Cochabamba Department

For other uses, see Cochabamba (disambiguation).

Cochabamba Department Quchapampa suyu
Department
Flag Coat of arms
Nickname(s): "City of Eternal Spring"
Location within Bolivia Location within Bolivia
Country	Bolivia
Established as department by law	1826
Autonomous department by referendum	2009
Capital	Cochabamba
Government
• Governor	Edmundo Novillo Aguilar
Area
• Department	55,631 km2 (21,479 sq mi)
Elevation	2,574 m (8,445 ft)
Population (2012)
• Department	1,758,143
• Urban	608,276
Time zone	BOT (UTC-4)
HDI (2004)	-
ISO 3166-2	BO-C
Website	http://www.cochabamba.bo/

Cochabamba (from Quechua: qucha or qhucha, meaning "lake", pampa meaning "plain" ) is one of the nine component departments of Bolivia. It is known to be the "granary" of the country because of its variety of agricultural products due to Cochabamba's geographical position. It has an area of 55,631 km². Its population, in the 2012 census, was 1,758,143. Its capital is the city of Cochabamba. Cochabamba is known as the "City of Eternal Spring" and "The Garden City" due to its spring-like temperatures year round.

History

The Cochabamba valley was inhabited for over a thousand years due to its fertile productive soils and climate. Archaeological evidence suggests that the initial valley inhabitants were of various ethnic indigenous groups. Tiwanaku, Tupuraya, Mojocoya, Omereque and Inca inhabited the valley at various times before the Spanish arrived.

The first Spanish inhabitant of the Valley was Garci Ruiz de Orellana in 1542. He purchased the majority of the land from local tribal chiefs Achata and Consavana through a title registered in 1552 at the Imperial City of Potosí. The price paid was 130 pesos. His residence, known as the House of Mayorazgo, still stands in the Cala Cala neighbourhood of the city.

The city, called Villa de Oropesa was founded on 2 August 1571 by order of Viceroy Francisco de Toledo, Count of Oropesa. It was to be an agricultural production centre to provide food for the mining towns of the relatively nearby Altiplano region, particularly the city of Potosí which became one of the largest and richest cities in the world during the 17th century – funding the vast wealth that ultimately made Spain a world power at the time. With the silver mining industry in Potosi at its height, Cochabamba thrived during its first centuries of existence. The city entered a period of decline during the 18th century as mining began to wane.

In 1786, King Charles III of Spain renamed the city to the 'loyal and valiant' Villa of Cochabamba. This was done to commend the city's pivotal role in suppressing the indigenous rebellions of 1781 in Oruro by sending armed forces to Oruro to quell the uprisings. Since the late 19th century it has again been generally successful as an agricultural centre for Bolivia.

The 1793 census shows that the city had a population of 22,305 persons. There were 12,980 mestizos, 6,368 Spaniards, 1,182 indigenous natives, 1,600 mulattos and 175 African slaves.

In 2000, Cochabamba was wracked with large-scale protests over the privatisation of the city's water supply. See Cochabamba protests of 2000.

In January 2007 city dwellers clashed with mostly rural protestors, leaving four dead and over 130 injured. The democratically-elected Prefect of Cochabamba, Manfred Reyes Villa, a former military aide to the Luis García Meza dictatorship of the 1980s, had allied himself with the leaders of Bolivia's Eastern Departments in a dispute with President Evo Morales over regional autonomy and other political issues. The protestors blockaded the highways, bridges, and main roads, having days earlier set fire to the departmental seat of government, trying to force the resignation of Reyes Villa. Citizens attacked the protestors, breaking the blockade and routing them, while the police did little to stop the violence. Further attempts by the protestors to reinstate the blockade and threaten the government were unsuccessful, but the underlying tensions have not been resolved.

In July 2007, a monument erected by veterans of January's protest movement in honour of those killed and injured by government supporters was destroyed in the middle of the night, reigniting racial conflicts in the city.

In August 2008, a nationwide referendum was held, and while the president Evo Morales had 67% support in Bolivia, the prefect of Cochabamba, Manfred Reyes Villa, was not confirmed by the voters of the department.

Geography

Cochabamba Department is bordered by Chuquisaca and Potosi Department to the south, Oruro and La Paz Department to the west, Beni Department to the north, and Santa Cruz Department to the east. The borders are formed mainly by rivers, like Ichilo to the east, Rio Grande to the south and Cotacajes to the west.

Government

The chief executive office of Bolivia departments (since May 2010) is the governor; until then, the office was called the prefect, and until 2006 the prefect was appointed by the President of Bolivia. The current governor, Edmundo Novillo Aguilar of the Movement for Socialism – Political Instrument for the Sovereignty of the Peoples was elected on 4 April 2010 and took office 30 May.

Under the 2009 Constitution, Bolivian departments have an elected legislature, the Departmental Legislative Assembly. The Cochabamba Assembly has 34 members including two indigenous representatives.

The most recent election results are as follows:

 Cochabamba departmental election, 2010

Gubernatorial Candidate		Party	Votes for Governor	Percentage	Assembly Members by Territory	Votes for Assembly by Population	Percentage	Assembly Members by Population	Total Assembly Members
	Edmundo Novillo Aguilar	Movement for Socialism	415.245	61,9%	16	360.785	60,7%	11	27
	Marvell José María Leyes Justiniano	National Unity Front-Popular Consensus (All for Cochabamba)	174.175	26,0%	0	147.442	24,8%	4	4
	José Ronald Del Barco Alcocer	Without Fear Movement	52.516	7,8%	0	63.614	10,7%	1	1
	María Casta Jaimes Arriaran	Nationalist Revolutionary Movement	29.250	4,4	0	22.800	3,8%	0	0
	Indigenous Representatives		Elected through usos y costumbres by the Yuqui and Yuracaré peoples						2
		Valid votes	671.186	81,9%		594.641	72,7%
		Blank votes	111.510	13,6		183.077	22,4%
		Null votes	36.905	4,5%		40.713	5,0%
		Total votes	819.601	87,2% of registered voters	16	818.431	87,1% of registered voters	16	34
Source: Corte Nacional Electoral, Acto de Computo Nacional

Past executives

Date Began	Date Ended	Prefect/Governor	Party	Notes
23 Jan 2006	12 Aug 2008	Manfred Reyes Villa	New Republican Force	First elected prefect. Elected in Bolivian general election, December 2005, and removed by the 2008 recall election.
12 Aug 2008	26 Aug 2008	Johnny Gutierrez Ferrel (acting, de facto)
29 Aug 2008	12 Dec 2008	Rafael Puente Calvo (acting)	MAS-IPSP
12 Dec 2008	30 May 2010	Jorge Ledezma Cornejo (interim)	MAS-IPSP	Final prefect
30 May 2010		Edmundo Novillo Aguilar	MAS-IPSP	Elected in regional election on 4 April; first governor
Source: worldstatesmen.org

Provinces

The Department of Cochabamba is divided into 16 provinces (provincias) which are further subdivided into 47 municipalities (municipios) and – on the fourth level – into 144 cantons.

The provinces with their capitals and population according to census 2012 are listed as follow:

Province	Capital	Area (km²)	Population (2012 census)	250px
Arani	Arani	506	18,444
Arque	Arque	1.077	20,630
Ayopaya	Ayopaya	9.620	54,408
Bolívar	Bolívar	413	7,279
Capinota	Capinota	1.495	29,659
Carrasco	Totora	15.045	135,097
Cercado	Cochabamba	391	630,587
Chapare	Sacaba	12.445	262,845
Esteban Arce	Tarata	1.245	37,152
Germán Jordán	Cliza	305	34,342
Mizque	Mizque	2.730	35,586
Narciso Campero	Aiquile	5.550	35,763
Punata	Punata	850	54,409
Quillacollo	Quillacollo	720	335,393
Tapacarí	Tapacarí	1.500	24,595
Tiraque	Tiraque	1.739	41.954

Languages

The languages spoken in the Cochabamba Department are mainly Spanish and Quechua. The following table shows the number of those belonging to the recognised group of speakers.

Language	Department	Bolivia
Quechua	872,010	2,281,198
Aymara	84,921	1,525,321
Guaraní	1,379	62,575
Another native	3,351	49,432
Spanish	1,101,822	6,821,626
Foreign	40,579	250,754
Only native	269,588	960,491
Native and Spanish	648,195	2,739,407
Spanish and foreign	454,273	4,115,751

Population and Demographics

Description	Department 1976	Department 1992	Department 2001	Department 2012
Inhabitants	720.952	1.110.205	1.455.711	1.758.143
Rural	-	-	41 %	-
Urban	-	-	59 %	-
Total fertility rate	-		4.00
Infant mortality	-		72.00
Annualized decade growth rate	-	3.46	2.93	1.68
Net migration rate	-	-	2.40	-

Economy

The Cochabamba economy is based mainly in services, but recently it is experiencing some diversification in manufacturing, agriculture and tourism. The geographic location of Cochabamba makes it the main routes of transport joining the two main cities, the host government La Paz and the industrial hub Santa Cruz. Therefore, many cervices i.e. transport, banking, telecommunication, gastronomy, are economically important in the corridor La Paz – Santa Cruz. Extraction of oil was very important for the economy in the past; especially in Chapare where the wells are located. By 2013 many of the exploited wells were showing signs of depletion. Thus, investment is needed to find new productive wells. Once called “the basket grain of Bolivia” today Cochabamba produces just a portion of the agriculture output of the country. Overpopulation in the productive valleys and “minifundio” doomed the once competitive production. Nevertheless, Cochabamba is still important in poultry, dairy, tropical fruits, potatoes, among others. Recently, Cochabamba experiences some improvement in manufacturing and industry. The cement mill of COBOCE located in Capinota almost triples the production tapering the strong demand. The roads to the industrial park and other facilities of the park were improved making it more competitive for the local and new industries. Also, it is worth to mention the almost 1b USD government investment in the petro chemistry (urea plant) located in Bulo Bulo.

Places of interest

• Carrasco National Park
• Tunari National Park
• Isiboro Sécure National Park and Indigenous Territory
• Inkallaqta
• Inkachaka
• Inka Raqay
• Quillacollo
• Villa Tunari
• Laguna La Angostura
• Payrumani: The Payrumani estate about 20 km from the city of Cochabamba comprises Villa Albina, a landed estate which was property of the Bolivian industrialist Simón I. Patiño, built between 1925 and 1932, a model farm and seed centre and a Centre for Phytoecogenetic Research. The palace of Payrumani was declared Bolivian National Monument in 1967.

See also

• Ismael Montes Teacher Training College

External links

• Cochabamba Travel Guide
• Weather in Cochabamba
• Bolivian Music and Web Varieties
• Pictures: Coca cultivation in the Cochabamba Tropic
• [1]
• Full information of Cochabamba Department