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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 Atlantic Ocean. It also has all of Colombia's border with Panama. Its capital is Quibdo.
Choco has a diverse geography, unique ecosystems and unexploited natural resources. However, its population has one of the lowest standards or living of all Departments in Colombia. In March 2007 Colombian media reported that some 50 children starved in less than three months, creating awareness of the grave condition Choco inhabitants are facing. Infrastructure problems were also revealed. For example, despite its status as 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, Choco 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 struggle 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 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.
The municipality of Lloro holds the Highest Average Annual Precipitation record measured at 523.6 inches which makes it the wettest place in the world. NOAA Satellite and Information Service Global Measured Extremes of Temperature and Precipitation'' Three large rivers drain the Choco Department, the Atrato, the San Juan and the Baudo, and each has 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, with a small percentage harvested 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 Embera, the remaining Native American people, with more than half of their total population in Colombia living in Choco, some 35,500. They practice hunting and artisan fishing and live near 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
See also
Bojaya massacre
References
todacolombia.com - Choco Department
External links
"Mision de Observacion a la Situacion de las Comunidades Afrodescendientes en Colombia: Anexo 1" in Spanish;
Choco 7 dias - local newspaper founded by Elacio Murillo, former member of the Choco state assembly who was assassinated by armed gunmen on January 12, 2007.
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This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Choco Department
