The Río Negro Municipality () is one of the seven

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' ...

(

municipio A ' () or ' () is an administrative division in several Hispanophone and Lusophone nations, respectively. It is often translated as "municipality." It comes from ''mūnicipium'' (), meaning a township. In English, a municipality often is define ...

s) that makes up the southern

Venezuela Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many Federal Dependencies of Venezuela, islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea. It com ...

n state of Amazonas and, according to the 2011 census by the National Institute of Statistics of Venezuela, the municipality has a population of 2,300. The town of San Carlos de Río Negro is the

shire town A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or civil parish. The term is in use in five countries: Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, and the United States. An equivalent term, shire town, is used in ...

of the Río Negro Municipality.http://www.ocei.gov.ve/secciones/division/Amazonas.zip

History

The town of San Carlos de Río Negro was founded in 1759 around a mounted camp by the expedition captained by José Solano that moved to that area in the extent of the works of exploration of the limits between the Crowns of

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...

and

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

requested by the Treaty of Madrid. José Solano set up his exploration base in that place, in the margins of the Rio Negro, and there he settled with the few men that had survived the ascent along the

Orinoco River The Orinoco () is one of the longest rivers in South America at . Its drainage basin, sometimes known as the Orinoquia, covers approximately 1 million km2, with 65% of it in Venezuela and 35% in Colombia. It is the List of rivers by discharge, f ...

, since most, including the famous Swedish botanist

Pehr Löfling Pehr Löfling (31 January 1729 – 22 February 1756) was a Swedish botanist and an apostle of Carl Linnaeus. Biography Löfling was born in Tolvfors Bruk, Gävle, Sweden. He studied at the University of Uppsala where he attended courses taugh ...

that accompanied the expedition, they had succumbed prey of the tropical diseases, especially the yellow fever. San Carlos de Río Negro was visited from May 7 to May 10, 1800, for the expedition of

Alexander von Humboldt Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander von Humboldt (14 September 1769 – 6 May 1859) was a German polymath, geographer, natural history, naturalist, List of explorers, explorer, and proponent of Romanticism, Romantic philosophy and Romanticism ...

and

Aimé Bonpland Aimé Jacques Alexandre Bonpland (; 22 August 1773 – 11 May 1858) was a French List of explorers, explorer and botany, botanist who traveled with Alexander von Humboldt in Latin America from 1799 to 1804. He co-authored volumes of the scie ...

, constituting the most southern point of their (périplo) for the

Amazon Basin The Amazon basin is the part of South America drained by the Amazon River and its tributary, tributaries. The Amazon drainage basin covers an area of about , or about 35.5 percent of the South American continent. It is located in the countries ...

Demographics

The Río Negro Municipality, according to a 2007 population estimate by the National Institute of Statistics of Venezuela, has a population of 2,660 (up from 2,314 in 2000). This amounts to 1.9% of the state's population. The municipality's population density is .

Government

The mayor of the Río Negro Municipality is Luis Alirio Avaristo, elected on October 31, 2004, with 37% of the vote. Avaristo had been serving as the acting mayor of the Río Negro Municipality since August 13, 2002, following the resignation of Pedro Zerpa. The municipality is divided into four

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...

es; Capital Río Negro, Solano, Casiquiare, and Cocuy (previous to December 18, 1997, the Río Negro Municipality contained only a single parish).

References

External links

rionegro-amazonas.gob.ve

Municipalities of Amazonas (Venezuelan state) {{venezuela-geo-stub

History

Demographics

Government

See also

References

External links