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Department of Chocó Departamento del Chocó
Department
Flag Coat of arms
Chocó shown in red
Topography of the department
Coordinates: 5°42′N 76°40′W / 5.700°N 76.667°W / 5.700; -76.667Coordinates: 5°42′N 76°40′W / 5.700°N 76.667°W / 5.700; -76.667
Country	Colombia
Region	Pacific Region
Established	November 3, 1947
Capital	Quibdó
Government
• Governor	Jhoany Carlos Alberto Palacios Mosquera(2016-2019)
Area [1][2]
• Total	46,530 km2 (17,970 sq mi)
Area rank	9th
Population (2013)[3]
• Total	490,327
• Rank	23rd
• Density	11/km2 (27/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC-05
ISO 3166 code	CO-CHO
Municipalities	30
HDI (2017)	0.673[4] medium · 30th

Chocó Department (Spanish pronunciation: [tʃoˈko], Spanish: Departamento del Chocó) is a department of Colombia known for its large Afro-Colombian population. It is in the west of the country, and is the only Colombian department to have coastlines on both the Pacific Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean. It contains all of Colombia's border with Panama. Its capital is Quibdó.

Chocó has a diverse geography, unique ecosystems and unexploited natural resources. However, its population has one of the lowest standards of living of all Departments in Colombia. In March 2007 Colombian media reported that some 50 children starved in less than three months, creating awareness of the grave condition Chocó inhabitants are facing. Infrastructure problems were also revealed. For example, despite its status as the world's rainiest lowland, with close to 400 inches (10,000 mm) of annual precipitation,^[5] Chocó's capital Quibdó was left without drinking water.^[6]

Map of the Darién Gap and the break in the Pan-American Highway between Yaviza, Panama and Turbo, Colombia

History

The Department was created in 1944 being speaker at House of Representatives Pedro Yances Salcedo, but it was never legally established.^[6] Due to its low population, inhospitable topography, and distance from Bogotá, Chocó has received little attention from the Colombian government. During the government of military dictator Gustavo Rojas Pinilla Chocó was to be eliminated as a department and divided between Antioquia department and Valle del Cauca department, but Pinilla's intentions were thwarted by the 1957 coup d'état of General Gabriel París Gordillo.

Geography

The Chocó Department is covered mostly by the Baudó Mountains.

The Chocó Department makes up most of the ecoregion known as El Chocó that extends from Panama to Ecuador.

The municipality of Lloró holds the Highest Average Annual Precipitation record measured at 523.6 inches (13,300 mm) which makes it the wettest place in the world.^[7] Three large rivers drain the Chocó Department, the Atrato, the San Juan and the Baudó, and each has many tributaries. The Baudó Mountains on the coast and the Cordillera Occidental are cut by low valleys with an altitude less than 1,000 meters that form most of the territory. Most of the Chocó is thick rainforest. Much of Colombia's internal consumption of wood come from the Chocó, with a small percentage harvested for export.
Choco Department produces the majority of Colombia significant platinum output (28,359 ounces of platinum in 2011). Choco is also Colombia top gold-producing region (653,625 ounces in 2011).

Demographics

Chocó is inhabited predominantly by descendants of African slaves brought by the Spanish colonizers after conquering the Americas. The second race/ethnic group are the Emberá, the remaining Native American people, with more than half of their total population in Colombia living in Chocó, some 35,500. They practice hunting and artisan fishing and live near rivers.^[8]

The total population as of 2005 was less than half a million, with more than half living in the Quibdó valley.
According to a 2005 census^[9] the ethnic composition of the department is:

• 
  Afro-Colombians (82.1%)


• 
  Amerindians or Indigenes (12.7)


• 
  Whites and Mestizos (5.2%)

Towns and municipalities

Quibdó is the largest city with a population of almost 100,000. Other important cities and towns include Istmina, Condoto, Nóvita and El Carmen in the interior, Acandí on the Caribbean coast, and Solano on the Pacific coast. Resorts include Capurganá on the Caribbean coast, and Jurado, Nuquí, and Bahía Solano on the west coast.

Municipalities

See also

• Bojayá massacre

Notes

References

• 
  (in Spanish) todacolombia.com - Chocó Department
  

External links

• 
  VisitChoco.com Choco Department Tourism and Trip Planning website (English and Spanish)


• 
  Mosquera-Machados, Silvia del Carmen (2002) "Cadre général du département du Choco" in Analyse multi-aléas et risques naturels dans le département du Chocó (nord-ouest de la Colombie) Université de Genève, Geneva in French


• 
  "Mision de Observacion a la Situación de las Comunidades Afrodescendientes en Colombia: Anexo 1" in Spanish;


• 
  Choco 7 dias - local newspaper founded by Elacio Murillo, former member of the Choco state assembly who was assassinated by gunmen on January 12, 2007.


• 
  Alternative Development, Economic Interests and Paramilitaries in Uraba, TNI Drug Policy Briefing No 27, September 2008 by Moritz Tenthoff