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Guainia Department
Guainia (Yira language for "Land of many waters") is a department of Colombia. It is in the east of the country, bordering Venezuela and Brazil. Its capital is Inirida. In 1963 Guainia was segregated of Vaupes. The northern part and the Inirida River are included in the Orinoquia, 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 Boyaca. 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 maku-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 deep sense of hospitality. Colonization, narcotraffic and war are displacing the original population and pushing many of them into force displacement. Before the Mapiripan massacre, 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 and Inirida surroundings. Now the presence of state military has strengthen and the capture of Bernardinho Viera-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 Inirida mayor office and the sit of the governor. In January 20 2006, the governor, Efren de Jesus Ramirez 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 Indigenas de Colombia, AICO (Colombian Indigenous Authorities) with a high percentage.
Municipalities
There's only one municipality in Guainia: Inirida, 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, Vaupes and Vichada. Barrancominas is the second biggest population and its main corregimiento; it is located in the Guaviare River.
The Guainia corregimientos are:
Cacahual
Guaviare
La Guadalupe
Morichal Nuevo
Pana Pana
Puerto Colombia
San Felipe
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 Bocon, in the medium Inirida River.
External links
Guainia Secretary of Education
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This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Guainia Department
