Cotoca is a

canton Canton may refer to: Administrative divisions * Canton (administrative division), territorial/administrative division in some countries * Township (Canada), known as ''canton'' in Canadian French Arts and entertainment * Canton (band), an It ...

and

Municipality 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' ...

Andrés Ibáñez Province Andrés Ibáñez Province is one of the fifteen provinces of the Bolivian Santa Cruz Department, situated in the western part of the department. Its capital is Santa Cruz de la Sierra which is also the capital of the department. The province was ...

Santa Cruz Department Santa Cruz () is the largest of the nine constituent departments of Bolivia, occupying about one-third (33.74%) of the country's territory. With an area of , it is slightly smaller than Japan or the US state of Montana. It is located in the ...

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 ...

. The municipality consists of two cantons – Cotoca itself and

Puerto Pailas Puerto Pailas is a Cantons of Bolivia, canton and town in the Santa Cruz Department (Bolivia), Santa Cruz Department in the South American Andes, Andean Republic of Bolivia. Location Puerto Pailas is the central town of ''Puerto Pailas Cantón' ...

. In 2010 it had an estimated population of 23,951 for the canton and 56,451 for the municipality. In 1799, the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

authorised the building of a shrine to the

Virgen de Cotoca Virgen is a municipality in the district of Lienz in the Austrian state of Tyrol. It includes part of the Virgen valley in the Venediger Group mountain range, and extensive parts of the municipality are in High Tauern National Park. The history o ...

, an image of

Mary Mary may refer to: People * Mary (name), a female given name (includes a list of people with the name) Religion * New Testament people named Mary, overview article linking to many of those below * Mary, mother of Jesus, also called the Blesse ...

that was seen in the town. The Virgin is now the patron saint of the entire province of Santa Cruz and her feast from 8 to 15 December draws thousands of Bolivians. The population increased tenfold in the last forty years:

Politics

In the

Bolivian regional election, 2010 The 2010 Bolivian regional elections were held on 4 April 2010. Departmental and municipal authorities were elected by an electorate of approximately 5 million people. Among the officials elected are: * Governors of all nine Departments of Bolivia ...

, Cotoca placed the Verdes (Bolivia) party of Governor

Rubén Costas Rubén Armando Costas Aguilera (born 6 October 1955) is a Bolivian politician and the prefect and then governor of Santa Cruz Department in Bolivia from 2006 to 2021, and also the leader of the Democrat Social Movement (MDS). Early life and ...

first, although by less than the overall result for the province:
/ref>

Climate

References

Populated places in Santa Cruz Department (Bolivia) {{SantaCruzBO-geo-stub it:Cotoca