Putumayo Department

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Department of Putumayo
Departamento del Putumayo

Department of Colombia
Flag of the Department of Putumayo Coat of arms of the Department of Putumayo
Putumayo shown in red
Established	1991
Region	Amazonía Region
Capital	Mocoa
Number of Municipalities	13
Governor - Governor's Political Party	Felipe Alfonso Guzmán (2008-) ?
Area Total  - Land  - Water  (% of total)	Ranked 16 24,885 km² km² km² (%)
Population  - Total (2005)  - Density	Ranked 25 299,286[1] 15/km²
ISO code	CO-NAR
Government's Website: www.putumayo.gov.co

Putumayo is a department of Colombia. It is in the south-west of the country, bordering Ecuador and Peru. Its capital is Mocoa.

The word putumayo comes from the Quechua language. The verb putuy means "to spring forth" or "to burst out", and mayo is a variant of mayu, meaning river. Thus it means "gushing river".

Municipalities

1. Colón
2. Mocoa
3. Orito
4. Puerto Asís
5. Puerto Caicedo
6. Puerto Guzmán
7. Puerto Leguízamo
8. San Francisco
9. San Miguel
10. Santiago
11. Sibundoy
12. Valle del Guamez
13. Villa Garzón

History

Originally, the south west of the department was territory of the Cofán Indians, the north west of the Kamentxá Indians, and the center and south belong to tribes that spoke Tukano languages (such as the Siona), and the east to tribes that spoke Witoto languages. Part of the Kamentxá territory was conquered by the Inca Huayna Cápac in 1492, who after crossing the Cofán territory, established a Quechua population on the valley of Sibundoy, that is known today as Ingas. After the Inca defeat in 1533, the region was invaded by the Spanish in 1542 and since 1547 administered by catholic missions.

The current territory of Putumayo was linked to Popayan during the Spanish Colony and on the firsts Republican decades belonged to the huge "Department of Asuay, that included territories in Ecuador and Perú. Later starts a ling process of territorial redistributions:

• 1831: Province of Popayán.
• 1857: Estado Federal del Cauca.
• 1886: Departament of Cauca.
• 1905: Intendencia del Putumayo.
• 1909: Intendencia del Caquetá.
• 1912: Comisaría Especial del Putumayo.
• 1953: Departament of Nariño.
• 1957: Comisaría Especial del Putumayo.
• 1968: Intendencia Especial del Putumayo.
• 1991: Departament of Putumayo.

A dark chapter in the history of Putumayo was the "Caucho Fever", unleashed on the end of the XIX century until the XX century. During this period, the Casa Arana slaved and killed thousands of natives from the Amazonia, these were used to extract the caucho. Nowadays exist, however, a few native communities that withstood the Spanish Colony, the Caucho exploitation, the recent Oil extraction and the modern colonization.

References

External links

• (Spanish) Government of Putumayo official website
• (Spanish) Territorial-Environmental Information System of Colombian Amazon SIAT-AC website

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