Chaco Province

Chaco
Province of Argentina
Flag Coat of arms
Location of Chaco within Argentina Location of Chaco within Argentina
Country	Argentina
Official Languages	Spanish, Kom, Moqoit and Wichí
Capital and largest city	Resistencia
Government
• Governor	Domingo Peppo (PJ)
• Deputies	7
• Senators	3
Area Ranked 12th
• Total	99,633 km2 (38,469 sq mi)
Population (2010)
• Total	1,055,259
• Rank	10th
• Density	11/km2 (27/sq mi)
Demonym(s)	Chacoan, chaqueño
Time zone	ART (UTC−3)
ISO 3166 code	AR-H
Website	www.chaco.gov.ar

The Province of Chaco (Spanish: provincia del Chaco, Spanish pronunciation: [ˈtʃako]) is a province in north-eastern Argentina.

It is bordered by Salta and Santiago del Estero to the west, Formosa to the north, Corrientes to the east, and Santa Fe to the south. It also has an international border with the Paraguayan Department of Ñeembucú. The capital, and largest city, is Resistencia.

With an area of 99,633 km² (38,469 sq mi), and a population of 1,055,259 as of 2010, it is the twelfth most extensive, and the ninth most populated, of the twenty-three Argentine provinces.

Chaco Province has historically been among Argentina's poorest regions, and presently ranks last by per capita GDP among its provinces, and occupies the twenty-first place on the Human Development Index, though it is above neighbours Formosa and Santiago del Estero.

Etymological derivation of Chaco

Chaco derives from chacú, the Quechua word used to name a hunting territory or the hunting technique used by the people of the Inca Empire.

Annually, large groups of up to thirty thousand hunters would enter the territory, forming columns and circling their prey. Jesuit missioner Pedro Lozano wrote in his book Chorographic Description of the Great Chaco Gualamba, published in Cordoba, Spain in 1733: "Its etymology indicates the multitude of nations that inhabit that region. When they go hunting, the Indians gather from many parts the vicuñas and guanacos; that crowd is called chacu in the Quechua language, which is common in Peru, and that Spaniards have corrupted into Chaco".

However, the earliest known mention of the term in a document was in a letter written to Fernando Torres de Portugal y Mesía, Viceroy of Peru, dated in 1589, by the then Governor of Tucumán, Juan Ramírez de Velasco, who referred to the region as Chaco Gualamba. (The term Gualamba is of uncertain origin and has since fallen into disuse.)

Geography

File:Muelle sobre laguna próxima al río Paraná, cerca de Resistencia, Chaco.jpg

Dock on a southeastern wetlands close to Paraná River

The province of Chaco lies within the southern part of the Gran Chaco region, a vast lowland plain that covers territories in Argentina, Paraguay, and Bolivia.

Chaco Province covers an area of 99,633 km² (38,469 sq mi) and ranks as the twelfth largest Argentinian province. The highest ground in the province is also the most western, near the municipality of Taco Pozo, at an elevation of 272 m (892 ft) above sea level.

The Paraná and Paraguay rivers separate Chaco province from Corrientes Province and the Republic of Paraguay. To the north, the river Bermejo forms another natural border, dividing Chaco Province from Formosa Province.

In the south, the border follows the 28th parallel south, separating the region from Santa Fe Province, while in the west it borders Salta and Santiago del Estero.

Other important rivers include: the Negro, Tapenagá, Palometa, and Salado, all tributaries or anabranches of the river Paraná.

History

File:Vista general de La Sabana en 1899.jpg

La Sabana and its new railway station in 1899

File:Police Museum and first government house in Resistencia, Chaco.jpg

Territorial Governor's House

The area was originally inhabited by various hunter-gatherers speaking languages from the Mataco-Guaicru family. Native tribes including the Toba, and Wichí survive in the region and have important communities in this province as well as in Formosa Province.

In 1576, the governor of a province in Northern Argentina commissioned the military to search for a huge mass of iron, which he had heard that natives used for their weapons. The natives called the area Heavenly Fields, which was translated into Spanish as Campo del Cielo. This area is now a protected region situated on the border between the provinces of Chaco and Santiago del Estero where a group of iron meteorites fell in a Holocene impact event some four to five thousand years ago. In 2015, Police arrested four alleged smugglers trying to steal over a ton of legally protected meteoric iron.

The first European settlement was founded by Spanish conquistador Alonso de Vera y Aragón, in 1585, and was called Concepción de Nuestra Señora. It was abandoned in 1632. During its existence, it was one of the most important cities in the region, but attacks from local Indians forced the residents to leave. In the 17th century, the San Fernando del Río Negro Jesuit mission was founded in the area of the modern-day city of Resistencia, but it was abandoned fifteen years later.

The Gran Chaco region remained largely unexplored, and uninhabited, by either Europeans or Argentines until the late 19th century, after numerous confrontations between Argentina and Paraguay during the War of the Triple Alliance. San Fernando was re-established as a military outpost, and was renamed Resistencia in 1876.

The Territorio Nacional del Gran Chaco was established in 1872. This territory, which included the current Formosa Province and lands presently inside Paraguay, was superseded by Territorio Nacional del Chaco upon its administrative division, in 1884.

20th century

File:Chaco Province Government House seen from Marcelo T. de Alvear and Mitre streets.JPG

The Provincial Government House. Designed in 1955, political disputes delayed its completion until 1972.

Between the end of the nineteenth and the first decades of the twentieth centuries, the province received a variety of immigrants, among them Volga Germans and Mennonites from Russia, Germany, and Canada. They, alongside other immigrants, transformed Chaco into a productive farming region known for its dairy and beef production.

Political Structure

In 1951 the territory became a province, and its name was changed to Provincia Presidente Perón. The province was renamed again in 1955 when the government of President Juan Perón was overthrown, returning to the historical name of Chaco. Chaco voters, however, continued to support Peronist candidates in subsequent elections, notably Deolindo Bittel whose three terms as governor in the 1960s and 1970s were each cut short by military intervention. Bitell subsequently ran for vice-president in the 1983 Argentine Presidential elections and later served as mayor of the provincial capital, Resistencia.

Infrastructure

With few paved highways, and thus an overdependence on passenger rail services, Chaco was adversely impacted by the national rail privatizations and line closures of the early 1990s. In 1997, the services that had been previously run by the state-owned company Ferrocarriles Argentinos since railway nationalization in 1948, were taken over by the Servicios Ferroviarios del Chaco S.A. (SEFECHA) (Chaco Railway Services), making SEFECHA, at the time, the only publicly owned commuter rail service in Argentina. SEFECHA currently carries nearly a million passengers a year and has contributed to the province's vigorous recovery from the 2002 crisis.

Poverty

Chaco Province continues to suffer from the worst social indicators in the country with 49.3% of its population living below the poverty line by income and with 17.5% of children between the ages of two and five in a state of malnutrition. Among Argentine provinces, it ranks last by GDP per capita and 21st by Human Development Index, above its neighbors Formosa and Santiago del Estero.

Official languages

In 2010, Chaco became the second province in Argentina to declare indigenous languages official within the province, after Corrientes. Three local languages gained official status in Chaco besides Spanish: Kom, Moqoit, and Wichí.

Economy

Chaco's economy, like most in the region, is relatively underdeveloped, yet has recovered vigorously since 2002. It was estimated to be US$4.397 billion in 2006, or US$4,467 per capita (half the national average and the third-lowest in Argentina). Chaco's economy is diversified, but its agricultural sector has suffered from recurrent droughts over the past decade.

File:Fábrica de tanino en Puerto Tirol.jpg

Tannin factory in Puerto Tirol.

Agricultural development in Chaco is predominantly associated with the commercial growing of quebracho wood and cotton. Chaco currently produces 60% of Argentina's national cotton production. Agricultural food production accounts for 17% of Argentina's output. This includes crops such as soy, sorghum, and maize. Sugarcane is also cultivated in the south, as well as rice and tobacco to a lesser degree.

Cattle breeds consisting of crosses with zebu are regarded as better adapted to the high temperatures, grass shortage and occasional flooding than intensively reared pure-breeds.

Industrial contributes approximately 10% to the provincial economy and includes textiles produced from local cotton, oil and coal production, and sugar, alcohol and paper, all derived from sugar cane.

Chaco is home to the Chaco National Park, but tourism is not a well-developed industry in the province. The province's main airport, Resistencia International Airport, serves around 100,000 passengers annually.

Political organization

The province is divided into 25 departments (Spanish: departamentos).

Department	Seat	Area (km2)	Population (2010)	Population (2001)	Density (2010)
Almirante Brown	Pampa del Infierno	17,276	34,075	29,086	1.97
Bermejo	La Leonesa	2,562	25,052	24,215	9.77
Chacabuco	Charata	1,378	30,590	27,813	22.19
Comandante Fernández	Presidencia Roque Sáenz Peña	1,500	96,944	88,164	64.63
12 de Octubre	General Pinedo	2,576	22,281	20,149	8.65
2 de Abril	Hermoso Campo	1,594	7,432	7,435	4.66
Fray Justo Santa María del Oro	Santa Sylvina	2,205	11,826	10,485	5.36
General Belgrano	Corzuela	1,218	11,988	10,470	9.84
General Donovan	Makallé	1,487	13,490	13,385	9.07
General Güemes	Juan José Castelli	25,487	67,132	62,227	2.63
Independencia	Campo Largo	1,871	22,411	20,620	11.98
Libertad	Puerto Tirol	1,088	12,158	10,822	11.17
Libertador General San Martín	General José de San Martín	7,800	59,147	54,470	7.58
Maipú	Tres Isletas	2,855	25,288	24,747	8.85
Mayor Luis J. Fontana	Villa Ángela	3,708	55,080	53,550	14.85
9 de Julio	Las Breñas	2,097	28,555	26,955	13.61
O'Higgins	San Bernardo	1,580	20,131	19,231	12.74
Presidencia de la Plaza	Presidencia de la Plaza	2,284	12,499	12,231	5.47
Primero de Mayo	Margarita Belén	1,864	10,322	9,131	5.53
Quitilipi	Quitilipi	1,545	34,081	32,083	22.05
San Fernando	Resistencia	3,489	390,874	365,637	112.03
San Lorenzo	Villa Berthet	2,135	14,702	14,252	6.88
Sargento Cabral	Colonia Elisa	1,651	15,899	15,030	9.63
Tapenagá	Charadai	6,025	4,097	4,188	0.68
25 de Mayo	Machagai	2,358	29,215	28,070	12.39

See also

• Napalpí massacre
• Campo del Cielo

External links

• Official website (Spanish)
• Pictures of Chaco