La Paz Department (Bolivia)

The La Paz Department of Bolivia comprises 133,985 square kilometres (51,732 sq mi) with a 2012 census population of 2,706,359 inhabitants. It is situated at the western border of Bolivia, sharing Lake Titicaca with adjacent Peru. It contains the Cordillera Real, which reaches altitudes of 6.6 kilometers (4.1 mi). Northeast of the Cordillera Real are the Yungas, the steep eastern slopes of the Andes Mountains that make the transition to the Amazon River basin to the northeast. The capital of the department is the city of La Paz and is the administrative city and seat of government/national capital of Bolivia.

For other uses, see La Paz Department (disambiguation).
Department of La Paz
Department
Flag
Coat of arms
Location of La Paz Department within Bolivia
Provinces of the La Paz Department
Country Bolivia
CapitalNuestra Señora de La Paz
Government
 • GovernorFélix Patzi Paco
Area
 • Total133,985 km2 (51,732 sq mi)
Population
 (2012)
 • Total2,706,359
 • Density20/km2 (52/sq mi)
Time zoneUTC-4 (BOT)
HDI (2017)0.693[1]
medium · 6th
Websitewww.gobernacionlapaz.gob.bo

Provinces

The Department of La Paz is divided into 20 provinces (provincias) which are further subdivided into 85 municipalities [2] (municipios) and - on the fourth level - into cantons.

The provinces with their capitals are:

Province Area km² Population (2012 census) Capital
Abel Iturralde 42,815 18,073 Ixiamas
Aroma 4,510 97,364 Sica Sica
Bautista Saavedra 2,525 16,308 Charazani
Caranavi 3,400 59,365 Caranavi
Eliodoro Camacho 2,080 53,747 Puerto Acosta
Franz Tamayo 15,900 26,997 Apolo
Gualberto Villarroel 1,935 17,782 San Pedro de Curahuara de Carangas
Ingavi 5,410 134,535 Viacha
Inquisivi 6,430 66,346 Inquisivi
José Manuel Pando 1,976 7,381 Santiago de Machaca
José Ramón Loayza 3,370 47,295 Luribay
Larecaja 8,110 86,481 Sorata
Los Andes 1,658 77,579 Pucarani
Manco Kapac 367 27,154 Copacabana
Muñecas 4,965 29,694 Chuma
Nor Yungas 1,720 36,983 Coroico
Omasuyos 2,065 84,484 Achacachi
Pacajes 10,584 55,180 Coro Coro
Pedro Domingo Murillo 4,705 1,663,099 Palca
Sud Yungas 5,770 105,013 Chulumani
Total: 133,985 km² 2,706,359
Note: More than 3,770 km² of Lake Titicaca

Government

The chief executive office of Bolivia's departments (since May 2010) is the Governor; before then, the office was called the Prefect, and until 2006 the prefect was appointed by the President of Bolivia and then the governor is elected by the voters. The current governor, Félix Patzi Paco, was elected on 29 March 2015 and took office on 31 May.

Under the 2009 Constitution, Bolivian departments have an elected legislature, known as the Departmental Legislative Assembly. The La Paz Assembly has 45 members including five indigenous / natives minority representatives.

The most recent governor election results (2015) are as follows:[3]

Candidate Party Votes %
Félix Patzi Paco Sovereignty and Freedom 673,244 50.09
Felipa Huanca Llupanqui Movement for Socialism 412,385 30.68
Elizabeth Reyes Limpias National Unity Front 108 509 8.07
Felipe Quispe Huanca Movement for Sovereignty 63 941 4.76
David Vargas Flores Front for Victory 52 527 3.91
Julio Tito Condori Patriotic Social Alliance 18 513 1.38
Hugo Sandoval Costas Revolutionary Nationalist Movement 14 866 1.11
Valid votes 1,343,985 100%
Blank votes 96,363
Null votes 64,329
Total votes 1,504,677
Abstention 195,539
Registered voters 1,700,216
Source: Atlas of the Plurinational Electoral Body of Bolivia

Past executives
Date Began Date Ended Prefect/Governor Party Notes
23 Jan 2006 10 Aug 2008 José Luís Paredes Muñoz Social and Democratic Power First elected prefect. Elected in Bolivian general election, December 2005, and removed by the 2008 recall election.
12 Aug 2008 29 Aug 2008 Alejandro Zapata (acting, de facto)
29 Aug 2008 30 May 2010 Pablo Ramos Sánchez (acting) MAS-IPSP Final prefect
30 May 2010 31 May 2015 César Hugo Cocarico Yana MAS-IPSP Elected in regional election on 4 April; first elected with the renamed title of governor
Source: worldstatesmen.org

Languages

The languages spoken in the department are mainly Spanish, Aymara, Quechua and Guaraní. The following table shows the number of people belonging to the recognized group of speakers. [4]

Language Department Bolivia
Quechua 158,260 2,281,198
Aymara 1,181,593 1,525,321
Guaraní 1,526 62,575
Another native 4,446 49,432
Spanish 1,973,708 6,821,626
Foreign 70,448 250,754
Only native 257,242 960,491
Native and Spanish 1,027,999 2,739,407
Spanish and foreign 946,650 4,115,751

Places of interest

References
  1. "Sub-national HDI - Area Database - Global Data Lab". hdi.globaldatalab.org. Retrieved 2018-09-13.
  2. www.bolivia.com (English)
  3. "Los partidos combinan perfiles para la Gobernación de La Paz". eju.tv. 24 February 2010. Retrieved 2 April 2019.
  4. obd.descentralizacion.gov.bo Archived 2009-02-18 at the Wayback Machine (Spanish)

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.