Departments of Colombia

Colombia is a unitary republic made up of thirty-two departments (Spanish: departamentos, sing. departamento) and a Capital District (Distrito Capital).[1] Each department has a governor (gobernador) and a Department Assembly (Asamblea Departamental), elected by popular vote for a four-year period. The governor cannot be re-elected in consecutive periods. Departments are country subdivisions and are granted a certain degree of autonomy.

Capital district and departments of Colombia Distrito Capital y los Departamentos de Colombia (Spanish)
Category	Unitary state
Location	Republic of Colombia
Number	32 Departments 1 Capital District
Populations	(Departments only):40,797 (Vaupés) – 6,407,102 (Antioquia)
Areas	(Departments only):50 km^2 (19.3 sq mi) (San Andrés) – 109,665.0 km^2 (42,341.89 sq mi) (Amazonas)
Government	Department government, National government
Subdivisions	Province, municipality

Departments are formed by a grouping of municipalities (municipios, sing. municipio). Municipal government is headed by mayor (alcalde) and administered by a municipal council (concejo municipal), both of which are elected for four-year periods.

Some departments have subdivisions above the level of municipalities, commonly known as provinces.

Chart of departments

Each one of the departments of Colombia in the map below links to a corresponding article. Current governors serving four-year terms from 2015 to 2019 are also shown, along with their respective political party or coalition.

ID	Department	Governor	Party	Capital	Area (km²)	Population	Established
00	Capital District	Claudia López Hernández	Green	Bogotá	1,587	7,412,566	1538
01	Amazonas	Jesús Galindo Cedeño	Coalición 'Juntos por el Amazonas'	Leticia	109,665	76,589	1991
02	Antioquia	Aníbal Gaviria	Coalición 'Es el Momento de Antioquia'	Medellín	63,612	6,407,102	1826
03	Arauca	José Facundo Castillo	Coalición 'Unidos por Arauca'	Arauca	23,818	262,174	1991
04	Atlántico	Elsa Noguera	Coalición 'La Clave es la Gente'	Barranquilla	3,388	2,535,517	1910
05	Bolívar	Vicente Antonio Blel	Conservative	Cartagena	25,978	2,070,110	1857
06	Boyacá	Ramiro Barragán Adame	Green	Tunja	23,189	1,217,376	1539
07	Caldas	Luis Carlos Velásquez	Coalición 'Unidos por Caldas'	Manizales	7,888	998,255	1905
08	Caquetá	Arnulfo Gasca Trujillo	Conservative	Florencia	88,965	401,849	1982
09	Casanare	Salomón Andrés Sanabria	CD	Yopal	44,640	420,504	1991
10	Cauca	Elías Larrahondo Carabalí	Coalición 'Porque Sí es Posible'	Popayán	29,308	1,464,488	1857
11	Cesar	Luis Alberto Monsalvo Gnecco	Coalición 'Alianza por el Cesar'	Valledupar	22,905	1,200,574	1967
12	Chocó	Ariel Palacios Calderón	Coalición 'Generando Confianza por un Mejor Chocó'	Quibdó	46,530	534,826	1947
13	Córdoba	Orlando David Benítez	Liberal	Montería	25,020	1,784,783	1952
14	Cundinamarca	Nicolás García Bustos	Coalición 'Gran Cundinamarca'	Bogotá	24,210	2,919,060	1857
15	Guainía	Juan Carlos Iral Gómez	De La U	Inirida	72,238	48,114	1963
16	Guaviare	Heydeer Yovanny Palacio	CR	San José del Guaviare	53,460	82,767	1991
17	Huila	Luis Enrique Dussán	Coalición Coalición 'Huila Crece'	Neiva	19,890	1,100,386	1905
18	La Guajira	Nemesio Roys Garzón	Coalición 'Un Cambio por La Guajira'	Riohacha	20,848	880,560	1965
19	Magdalena	Carlos Caicedo	G.S.C. Fuerza Ciudadana - Magdalena	Santa Marta	23,188	1,341,746	1824
20	Meta	Juan Guillermo Zuluaga	De La U	Villavicencio	85,635	1,039,722	1960
21	Nariño	Jhon Alexander Rojas	Coalición 'Mi Nariño'	Pasto	33,268	1,630,592	1904
22	Norte de Santander	Silvano Serrano Guerrero	Conservative	Cúcuta	21,658	1,491,689	1910
23	Putumayo	Buanerges Rosero	Coalición 'Así es el Putumayo, Tierra de Paz'	Mocoa	24,885	348,182	1991
24	Quindío	Roberto Jairo Jaramillo	Liberal	Armenia	1,845	539,904	1966
25	Risaralda	Sigifredo Salazar Osorio	Conservative	Pereira	4,140	943,401	1966
26	San Andrés y Providencia	Everth Julio Hawkins	Coalición 'Todos por un Nuevo Comienzo'	San Andrés	52	61,280	1991
27	Santander	Mauricio Aguilar	Coalición 'Siempre Santander'	Bucaramanga	30,537	2,184,837	1857
28	Sucre	Héctor Olimpo Espinosa	Liberal	Sincelejo	10,917	904,863	1966
29	Tolima	José Ricardo Orozco	Conservative	Ibagué	23,562	1,330,187	1886
30	Valle del Cauca	Clara Luz Roldán	Coalición 'Todos por el Valle del Cauca'	Cali	22,140	4,475,886	1910
31	Vaupés	Elícer Pérez	CD	Mitú	54,135	40,797	1991
32	Vichada	Álvaro Arley León	Coalición 'Álvaro León Sabe Como Es'	Puerto Carreño	100,242	107,808	1991

Territorios indígenas

Main article: Indigenous territory (Colombia)

The indigenous territories are at the third level of administrative division in Colombia, as are the municipalities. Indigenous territories are created by agreement between the government and indigenous communities. In cases where indigenous territories cover more than one department or municipality, local governments jointly administer them with the indigenous councils, as set out in Articles 329 and 330 of the Colombian Constitution of 1991. Also indigenous territories may achieve local autonomy if they meet the requirements of the law.

Article 329 of the 1991 constitution recognizes the collective indigenous ownership of indigenous territories and repeats that are inalienable. Law 160 of 1994 created the National System of Agrarian Reform and Rural Development Campesino, and replaced Law 135 of 1961 on Agrarian Social Reform; it establishes and sets out the functions of INCORA, one of the most important being to declare which territories will acquire the status of indigenous protection and what extension of existing ones will be allowed. Decree 2164 of 1995 interprets Law 160 of 1994, providing, among other things, a legal definition of indigenous territories.[2]

Indigenous territories in Colombia are mostly in the departments of Amazonas, Cauca, La Guajira, Guaviare, and Vaupés.[1]

History

República de la Gran Colombia

Main article: Subdivisions of Gran Colombia

When it was first established in 1819, República de la Gran Colombia had three departments. Venezuela, Cundinamarca (now Colombia) and Quito (now Ecuador).[3] In 1824, the Distrito del Centro (which became Colombia) was divided into five departments and further divided into seventeen provinces. One department, Istmo Department, consisting of two provinces, later became Panama.[4]

República de la Nueva Granada

With the dissolution of Gran Colombia in 1826 by the Revolution of the Morrocoyes (La Cosiata), New Granada kept its 17 provinces. In 1832 the provinces of Vélez and Barbacoas were created, and in 1835 those of Buenaventura and Pasto were added. In 1843 those of Cauca, Mompós and Túquerres were created. At this time the cantons (cantones) and parish districts were created, which provided the basis for the present-day municipalities.[4][5]

By 1853 the number of provinces had increased to thirty-six, namely:Antioquia, Azuero, Barbacoas, Bogotá, Buenaventura, Cartagena, Casanare, Cauca, Chiriquí, Chocó, Córdova, Cundinamarca, García Rovira, Mariquita, Medellín, Mompós, Neiva, Ocaña, Pamplona, Panamá, Pasto, Popayán, Riohacha, Sabanilla, Santa Marta, Santander, Socorro, Soto, Tequendama, Tunja, Tundama, Túquerres, Valle de Upar, Veraguas, Vélez and Zipaquirá.[5] However, the new constitution of 1853 introduced federalism, which lead to the consolidation of provinces into states. By 1858 this process was complete, with a resulting eight federal states: Panamá was formed in 1855, Antioquia in 1856, Santander in May 1857, and Bolívar, Boyacá, Cauca, Cundinamarca and Magdalena were formed in June 1858. 1861 saw the creation of the final federal state of Tolima.[6]

República de Colombia

The Colombian Constitution of 1886 converted the states of Colombia into departments, with the state presidents renamed as governors. The states formed the following original departments:

• Antioquia Department
• Bolívar Department
• Boyacá Department
• Cauca Department
• Cundinamarca Department
• Magdalena Department
• Panamá Department
• Santander Department
• Tolima Department

Maps gallery

• 
  Departments of Colombia with municipalities
• 
  Map with numbered departments
• 
  Departments of Colombia with names
• 
  Political map of Colombia
• 
  Topography of Colombia, highly variable per department

See also

• ISO 3166-2:CO
• List of Colombian flags
• List of country subdivisions
• List of political and geographic subdivisions by total area
• States of Colombia
• List of Colombian departments by Human Development Index

References

1. "Division Política de Colombia" (in Spanish). Portal ColombiaYA.com. Archived from the original on 10 March 2009.
2. Decree 2164 of 1995 provides "Reserva Indígena. Es un globo de terreno baldío ocupado por una o varias comunidades indígenas que fué delimitado y legalmente asignado por el INCORA a aquellas para que ejerzan en él los derechos de uso y usufructo con exclusión de terceros. Las reservas indígenas constituyen tierras comunales de grupos étnicos, para los fines previstos en el artículo 63 de la Constitución Política y la ley 21 de 1991. […] Territorios Indígenas. Son las áreas poseidas en forma regular y permanente por una comunidad, parcialidad o grupo indígena y aquellas que, aunque no se encuentren poseidas en esa forma, constituyen el ámbito tradicional de sus actividades sociales, económicas y culturales. " Art. 21: "Los resguardos son una institución legal y sociopolítica de carácter especial, conformada por una o más comunidades indígenas, que con un título de propiedad colectiva que goza de las garantías de la propiedad privada, poseen su territorio y se rigen para el manejo de éste y su vida interna por una organización autónoma amparada por el fuero indígena y su sistema normativo propio."
3. Guhl Nannetti, Ernesto (1991). "Capítulo XII: División Política de la Gran Colombia". Las fronteras políticas y los límites naturales: escritos geograficos [Political Boundaries and Their Natural Limits: Geographic writings] (in Spanish). Bogotá: Fondo FEN. ISBN 978-958-9129-22-7.
4. Aguilera Peña, Mario (January 2002). "División política administrativa de Colombia". Credential Historia (in Spanish). Bogotá: Banco de la República. Archived from the original on 16 February 2011.
5. Oficina Nacional de Estadística (Office of National Statistics) (1876). "Estadística de Colombia" [Colombian Statistics] (PDF) (in Spanish). Bogotá: Oficina Nacional de Estadística. Retrieved 23 November 2016.
6. Domínguez, Camilo; Chaparro, Jeffer; Gómez, Carla (2006). "Construcción y deconstrucción territorial del Caribe Colombiano durante el siglo XIX". Scripta Nova (Revista Electrónica de Geografía y Ciencias Sociales). 10 (218 (75)).

External links

• (in French) List of Colombian department governors
• "Departments of Colombia". Statoids.