco is thick rain forest. Much of Colombia's internal consumption of wood come from the Choco, as well as a small percentage for export.
Demographics
Choco is inhabited predominantly by descendants of African slaves brought by the Spanish Colonizers after conquering the Americas. The second race/ethnic group are the remnants of Native American people known as the Embera with more than half of their total population in Colombia living in Choco, some 35,500. They survive by practicing hunting and artisan fishing and live by rivers. [*]
The total population as of 2005 was less than half a million, with more than half living in the Quibdo valley.
Towns and municipalities
Quibdo is the largest city with a population of almost 100,000. Other important cities and towns include Istmina, Condoto, Novita and El Carmen in the interior, Acandi on the Caribbean coast, and Solano on the Pacific coast. Resorts include Capurgana on the Caribbean coast, and Jurado, Nuqui, and Bahia Solano on the west coast.
Municipalities
Acandi
Alto Baudo
Atrato
Bagado
Bahia Solano
Bajo Baudo
Belen de Bajira
Bojaya
Carmen del Darien
Certegui
Condoto
El Canton de San Pablo
El Carmen de Atrato
Istmina
Jurado
Litoral del San Juan
Lloro
Medio Atrato
Medio Baudo
Medio San Juan
Novita
Nuqui
Quibdo
Rio Iro
Rio Quito
Riosucio
San Jose del Palmar
Sipi
Tado
Unguia
Union Panamericana
References
todacolombia.com - Choco Department
External links
"Mision de Observacion a la Situacion de las Comunidades Afrodescendientes en Colombia: Anexo 1" in Spanish;
See also
Bojaya massacre
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This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Choco Department
