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Chuquisaca (; ; ; ) is a department of Bolivia located in the center south. It borders on the departments of Cochabamba, Tarija, Potosí, and Santa Cruz. The departmental capital is Sucre, which is also the constitutional capital of Bolivia.

Geography

The department is traversed by the main cordillera of the Andes mountain range and lesser cordilleras. Parts of it lay within the basin of the Amazon River, and other parts within the basin of the Río de La Plata. The surface area of the department is 51,524 square kilometers. The topography of central Chuquisaca consists of a series of ridges rising up to 1500 m that run north and south with flat valleys between the ridges. To the west of these ridges abruptly rise the Andes Mountains to 3000 m forming a prepuna landmass that is cut into by large river valleys that drain into the Amazon or Rio de la Plata river basins. To the east of the central ridges lies a stretch of territory containing low elevation flat Chaco topography. 90% of the land in the department of Chuquisaca has an inclination of 70% or more.

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|1976 |358,516

|1992 |453,756

|2001 |531,522

|2012 |581,347

|2024 |600,132

Ecological and vegetation zones

thumb|right|upright=1.1|alt=Map of Chuquisaca showing tree-cover loss years, with forest remaining since 2000 in green and loss years shaded yellow through purple.|Tree-cover loss year in Chuquisaca, 2001-2024, from the [[Global Forest Change dataset.]]

Ecological and vegetation zones in the department of Chuquisaca vary widely according to a diversity of abiotic factors including soil formation and textures, rainfall patterns, and mineral and salinity content of water. Elevation plays an important role in the dispersion of vegetation species and wider ecosystems as they respond to microclimates. As the Andes Mountains became uplifted, plants adapted to dryer and higher microclimates resulting in a high level of speciation especially in the dry forest river valleys of the Bolivian-Tucuman formation. colder and drier air from more austral parts of South America have resulted in migration of plant communities with a floristic connection to those in Argentina, Paraguay and Southern Brazil as opposed to more tropical plant communities that result from warm and moist northern climates. and identified 39 separate vegetation zones in Bolivia within twelve general physiographic-biogeographical units of which four fall in the boundaries of Chuquisaca Department including: Cordillera Oriental Central y Meridional, Prepuna or High Interandean Valleys, Bolivian-Tucuman Formation, and Chaco. Using Navarro and Ferreira's categories and descriptions based on vegetation zones, the geographical and ecological characteristics of the Chuquisaca Department can be described as follows.

Cordillera Oriental Central y Meridional. From an elevation of 3200m in Chuquisaca to nearly 6000 meters in Potosi, this zone is characterized by the puna, altoandean, and subnival and nival ecological zones with a pluviestacional subhumid bioclimate. humans are a part of the ecology of Chuquisaca. The grazing of cattle and introduction of invasive feral citrus trees has affected the native plant populations in the department.

Government

Executive offices

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, Damián Condori Herrera, member of the CST, was elected on 7 March 2021.

{| class="wikitable" style="font-size: 95%"

|-

! Took office

! Office expired

! Prefect/Governor

! Party

! Notes

|-

| 23 Jan 2006

| 30 Aug 2007

| David Sánchez Heredia

| MAS-IPSP

| First elected prefect. Elected in Bolivian general election, December 2005; Resigns temporarily amid city-countryside tensions.

|-

| 30 Aug 2007

| 20 Sep 2007

| Adrián Valeriano (acting)

| MAS-IPSP

|

|-

| 20 Sep 2007

| 18 Dec 2007

| David Sanchez Heredia

| MAS-IPSP

| Fled the department (24 Nov), and later the country (4 Dec), following the deaths of three civic movement protesters during a disputed session of the Bolivian Constituent Assembly. Resigned in exile. The current executive committee, elected on 28 April 2022, consists of Santos Ricardo Carnicel Serrano as president, Evert Cruz Quiroga as first vice-president, Janeth Rocio Blanco Martínez as second vice-president, Juan Cuellar as first secretary and Anastacio Flores Pinto as second secretary.

Provinces

The department is divided into 10 provinces which are further subdivided into municipalities and cantons.

{|class="sortable wikitable"

!Name

!Population <br> (2012 census)

!Area km<sup>2</sup>

!Capital

!rowspan=11 class="unsortable"|center|250px

|-

|Oropeza

|286,140

|3.943

|Sucre

|1

|-

|Azurduy

|23,872

|4,185

|Azurduy

|6

|-

|Zudáñez

|39,992

|3,738

|Presto

|3

|-

|Tomina

|35,192

|3,947

|Padilla

|5

|-

|Hernando Siles

|32,398

|5,473

|Monteagudo

|9

|-

|Yamparáez

|26,577

|1,472

|Tarabuco

|2

|-

|Nor Cinti

|76,477

|7,983

|Camargo

|7

|-

|Sud Cinti

|25,207

|5,484

|Villa Abecia

|8

|-

|Belisario Boeto

|11,159

|2,000

|Villa Serrano

|4

|-

|Luis Calvo

|19,139

|13,299

|Villa Vaca Guzmán (Muyupampa)

|10

|-

|}

History

The native inhabitants were the Charcas, who were dispersed along riverbanks and lowlands. Their leaders, jampiris, sorcerers, and priests resided in the capital, Choque-Chaca, which according to 17th century chronicles had a population of several thousand.

The eastern lowlands of the department, where the autonomous Ava Guarani resided, started a gradual but forcefull incorporation to the Bolivian state in the 1850s. The non-indigenous settlement in eastern Chuquisaca was motivated by an expansion of cattle ranching leading contributing to the conflict between settlers and the maize-farming Ava Guaraní to assume aspects of a farmer–herder conflict. A major Ava Guaraní uprising took place in 1874 and a final military defeat came in 1892. Aniceto Arce and other wealthy Bolivians gained control of lands of the defeated Ava Guaraní in the late 19th century establsining large cattle farming operations. Much of the cattle raised in eastern Chuquisaca was exported to Salta in Argentina and then across the Andes to the saltpeter works in Chile's Atacama Desert. Given the massivity of the cattle estates established Franciscan friar Angélico Martarelli argued around 1890 that the Chiriguano lands had been colonized by cattle rather than by settlers.

Sucre

Sucre (elev. 2750 m) is called the city of the four names, each name corresponding to a different period of its history. It was founded by the Spaniard Pedro de Anzures in 1538. It thrived due to its regional proximity to the famous silver mines of Potosi, and as Charcas served as capital of the Real Audiencia de Charcas, encompassing all of current Bolivia's territory and more. Reverting to its native name of Chuquisaca, it was the Upper Peru's chief administrative center and largest city. It was there that the first public call for independence from Spain took place, on May 25, 1809, and where the Act of Independence from Spanish rule was signed on August 6, 1825. It was immediately designated the capital of independent Bolivia, under the auspices of Simon Bolivar and Antonio Jose de Sucre. Years later, the city of Chuquisaca was renamed Sucre in honor of the Venezuelan-born hero of South America's independence, who had served as the first effective administrator of the country (and second president).

When the center of political and economic power shifted north, to the tin-producing regions of Oruro and La Paz, Sucre's importance waned, leading to the displacement of the legislative and executive powers to La Paz. However, in honor of Sucre's historical preponderance, the judicial branch (Supreme Court) continues to operate there, and the city's official status as capital of the country was never revoked.

Languages

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

{| class="wikitable" style="width:30%;"

! Language

! Department

! Bolivia

|-

|Quechua

| align="right" |298,050

|align="right" |2,281,198

|-

|Aymara

|align="right" |4,308

|align="right" |1,525,321

|-

|Guaraní

|align="right" |8,330

|align="right" |62,575

|-

|Another native

|align="right" |145

|align="right" |49,432

|-

|Spanish

|align="right" |376,071

|align="right" |6,821,626

|-

|Foreign

|align="right" |8,840

|align="right" |250,754

|-

|Only native

|align="right" |122,401

|align="right" |960,491

|-

|Native and Spanish

|align="right" |185,598

|align="right" |2,739,407

|-

|Spanish and foreign

|align="right" |190,599

|align="right" |4,115,751

|-

|}

Places of interest

  • El Palmar Integrated Management Natural Area

Villages and towns

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<!---♦♦♦ Please keep the list in alphabetical order ♦♦♦--->

  • Alcalá, Tomina
  • Redención Pampa

Notable people

  • Isabel Calvimontes (1790-1855), one of the Patricias Argentinas
  • María Guadalupe Cuenca (1790-1854), 19th-century letter writer

See also

  • Provinces of Bolivia
  • Oroncota, Yampara settlement and Inca fortress

References

;Bibliography

  • Chuquisaca Travel Guide
  • Weather in Chuquisaca
  • Bolivian Music and Web Varieties
  • Full information of Chuquisaca Department