Ayacucho (), known as Huamanga from its creation in 1822 until 1825, is a department and region of

Peru Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the south and west by the Pac ...

, located in the south-central

Andes The Andes ( ), Andes Mountains or Andean Mountain Range (; ) are the List of longest mountain chains on Earth, longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range ...

of the country. Its capital is the city of

Ayacucho Ayacucho (, , derived from the words ''aya'' ("death" or "soul") and ''k'uchu'' ("corner") in honour of the battle of Ayacucho), founded in 1540 as San Juan de la Frontera de Huamanga and known simply as Huamanga (Quechua: Wamanga) until 1825, i ...

. The region was one of the hardest hit in the 1980s during the

guerrilla war Guerrilla warfare is a form of unconventional warfare in which small groups of irregular military, such as rebels, partisans, paramilitary personnel or armed civilians, which may include recruited children, use ambushes, sabotage, terrorism ...

waged by

Shining Path The Shining Path (, SL), self-named the Communist Party of Peru (, abbr. PCP), is a far-left political party and guerrilla group in Peru, following Marxism–Leninism–Maoism and Gonzalo Thought. Academics often refer to the group as the ...

known as the

internal conflict in Peru The internal conflict in Peru is an armed conflict between the Government of Peru and the Maoist guerrilla group Shining Path. The conflict's main phase began on 17 May 1980 and ended in December 2000. From 1982 to 1997 the Túpac Amaru Rev ...

. A

referendum A referendum, plebiscite, or ballot measure is a Direct democracy, direct vote by the Constituency, electorate (rather than their Representative democracy, representatives) on a proposal, law, or political issue. A referendum may be either bin ...

was held on 30 October 2005, in order to decide whether the department would merge with the departments of Ica and

Huancavelica Huancavelica () or Wankawillka in Quechua is a city in Peru. It is the capital of the department of Huancavelica and according to the 2017 census had a population of 49,570 people. The city was established on August 5, 1572 by the Viceroy ...

to form the new Ica-Ayacucho-Huancavelica Region, as part of the

decentralization process in Peru Decentralization process in Peru has long been a major issue in the government agenda. A referendum was held on October 30, 2005, to decide whether fifteen of the current twenty-five regions will merge to form five new, larger regions. All citi ...

. The proposal failed and no merger was carried out.

Political division

The department is divided into 11 provinces (, singular: ''provincia''), which are composed of 111 districts (''distritos'', singular: ''distrito'').

Provinces

The provinces, with their capitals in parentheses, are: #

Cangallo Cangallo is a town in southern Peru, capital of the province Cangallo in the region Ayacucho. Instituto Nacional de Estadística e InformáticaBanco de Información Digital, retrieved 9 January 2008 In the region of Cangallo live the Morochuc ...

(

) # Huamanga (

) #

Huanca Sancos Huanca Sancos is a town in southern Peru Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by ...

(

) #

Huanta Huanta is a town in Central Peru, capital of the province Huanta in the region Ayacucho. History In the era of the Spanish American wars of independence, Huanta remained loyal to the Spanish ...

(

) # La Mar (

San Miguel San Miguel, Spanish for Saint Michael, may refer to: Places Argentina *San Miguel Partido *San Miguel, Buenos Aires * San Miguel, Catamarca * San Miguel, Corrientes * San Miguel, La Rioja *San Miguel Arcángel, a Volga German colony in Adolfo Al ...

) # Lucanas (

Puquio Puquio (from Quechua: ''Pukyu'', meaning "spring of water") is a town in Central Peru, South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller port ...

) # Parinacochas (

Coracora Coracora or Qura Qura is a town in central Peru, and it is the capital of the Parinacochas Province in the Ayacucho Region. It has a population of approximately 13,000. Etymology Coracora or Qura Qura comes from the Quechuan ''qura'' meaning ...

) # Paucar del Sara Sara (

Pausa In linguistics, pausa (Latin for 'break', from Greek παῦσις, ''pâusis'' 'stopping, ceasing') is the hiatus between prosodic declination units. The concept is somewhat broad, as it is primarily used to refer to allophones that occur in ...

) #

Sucre Sucre (; ) is the ''de jure'' capital city of Bolivia, the capital of the Chuquisaca Department and the sixth most populous city in Bolivia. Located in the south-central part of the country, Sucre lies at an elevation of . This relatively high ...

( Querobamba) # Víctor Fajardo ( Huancapi) # Vilcas Huamán ( Vilcas Huamán)

Demographics

Languages

According to the

2007 Peru Census The 2007 Peru Census was a detailed enumeration of the Peruvian population. It was conducted by the Instituto Nacional de Estadística e Informática on Sunday, October 21, 2007. Its full name in Spanish is XI Censo de Población y VI de Vivie ...

, the language learnt first by most of the residents was

Quechua Quechua may refer to: *Quechua people, several Indigenous ethnic groups in South America, especially in Peru *Quechuan languages, an Indigenous South American language family spoken primarily in the Andes, derived from a common ancestral language ...

(63.05%) followed by

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

(36.57%). The Quechua variety spoken in Ayacucho is Chanka Quechua. The following table shows the results concerning the language learnt first in the department by province:inei.gob.pe
INEI, Peru, Censos Nacionales 2007

Gallery

Image:Peru - Altiplano1.jpg, The

go across the Ayacucho Region Image:Obelisk Battle of Ayacucho and Sucre MC.jpg, Statue of

Antonio José de Sucre Antonio José de Sucre y Alcalá (; 3 February 1795 – 4 June 1830), known as the "Gran Mariscal de Ayacucho" (), was a Venezuelan general and politician who served as the president of Bolivia from 1825 to 1828. A close friend and associate ...

and obelisk near Kinwa, commemorating the Battle of Ayacucho. Image:Peru - HotSprings.jpg, Hot springs in the region of Ayacucho. Image:Obelisk Battle of Ayacucho1 MC.jpg, Obelisk near Kinwa, commemorating the Battle of Ayacucho. Image:Ayacucho church by night.jpg, Church of Ayacucho

References

External links

Ayacucho Regional Government official website

{{Ayacucho-geo-stub