Puerto Carreño () is the departmental capital, and a

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the ...

, of the department of Vichada in the

Llanos The Llanos ( Spanish ''Los Llanos'', "The Plains"; ) is a vast tropical grassland plain situated to the east of the Andes in Colombia and Venezuela, in northwestern South America. It is an ecoregion of the tropical and subtropical grassla ...

Colombia Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the ...

History

In 1913 the Colombian government created the province (comisaria) of Vichada and it was decided that its capital should be at the convergence of the

Orinoco The Orinoco () is one of the longest rivers in South America at . Its drainage basin, sometimes known as the Orinoquia, covers , with 76.3 percent of it in Venezuela and the remainder in Colombia. It is the fourth largest river in the wor ...

and

Meta Meta (from the Greek μετά, '' meta'', meaning "after" or "beyond") is a prefix meaning "more comprehensive" or "transcending". In modern nomenclature, ''meta''- can also serve as a prefix meaning self-referential, as a field of study or end ...

rivers where there was a small village known locally as El Picacho. In 1934 the town was renamed after Pedro Maria Carreño, the Colombian Minister of External Relations from 1912 to 1913. The "municipio" (similar to county in the U.S.) was created in 1974. On July 5, 1991, Vichada's status was updated to "departamento" under the Colombian Constitution and Puerto Carreño was ratified as its capital. The DANE (Colombian government's bureau for statistics) projected Puerto Carreño's municipal population to be around 10,034 for 2005, based on the 1993 Census. There are some Indigenous tribes within Puerto Carreño's administrative zone as well.

Geography

The municipality of Puerto Carreño is located on the extreme northeastern part of the Department of Vichada bordering to the north and east with the

Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...

using the

and Orinoco rivers as borders. To the south Puerto Carreño limits with the municipality of

Cumaribo Cumaribo is a town and municipality located in the Department of Vichada, Republic of Colombia. Cumaribo was founded by Jose Nicolino Mattar in 1959. In 2005 the municipality had an estimated total population of 28,718 inhabitants, 4,312 of th ...

and to the west with the municipality of La Primavera. Puerto Carreño: Geography
The area of the municipality is uniformly flat, although there is a very slight rise at the town which gave it its original name. The climate is hot and humid, averaging a temperature of with a heavy rain season from April through October. The area of the municipality is within the

llanos The Llanos ( Spanish ''Los Llanos'', "The Plains"; ) is a vast tropical grassland plain situated to the east of the Andes in Colombia and Venezuela, in northwestern South America. It is an ecoregion of the tropical and subtropical grassla ...

plains which cover large areas in Colombia and Venezuela. Geologically the municipality of Puerto Carreño lies on the

Guiana Shield The Guiana Shield (french: Plateau des Guyanes, Bouclier guyanais; nl, Hoogland van Guyana, Guianaschild; pt, Planalto das Guianas, Escudo das Guianas; es, Escudo guayanés) is one of the three cratons of the South American Plate. It is a ...

mostly made up by

Cenozoic The Cenozoic ( ; ) is Earth's current geological era, representing the last 66million years of Earth's history. It is characterised by the dominance of mammals, birds and flowering plants, a cooling and drying climate, and the current configu ...

and Precambric formations, with some low altitude mountains such as the Mounts of Casuarito and the Hormiga and Guaripa mountains.

Climate

Puerto Carreño has a

tropical monsoon climate An area of tropical monsoon climate (occasionally known as a sub-equatorial, tropical wet climate or a tropical monsoon and trade-wind littoral climate) is a tropical climate sub-type that corresponds to the Köppen climate classification category ...

( Köppen ''Am'') with a hot to sweltering

dry season The dry season is a yearly period of low rainfall, especially in the tropics. The weather in the tropics is dominated by the tropical rain belt, which moves from the northern to the southern tropics and back over the course of the year. The ...

from December to March, and a hot and very humid

wet season The wet season (sometimes called the Rainy season) is the time of year when most of a region's average annual rainfall occurs. It is the time of year where the majority of a country's or region's annual precipitation occurs. Generally, the sea ...

from April to November.

Economy

Economic activity is based on agricultural and ranching activities, fishing, and mining. There is some international trading activity with

Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...

n towns across the

Orinoco River The Orinoco () is one of the longest rivers in South America at . Its drainage basin, sometimes known as the Orinoquia, covers , with 76.3 percent of it in Venezuela and the remainder in Colombia. It is the fourth largest river in the wor ...

international border: Puerto Carreño often trades commercially with the neighbouring town of

Puerto Páez Puerto, a Spanish word meaning ''seaport'', may refer to: Places *El Puerto de Santa María, Andalusia, Spain *Puerto, a seaport town in Cagayan de Oro City, Philippines *Puerto Colombia, Colombia *Puerto Cumarebo, Venezuela *Puerto Galera, Orient ...

. Puerto Carreño: Economy
Main products of the region are

rice Rice is the seed of the grass species '' Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice) or less commonly ''Oryza glaberrima'' (African rice). The name wild rice is usually used for species of the genera '' Zizania'' and '' Porteresia'', both wild and domesticat ...

yuca ''Manihot esculenta'', commonly called cassava (), manioc, or yuca (among numerous regional names), is a woody shrub of the spurge family, Euphorbiaceae, native to South America. Although a perennial plant, cassava is extensively cultivated ...

and plantain.

Artisan fishing Artisanal fishing (or traditional/subsistence fishing) consists of various small-scale, low-technology, low-capital, fishing practices undertaken by individual fishing households (as opposed to commercial fishing). Many of these households are ...

is practiced on ranches. There are

gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile ...

and

silver Silver is a chemical element with the symbol Ag (from the Latin ', derived from the Proto-Indo-European ''h₂erǵ'': "shiny" or "white") and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it exhibits the highest electrical ...

mines, exploited in a rudimentary way.

References

External links

*
Puerto Carreño official town (alcaldia) website
*
Puerto Carreño official municipality website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Puerto Carreno Municipalities of Vichada Department Colombia–Venezuela border crossings Capitals of Colombian departments