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Caquetá Department

Coordinates: 1°37′N 75°36′W / 1.617°N 75.600°W / 1.617; -75.600
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Department of Caquetá
Departamento del Caquetá
Department
Flag of Department of Caquetá
Flag
Coat of arms of Department of Caquetá
Coat of arms
Nickname: 
The Golden Gate to the Amazon
Motto(s): 
All, For a Better Caqueta
(Spanish: Todos por un Caquetá mejor)
Caquetá shown in red
Caquetá shown in red
Topography of the department
Topography of the department
Coordinates: 1°37′N 75°36′W / 1.617°N 75.600°W / 1.617; -75.600
Country Colombia
RegionAmazon natural region
Department1981
Intendancy1905
CapitalFlorencia
Government
 • GovernorLuis Francisco Ruiz Aguilar (since 2024)
Area
 • Total
88,965 km2 (34,350 sq mi)
 • Rank3rd
Population
 (2018)[1]
 • Total
401,849
 • Rank24th
 • Density4.5/km2 (12/sq mi)
Demonym(s)Caqueteño
Caqueteñan
GDP
[2]
 • TotalCOP 5,461 billion
(US$ 1.3 billion)
Time zoneUTC-05
ISO 3166 codeCO-CAQ
Municipalities15
HDI (2022)0.708[3]
high · 26th of 33
Websitecaqueta.gov.co

Caquetá Department (Spanish pronunciation: [kakeˈta]) is one of the 32 departments of Colombia. It is located within the country's Amazon natural region and the Amazon rainforest. Its capital is the city of Florencia.

History

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In the pre-Columbian era, the department was occupied by indigenous groups, mainly the Andaquí, Koreguaje, Tama and Macaguaje peoples.[4]

After La Violencia (1948–1958), many migrants from other areas of the country moved to Caquetá, attracted by the vast amount of unclaimed public lands.[5]

Caquetá was established as a department in 1981.[6]:3 Starting in the 1980s, Caquetá Department was a hot spot in the Colombian conflict,[7] with an economy dependent on the coca trade and large areas being under control of guerilla or drug trafficking groups.[8][9][10] La Montañita in particular was a stronghold for armed groups such as the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).[5]

On 21 December 2009, then Governor of Caquetá Department Luis Francisco Cuellar was kidnapped after a shoot out with his security;[11] after a number of hours of military searches, his body was found with his throat slit.[12]

Following the 2016 peace agreement with FARC, all of Caquetá's municipalities were designated as Territorial Approach Development Program (PDET) territories.[13] The program was created to improve the conditions in the municipalities most impoverished and effected by the conflict.[14][15][16]

Geography and nature

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Located in the Amazon natural region,[17] Caquetá borders the departments of Cauca and Huila to the west, the department of Meta to the north, the department of Guaviare to the northeast, the department of Vaupés to the east, and the departments of Amazonas and Putumayo to the south covering a total area of 88,965 square kilometres (34,350 sq mi), the third largest in the country.[18][19] It composes 7.79% of the Colombia's territory and 22.9% of the Colombian Amazon basin.[20] The Japurá River, known in Colombia as the Caquetá River, is one of the bodies of water which flow through the department.[9] Other bodies of water include the Orteguaza River.[21]

The department has an equatorial superhumid (Afi) Köppen climate classification. A majority of the land is used for cattle farming.[22]:2

The department has over 120 species of birds.[23]

Deforestation has severely impacted Caquetá,[24] even within protected lands and indigenous territory, with forests often being destroyed to make room for cattle farming.[25][26][27]

Municipalities

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There are 16 municipalities in Caquetá Department: Albania, Belén de Andaquies, Cartagena del Chairá, Curillo, El Doncello, El Paujil, Florencia, La Montañita, Milán, Morelia, Puerto Rico, San José del Fragua, San Vicente del Caguán, Solano, Solita, and Valparaíso.[28][20] Its capital city is Florencia.[19]

Map of municipalities in Caquetá Department.

Demographics

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Historical population
YearPop.±%
1973 180,297—    
1985 264,507+46.7%
1993 367,898+39.1%
2005 420,337+14.3%
2018 401,849−4.4%
Source:[29]

The total population of Caquetá department in the 2018 census was 401,849 people with a density of 4.46 people per square kilometer.[1] In 2021, Caquetá's poverty rate was 44.8% according to the National Administrative Department of Statistics (DANE).[30] Caquetá Department's Human Development Index was 0.708 in 2022.[3]

The indigenous communities which inhabit the department include the Witoto, Coreguaje, Inga, Emberá, Pijao, Paez, and Guambiano peoples.[31]

Government

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Like all departments in Colombia, Caquetá has a Governor and a Departmental Assembly.[32]

Governors of Caquetá Department
Name Party Term Election/Appointee Ref.
Víctor Isidro Ramírez MIRA 2012–2014 elected [33]
Julieta Gómez Bedoya[a] Liberal 2014 Juan Manuel Santos [34]
Martha Liliana Agudelo Valencia[a] MIRA 2014–2016 Juan Manuel Santos [35]
Alvaro Pacheco Alvarez Liberal 2016–2019 elected [36]
Fabio Augusto Parra Beltrán[a] 2019 Iván Duque [37]
Martha Rocío Ruiz Arenas[a] 2019–2020 Iván Duque [38]
Arnulfo Gasca Trujillo Conservative 2020–2024 elected [36]
Luis Francisco Ruiz Aguilar Coalition (CR, Ind) 2024–2027 elected [39]

Symbols

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The flag of Caquetá Department has seven horizontal stripes (four green and three white) and 16 yellow stars in a circle, with one in the center, in the top left corner against a white background.[40][41] The green represents the dense forests found in the department.[41]

The crest of Caquetá Department is divided into four quadrants, with a crown of feathers on top of it and a red ribbon below it. The crown of feathers is an example of a traditional indigenous attire worn by leaders during special ceremonies, it represents the department's indigenous history and communities. [40]

[edit]
  • Church in El Doncello
    Church in El Doncello
  • Indigenous man in Caquetá
    Indigenous man in Caquetá
  • Edificio Curiplaya, a national monument located in Florencia
    Edificio Curiplaya, a national monument located in Florencia
  • South-central Florencia
    South-central Florencia
  • Cascada de Anayasita, a waterfall in El Doncello
    Cascada de Anayasita, a waterfall in El Doncello

See also

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Notes

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  1. ^ a b c d Acting Governor

References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b "Viviendas, Hogares y Personas (VIHOPE)". DANE. Retrieved 23 July 2025.
  2. ^ "Producto Interno Bruto por departamento", www.dane.gov.co
  3. ^ a b "Sub-national HDI - Area Database - Global Data Lab". hdi.globaldatalab.org. Retrieved 2018-09-13.
  4. ^ "Historia del Caquetá: Historia Departamento del Caquetá Colombia". todacolombia.com (in Spanish). Retrieved 2025-07-24.
  5. ^ a b Johnson, McKenzie F.; Rodríguez, Luz A.; Quijano Hoyos, Manuela (2025-01-02). "Governing after FARC: environmental peacebuilding in Caquetá, Colombia". The Journal of Peasant Studies. 52 (1): 129–156. doi:10.1080/03066150.2024.2326577. ISSN 0306-6150.
  6. ^ Bustos, Sebastián; Cheston, Timothy; Rao, Nidhi (February 2023), "The Missing Economic Diversity of the Colombian Amazon: An Economic Complexity Approach for Caquetá, Guaviare, and Putumayo", CID Research Fellows and Graduate Student Working Paper, 2023, no. 156, Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University
  7. ^ "A case study of the FARC peace agreement impact on land markets in Caquetá, Colombia - Colombia | ReliefWeb". Relief Web. 2024-09-30. Retrieved 2025-07-24.
  8. ^ Steffens, Gena (2016-05-13). "Paradise found in Colombia's Caquetá department". The City Paper Bogotá. Retrieved 2025-07-23.
  9. ^ a b "Caquetá-Japurá | AMAZON WATERS". en.aguasamazonicas.org. 2022-07-25. Retrieved 2025-07-24.
  10. ^ Villamizar, Laura Beltrán (2019-04-13). "In Colombia's Coca Heartland, Photos And Drawings Show Life Between War And Peace". NPR. Retrieved 2025-07-24.
  11. ^ "Farc capture Colombian governor". RFI. Retrieved 24 July 2025.
  12. ^ "Kidnapped Colombian governor found dead". BBC. 22 December 2009. Retrieved 24 July 2025.
  13. ^ "Todo sobre los PDET Programas de desarrollo con enfoque territorial". www.renovacionterritorio.gov.co (in Spanish). Retrieved 2025-07-24.
  14. ^ "Caquetá recibirá $400 mil millones para fortalecer el desarrollo de los municipios PDET". www.rtvcnoticias.com (in Spanish). Retrieved 2025-07-24.
  15. ^ "Programa de Desarrollo con Enfoque Territorial PDET: PATR Subregión Cuenca del Caguán y Piedemonte Caqueteño". www.caqueta.gov.co. Retrieved 2025-07-24.
  16. ^ Londoño, Rocío (2017-07-03). "Los programas de desarrollo territorial: ¿qué son y cómo van funcionar?". Razón Pública (in Spanish). Retrieved 2025-07-24.
  17. ^ Ruiz-Agudelo, César Augusto; Gutiérrez-Bonilla, Francisco de Paula; Cortes-Gómez, Angela María; Suarez, Andrés (2022-12-01). "A first approximation to the Colombian Amazon basin remnant natural capital. Policy and development implications". Trees, Forests and People. 10: 100334. doi:10.1016/j.tfp.2022.100334. hdl:11323/9593. ISSN 2666-7193.
  18. ^ "Caquetá: Departamento del Caquetá Colombia". todacolombia.com (in Spanish). Retrieved 2025-07-24.
  19. ^ a b Ospino, Luis (2023-10-04). "Exploring the Five Largest Departments of Colombia". Colombia One: News from Colombia and the World. Retrieved 2025-07-23.
  20. ^ a b "Municipios del Caquetá: División Política Departamento del Caquetá Colombia". todacolombia.com (in Spanish). Retrieved 2025-07-24.
  21. ^ "Nature & Indigenous Culture: José Alfonso Ovalle Explains Why Caquetá Is A Must-Visit Region of Colombia". Finance Colombia. Retrieved 2025-07-24.
  22. ^ Garzón, Natasha V.; Rodríguez León, Carlos H.; Ceccon, Eliane; Pérez, Daniel R. (September 2020). "Ecological restoration-based education in the Colombian Amazon: toward a new society–nature relationship". Restoration Ecology. 28 (5). Society for Ecological Restoration. doi:10.1111/rec.13216.
  23. ^ Procolombia. "Department of Caquetá: jungle, rivers and Amazonian culture". colombia.co. Retrieved 2025-07-23.
  24. ^ Bot, Lifegate (2019-12-18). "The high price of peace in Colombia: deforestation in the Amazon". LifeGate. Retrieved 2025-07-24.
  25. ^ Rasolt, Daniel Henryk (2020-01-15). "The Koreguaje Tribe: Threatened Guardians of the Northwest Amazon • The Revelator". The Revelator. Retrieved 2025-07-24.
  26. ^ Dávalos, Liliana M.; Sanchez, Karina M.; Armenteras, Dolors (2016-11-01). "Deforestation and Coca Cultivation Rooted in Twentieth-Century Development Projects". BioScience. 66 (11): 974–982. doi:10.1093/biosci/biw118. ISSN 0006-3568.
  27. ^ "Despite massive deforestation in Colombia, hope remains for conservation". NBC News. 2018-09-09. Retrieved 2025-07-24.
  28. ^ "Latin America & The Caribbean Weekly Situation Update as of 18 July 2025 | OCHA". UNOCHA. 2025-07-18. Retrieved 2025-07-23.
  29. ^ "Reloj de Población". DANE. Departamento Administrativo Nacional de Estadísitica. Archived from the original on 16 January 2018. Retrieved 6 July 2017.
  30. ^ Reports, Colombia (2022-07-15). "Caqueta | Colombia Reports". Colombia News. Retrieved 2025-07-23.
  31. ^ Team, Amazon Conservation (2015-10-15). "The Caquetá government makes history for the rights of indigenous communities". Amazon Conservation Team. Retrieved 2025-07-23.
  32. ^ "Information about departments of Colombia". ColombiaInfo.org - The Colombia Information Site!. Retrieved 2025-07-15.
  33. ^ "Resultados Elecciones Gobernador de Caquetá". Gestion de Datos Abiertos. Archived from the original on 2022-01-03. Retrieved 2025-07-23.
  34. ^ "Gobernadora interina para Caquetá". La Nación (in European Spanish). Archived from the original on 2021-12-24. Retrieved 2025-07-23.
  35. ^ "La quindiana Martha Liliana Agudelo fue elegida gobernadora de Caquetá". Cronica del Quindio (in European Spanish). Archived from the original on 2022-01-03. Retrieved 2025-07-23.
  36. ^ a b "En el nuevo mapa político coaliciones se quedaron con 14 alcaldías y 25 gobernaciones". La República (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 2020-07-13. Retrieved 2025-07-23.
  37. ^ Casa Editorial El Tiempo (2019-06-07). "Gobierno designa gobernador encargado para Caquetá". El Tiempo (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 2020-03-14. Retrieved 2025-07-23.
  38. ^ "Decreto 1673 del 2019" (PDF). Ministry of the Interior of Colombia. 12 September 2019. Retrieved 22 February 2022.
  39. ^ "Luis Francisco Ruiz, nuevo gobernador del Caquetá; Marlon Monsalve, nuevo alcalde de Florencia". PARES (in Spanish). 2023-11-23. Retrieved 2025-07-23.
  40. ^ a b "Símbolos". caqueta.gov.co (in European Spanish). Archived from the original on 2013-05-01. Retrieved 2025-07-23.
  41. ^ a b "Bandera del Caquetá: Bandera Departamento del Caquetá Colombia". todacolombia.com (in Spanish). Retrieved 2025-07-24.
[edit]
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