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Founding
Founding of Valledupar
Capital of the Colombian department of Cesar
- 1550
- South America
Founding
Capital of the Colombian department of Cesar
Fetching the article from Wikipedia…
Valledupar (Spanish pronunciation: [baʝeðuˈpaɾ]) is a city and municipality in northeastern Colombia. It is the capital of Cesar Department. Its name, Valle de Upar (Valley of Upar), was established in honor of the Amerindian cacique who ruled the valley; Cacique Upar. The city lies between the mountains of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta and the Serranía del Perijá to the borders of the Guatapurí and Cesar rivers.
Valledupar is an important agricultural, cattle raising, coal mining and agro-industrial center for the region between the Departments of Cesar and southern municipalities of La Guajira Department, formerly known as the Padilla Province. Valledupar is notable as the cradle of vallenato music, representative of the Colombian culture. The city hosts the Vallenato Legend Festival.
During the 1980s, 1990s and early 2000s, the city suffered during the Colombian conflict, with numerous kidnappings, thousands of people forced out and failure to control crime.
Valledupar has one of Colombia's most modern maximum security prisons.
Valledupar is located southeast of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. Its average temperature is 28 °C. Because of its relatively high altitude and proximity to the equator, it has a variety of environments, from warm heat to perpetual snow. Notable geographic features in Valledupar include the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta's peaks; the Codazzi, El Guardian, the Ojeda and La Reina. Many rivers descend from its snowy peaks and lagoons; the Ariguani, Ariguanicito, Badillo, Calderas, Cesar, Curiba, Donachui, Garupal, Guatapuri, which borders the city of Valledupar; and the Mariangola.
The Municipality of Valledupar is bordered on the north with the municipalities of Riohacha and San Juan del Cesar in La Guajira Department. To the south are the municipalities of El Paso and Los Robles La Paz in Cesar Department; to the east are the municipalities of Villanueva and Urumita, also in La Guajira Department; and to the west are the municipalities Fundacion and Aracataca, in Magdalena Department.
The municipality has an area of about 4,977.96 km2, from which 72,660 km2 pertain to the Arhuacos Indian Reserve, 399.52 km2 to the Kogui and Wiwa Indian Reserve, and 425.60 km2 to the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta National Park.
The municipality is home to numerous endemic species, mostly living in the ecosystem of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta and Serrania del Perijá mountains, one of the most biodiverse places in the world. The most recently discovered species of bees was found in rural areas of Valledupar and named Stelis vallenata in tribute to the local Vallenato music.
The city's symbolic bird is the Turpial. Other notable birds that inhabit the region are the parrots that flock the fruit trees year round.
During the colonial period, Spaniards introduced invasive European fauna into the region, such as dogs, cats, rats, mice, cattle, horses, mules, goats and gallineta africana, doves, among others. Spaniards also introduced numerous species of flora from all over the world into the region, most notably mango trees, which have become the most popular tree in the city and municipality. However, the symbolic trees of the city are two types of Yellow Tabebuia, colloquially called "Cañaguate" and Puy. These trees cover the region with their notorious yellow blossom flowers during the dry season.
The entities in charge of protecting and controlling the fauna and flora in the region are the Colombian Ministry of Environment, the local decentralized agency Corpocesar, under the Governor of the Cesar Department and Environmental Police of the Colombian National Police. Other non-profit organizations collaborate with these entities.
Climate in the municipality of Valledupar is determined by altitude. Half of the region is mountainous and the rest is plains in between the mountain ranges of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta and the Serrania del Perijá. Throughout the year, the region has two dry seasons and two rainy seasons affected by El Niño and La Niña phenomena. The peaks of the mountainous region gets snow during the rainy season and much cooler days and depending on the weather, the entire region gets hit lightly by hailstorms and thunderstorms. The region is slightly affected by the annual Caribbean hurricane season. The levels of rivers and bodies of water increase in the rainy season, and vegetation grows green and bushy. During the dry season, vegetation dries and turns mostly yellow, while bodies of water decrease in volume.
In 2013, Valledupar was classified on average as the hottest place in Colombia, according to the Colombian Meteorological Institute, IDEAM.
The Spanish named the Valle de Upar (Valley of Upar) after a legendary local Amerindian cacique, Upar, leader of the indigenous Chimila. The region was first explored by Pedro de Badillo. It was conquered in 1532 by the German Ambrosius Ehinger, governor of Venezuela, who invaded the area belonging to the government of Santa Marta. The city was founded in 1550 by the Spanish conquistador, Captain Hernando de Santana, who named it. The Catholic Church commonly referred to the city as Ciudad de los Santos Reyes de Valle de Upar (city of the holy kings of Valledupar) because it was founded on the 6th day of January, Epiphany, the day the three kings visited the infant Jesus. The name was gradually modified to Valle Dupar and then to Valledupar.
Since the colonization period, the region has been a center for imports from the Caribbean area and distribution to the inland. Spaniards traveled through the area and established extensive farming, mainly rearing imported European cattle (among many animals) and agriculture. Much of the population of the Chimila Nation died from epidemics of new infectious diseases carried by the Europeans; survivors were worked at forced labor, and many died during battles.
On May 22, 1810, some 400 inhabitants of the Cabildo of the Valle de Upar rebelled against the Spanish monarchy, protesting against Mayor Colonel Marques de Valde-Hoyos. The mayor fled to neighboring San Juan del Cesar, leaving in charge V. Ruiz de Gomez. In 1813 independence from Spain was proclaimed by María Concepción Loperena de Fernandez de Castro, a wealthy land owner who helped supply three hundred horses to El Libertador Simón Bolívar's revolutionary army.
In 1850, the city became capital of the Valledupar Province and in 1864 was elevated to capital of the Valledupar Department of the Federal State of Magdalena. In 1915, after the political and administrative division restructuring of the Unitarian Colombian State, Valledupar was proclaimed the municipality of the Valledupar Province, part of the Federal State of Magdalena during the United States of Colombia era. The region maintained relative isolation from the rest of the country due to its low importance at the time. The violent political struggles of the different governments of Colombia took place mostly in larger cities, such as Bogotá.
During World War II, the city received many immigrants from Europe, especially French, Germans and Italians. Later it attracted immigrants from the Middle East. In 1956 it was proclaimed a parish by the Catholic Church. After the Republic of Colombia was created and the Department of Cesar was established in 1967, Valledupar became its capital.
The region started developing quickly due to political support from the former President Alfonso López Michelsen, first governor of the Department of Cesar's and the Colombian Liberal Party. Valledupar came to be known as sorpresa caribe (the Caribbean surprise) because of its rapid economic growth during the 1970s, especially in cotton production, which local people called "white gold". Valledupar ranked second overall in economic profits for Colombia during this time. Urban growth and social change accompanied prosperity and the city developed its cultural identity throughout these years. The revival of the Vallenato music strongly symbolizes the culture of Colombia.
A period of violence erupted during the mid-1980s, disrupting the peaceful growth. A struggling leftist political party, the Patriotic Union (U.P.), was led by a banker, Juvenal Ovidio Ricardo Palmera Pineda. Because of his incendiary remarks during a peasant strike and protest in the main plaza, he was jailed. After being given amnesty by Jorge Dangond Daza, the governor of the Department, Palmera went into hiding. The national government and conservative groups started a persecution of UP's leaders and followers. Many of Palmera's followers went into exile in Europe.
He escaped into the mountains, taking refuge with the armed branch of the UP; the FARC. Palmera became a guerrilla leader; as a banker, he knew who in the city and region were wealthy. He began kidnapping (and sometimes killing) prominent political leaders, journalists and rich land owners (including members of his own family), using the ransoms to finance his organization. He took the alias Simón Trinidad.
During this period, general crime rose and, on October 15, 1994, the national bank El Banco de la Republica (Bank of the Republic) was robbed. The amount stolen: COP$24,075 million of non emitted bills (some US$11 million) and came to be known as the "El Robo del Siglo" (The bank heist of the century).
To counter FARC and ELN's abuses, and after approximately fifteen years of asphyxiating Valledupar's society and supporting negligence by the Colombian military, some prominent leaders of Valledupar, landowners and those victims of these organizations decided to become part or promote, self-defense forces that later on affiliated with the AUC and assigned another "Vallenatean" as leader Rodrigo Tovar Pupo a.k.a. Jorge 40.
The self-defense forces adopted methods like the guerrilla, including illegal drug trafficking to finance their operations. They used terrorism tactics that also affected innocent people, such as selective and random kidnappings, and combinations of racketeering and selective assassinations – the trademark of Death Squads. The AUC helped take back the region from guerrillas, but Valledupar residents had to deal with similar uncertainty in having an illegal and terrorist organization controlling the city.
The AUC northern block demobilized March 10, 2006. It is still uncertain if the Colombian military can control the two terrorist organizations or dismantle them. Because of the longstanding violence, many rural people migrated into the city. Prominent regional leaders have been killed; others were forced into bankruptcy or out of the region.
Despite the violence, since it became capital of the Department of Cesar, Valledupar developed as an important agricultural and cattle raising center for the region between the departments of Cesar and southern parts of La Guajira Department. It is most notable as the cradle of vallenato music, which is played with accordion, a small drum (caja) and a scraping instrument (guacharaca). Since 1968 at the end of April, the city has held an annual four-day festival, the Vallenato Legend Festival.
The Department of Cesar's government and Chamber of Deputies offices are based in Valledupar as well as other Department level entities. At City level, the Mayor of the City and the City counselors have a three-year term in office, and are in charge of local government issues. The mayor's powers are highly dependent on the budgets assigned by the Departmental government in order to execute plans.
Many local government leaders have been involved in corruption cases, investigated and sometimes incarcerated. The government bureaucracy is highly politicized, with the execution of some plans dependent on political interests and winning advantages over political adversaries. The local judiciary is also vulnerable to corruption, as well as being a target of terrorists and guerrillas.
See more: Political System of Colombia
In Valledupar 84% of the total population lives in the urban areas of the municipality with a density of approximately 68,4 inhabitants per km² (1).
The city of Valledupar is made up 6 comunas subdivided into 138 barrios and Districts.
The Municipality of Valledupar is divided into six different geographic zones integrated by subdivisions called Corregimientos (25), and subdivisions to this called Veredas (125) and considered rural areas of the city of Valledupar:
Corregimientos:
Corregimientos:
Corregimientos:
Corregimientos:
Text from the Wikipedia article “Valledupar”, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.