Chapare (, also called The Chapare, is a rural

province A province is an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman , which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire, Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...

in the northern region of

Cochabamba Department Cochabamba (, , ), from Quechua ''qucha'' or ''qhucha'', meaning "lake", ''pampa'' meaning "plain", is one of the nine departments of Bolivia. It is known to be the " granary" of the country because of its variety of agricultural products from ...

in central

Bolivia Bolivia, officially the Plurinational State of Bolivia, is a landlocked country located in central South America. The country features diverse geography, including vast Amazonian plains, tropical lowlands, mountains, the Gran Chaco Province, w ...

. Most of the territory consists of valley rainforests that surround the area's main waterway, the Chapare River, which is also a tributary of the Amazon River. The provincial capital is Sacaba, 11 km east of

Cochabamba Cochabamba (; ) is a city and municipality in central Bolivia in a valley in the Andes mountain range. It is the capital (political), capital of the Cochabamba Department and the list of cities in Bolivia, fourth largest city in Bolivia, with ...

. Its principal town is

Villa Tunari Villa Tunari or Tunari is a location in the department of Cochabamba Department, Cochabamba, Bolivia. It is the seat of the Villa Tunari Municipality, the third Municipalities of Bolivia, municipal section of the Chapare Province. According to t ...

, a popular tourist destination. In recent decades, the Chapare province has become a haven for illegal cultivation of the

coca Coca is any of the four cultivated plants in the family Erythroxylaceae, native to western South America. Coca is known worldwide for its psychoactive alkaloid, cocaine. Coca leaves contain cocaine which acts as a mild stimulant when chewed or ...

plant, which can be used to produce

cocaine Cocaine is a tropane alkaloid and central nervous system stimulant, derived primarily from the leaves of two South American coca plants, ''Erythroxylum coca'' and ''Erythroxylum novogranatense, E. novogranatense'', which are cultivated a ...

. This is due to Bolivian drug law, which until recently only permitted the

Yungas The Yungas ( Aymara ''yunka'' warm or temperate Andes or earth, Quechua ''yunka'' warm area on the slopes of the Andes) is a bioregion of a narrow band of forest along the eastern slope of the Andes Mountains from Peru and Bolivia, and extends i ...

region to legally grow coca, despite Chapare being a historical area for growth due to its fertility. For this reason, Chapare has been a primary target for coca eradication in recent years, with frequent and heated clashes between the U.S.

Drug Enforcement Administration The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) is a Federal law enforcement in the United States, United States federal law enforcement agency under the U.S. Department of Justice tasked with combating illicit Illegal drug trade, drug trafficking a ...

and Bolivian cocaleros. The law has since been changed by a deal that was struck between

Evo Morales Juan Evo Morales Ayma (; born 26 October 1959) is a Bolivian politician, trade union organizer, and former cocalero activist who served as the 65th president of Bolivia from 2006 to 2019. Widely regarded as the country's first president to come ...

(a former coca activist and the country's first indigenous President (2006-2019)) and former President

Carlos Mesa Carlos Diego de Mesa Gisbert (; born 12 August 1953) is a Bolivian historian, journalist, and politician who served as the 63rd president of Bolivia from 2003 to 2005. As an independent politician, he had previously served as the 37th vice pr ...

. This deal permits the region to grow a limited amount of coca every year .

Subdivision

Chapare Province is divided into three

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

which are further subdivided into cantons.

Places of interest

Carrasco National Park Carrasco National Park is a national park in Cochabamba Department, Bolivia. It has a surface area of 6,226 square kilometers. More than 5,000 plant species have been registered in the area, placing the park among Bolivia's most biologically diver ...

* Inkachaka * Isiboro Sécure National Park and Indigenous Territory * Tunari National Park

References

External links

Map of Chapare Province

Provincia Chapare
Provinces of Cochabamba Department {{CochabambaBO-geo-stub

Subdivision

Places of interest

See also

References

External links