Sucre Department

Department of Sucre Departamento de Sucre
—  Department  —
Flag Coat of arms
Sucre shown in red
Coordinates: 9°18′N 75°24′W / 9.3°N 75.4°W / 9.3; -75.4Coordinates: 9°18′N 75°24′W / 9.3°N 75.4°W / 9.3; -75.4
Country	Colombia
Region	Caribbean Region
Established	August 18, 1966
Capital	Sincelejo
Largest city	Sincelejo
Government
– Governor	Jorge Carlos Barraza Farak (Partido Social de Unidad Nacional)
Area
– Total	10,670 km2 (4,119.7 sq mi)
Area rank	27
Population (2005)[1]
– Total	772,010
– Rank	20
– Density	72.4/km2 (187.4/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC-05
ISO 3166 code	CO-SUC
Provinces
Municipalities	26
Website	www.gobersucre.gov.co

Sucre is a department in the Caribbean Region of Colombia. The department ranks 27th by area, 10,670 km² (4,120 sq mi) and it has a population of 772,010, ranking 20th of all the 32 departments of Colombia. Sucre is bordered by the Caribbean on the northwest; by Bolívar Department on the east and by Córdoba Department on the west.

Sucre was named in honor of the Independence hero Antonio José de Sucre who was quoted by the founders of this department in reference to Simón Bolívar's death as saying "They have killed my heart", expression said while cruising the territory of the present day Sucre Department.

As of 2009, the Sucre Department has an estimated population of 802,733, of which 234,886 are in the department capital Sincelejo, according to the DANE projections.

History

Pre Columbian

Before the Spanish Conquest, the land comprising the department of Sucre was mainly inhabited by two groups of indigenous people — the Zenú and the Turbacos. The Zenú language was perhaps part of the Chibchan language family by the Arhuacos branch. The Turbaco people were part of the Cariban language family and they controlled the area adjacent to the Gulf of Morrosquillo. The Zenú people — by the Finzenú and Panzenú branchs — controlled the rest of the territory, which used to be part of a bigger territory along the current department of Córdoba and parts of Bolívar and Antioquia sometimes known as Zenú kingdom or Zenú nation.

The area adjacent to the coast was inhabited by the Turbaco people and it was the border lands of the Carib's territories in the Cariibean Coast of Colombia. This specifical part of the Carib's included the coasts of the present day departments of Magdalena, Atlántico and Bolívar.

The Zenú engineers were able to develop a complicated hydraulic infrastructure in the basin of the San Jorge river — they also worked in the basin of the Sinú river in lands of the Córdoba Department — involving flood control works as well as drainage and irrigation systems.^[2]

Colonization

See also: Sincelejo

The first Spanish conquerors that sighted to the coastline of the present day Sucre Department were Alonso de Ojeda, Juan de la Cosa, Rodrigo de Bastidas and Francisco Cesar around 1499.

The conquerors thought the territory to be rich in precious metals since, but soon they would find out they were wrong about that. This situation led to the encomenderos to employ the indigenous workforce almost exclusively for cattle rising on the northern areas.

The territory had been under the tutelage of the government settled in Cartagena -except a brief period of time when it was under the jurisdiction of the central government in Bogotá- this control was effective by several denominations while the country evolved from its colonial institutions until its final republican form in 1886 and until the establishment of Sucre as a department independent from Bolivar.

Date	Territory
1535	Province of Cartagena (part of the Audience of Panama)
17th-18th centuries	Province of Cartagena (Part of the New Kingdom of Granada)
1810–1821	Department of Cundinamarca (Part of the Gran Colombia)
1821–1829	Department of Magdalena (Part of the Gran Colombia)
1830–1858	Province of Cartagena(Part of the Republic of New Granada)
1858–1863	Sovereign State of Bolívar (Part of the Granadine Confederation)
1863–1886	Sovereign State of Bolívar (Part of the United States of Colombia)
1886–1966	Departamento de Bolivar (Part of the Republic of Colombia)

Modern history

In 1963, the Second Assembly of Municipalities met to reaffirm the creation of the Department of Sucre after the population supported the initiative led by CorpoSucre. On July 28, 1966 the Senate of Colombia started a debate on the creation of the Department and on August 18 of the same year approved its creation under the 47 Law of 1966 sanctioned by the then-President of Colombia, Carlos Lleras Restrepo.

Geography

Administrative Divisions

Provinces

Sucre is subdivided into 5 regions or provinces:

Mojana Guaranda Majagual Sucre Montes de María Chalán Coloso Morroa Ovejas Sincelejo Morrosquillo Coveñas Palmito San Onofre Tolú Tolúviejo

Sabanas Buenavista Corozal El Robel Galeras Los Palmitos Sampúes San Juan de Betulia San Pedro Sincé San Jorge Caimito La Unión San Benito Abad San Marcos

Municipalities

Map of Municipalities in the Sucre Department.

1. Buenavista
2. Caimito
3. Chalán
4. Coloso
5. Corozal
6. Coveñas
7. El Roble
8. Galeras
9. Guaranda
10. La Unión
11. Los Palmitos
12. Majagual
13. Morroa
14. Ovejas
15. Palmito
16. Sampués
17. San Benito Abad
18. San Juan Betulia
19. San Marcos
20. San Onofre
21. San Pedro
22. Sincé
23. Sincelejo
24. Sucre
25. Tolú
26. Toluviejo

References

1. ^ http://www.dane.gov.co/files/censo2005/regiones/sucre/sucre.pdf
2. ^ (Spanish) http://fundacionlaberinto.mforos.com/1458445/6872641-departamento-de-sucre/

External links

• (Spanish) Government of Sucre official website