Santa Cruz Department (Bolivia)
Santa Cruz, with an area of, slightly smaller than Japan or the US State of Montana, it is the largest of the nine constituent departments of Bolivia occupying about one-third of the territory of the country. It is located in the eastern part of the country, sharing borders in the north and east with Brazil and with Paraguay in the south.
In the 2012 census, it reported a population of 3,412,921, making it the most populated department. The capital is the city of Santa Cruz de la Sierra. The department is one of the wealthiest departments in Bolivia, with huge reserves of natural gas. Besides, it has experienced the highest increase of economic growth during the last 50 years in Bolivia and South America.
Government and administration
According to the current Constitution, the highest authority in the department lies with the governor. The former figure of prefect was appointed by the President of the Republic till 2005, when the prefect for the first time was elected by popular vote to serve for a five-year term. In 2010 the first governor was elected according to the implementation of autonomy after a struggle for almost a decade by the people of Santa Cruz.Santa Cruz also has a Departmental Assembly , which derives but differs from the previous Departmental Council . It is a state legislature with limited legislation powers, being able to make laws in certain subjects in exclusivity and in some others in concurrence with the state legislative branch..
Economy
The department covers a vast expanse of territory in eastern Bolivia, much of it rainforests, extending from the Andes to the border with Brazil. The department's economy depends largely on agriculture, with sugar, cotton, soybeans and rice being grown. The amount of land cultivated by modern farming techniques is increasing rapidly in the Santa Cruz area, where weather allows for two crops a year.In recent years, the discovery of natural gas in the department has led to plans for the development of a regional natural gas industry that is likely to boost the local economy.
Bolivia’s energy minister said two proposed liquefied petroleum gas plants may allow the country to boost supplies to Brazil and Argentina by 2010, easing a shortage of the fuel after a lack of investment reduced output.
The processing plants would be built in Santa Cruz and each would produce about 200 tons of liquefied petroleum gas a day. The plants would help turn a deficit of gas into a “surplus”.
In July 2004, the people voted in a nationwide referendum to allow for regulated exportation of the gas.
The department also hosts El Mutún, the world's second largest iron ore reserve and largest magnesium deposits are also located there. Located in the Germán Busch Province in the Santa Cruz Department of Bolivia, near Puerto Suárez, El Mutún extends across the border into Brazil, where it is called the Serrania de Jacadigo. Also known as the "Serrania Mutún", it has an area of about 75 square kilometers. Its estimated reserves are about 40.205 billion tons of iron ore of 50% iron, mainly in hematite and magnetite form, and in lesser quantities in siderite and manganese minerals. This can be compared with an estimate of the total world reserves of iron ore: 800 billion tons of crude ore containing more than 230 billion tons of iron.
Geography
Santa Cruz Department is the largest of the Bolivian departments and covers a wide and diverse area. In the west lies a series of temperate Sub-Andean ranges and valleys while to the north and south lies two different lowlands areas; the Beni and Chaco lowlands respectively. To the northeast lies the flat Llanos Chiquitanos areas and beyond these the Serranías Chiquitanas ranges. In the far east the departments have small parts of the huge Pantanal wetland.Waters
The rivers of Santa Cruz are part of any of two basins: the Amazon Basin and the Plate Basin.The main rivers in the norther basin are river Iténez, making the border with Brazil, Río Grande, river Piraí and river Itonomas.
In the southern basin, the main rivers are river Paraguay and its tributaries, including river Negro.
The main lakes are lake Mandioré, Uberaba, lake La Gaiba, Laguna de Marfil, Concepción and lake San Jorge.
The rivers by length within Santa Cruz:
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from:start till:983 text:Itonomas
from:start till:938 text:Grande/Guapay
from:start till:555 text:Paraguá
from:start till:457 text:Piraí
from:start till:425 text:Blanco
from:start till:380 text:Negro
from:start till:370 text:Ichilo
from:start till:335 text:Yapacaní
from:start till:269 text:Parapetí
from:start till:260 text:Mamorecillo
from:start till:254 text:Iténez/Guaporé
from:start till:155 text:Paucerna
from:start till:133 text:Verde
from:start till:80 text:Quizer
from:start till:48 text:Paraguay
8 out of 48 km of the Paraguay not part of the Brazilian border.
The main lakes by their area within the department:
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from:start till:95 text:Uberaba
from:start till:90 text:Mandioré
from:start till:58 text:Concepción
from:start till:52.2 text:de Marfil
from:start till:52 text:La Gaiba
from:start till:50 text:Nuevo Mundo
from:start till:34 text:España
from:start till:33.52 text:Pistola
from:start till:26.5 text:Cáceres
from:start till:24.8 text:Taborga
from:start till:24.8 text:Bellavista
from:start till:15.8 text:Mirim
from:start till:13 text:Chaplín
Demographics
The first settlers of Santa Cruz were mainly Spaniards that accompanied Ñuflo de Chávez, as well as Guarani, and some Flemings, Portuguese, Germans and Italians working for the Spanish crown. Among the first settlers there were also Sephardic Jews recently converted to Christianity who were persecuted by the Inquisition in Spain. Santa Cruz has a multicultural population: 57% are Castizos with both Mestizo and European ascendants, 30% are Natives and 13% are Whites of European descent, of whom about a quarter are so-called "Russian" Mennonites of German tradition, language and descent.Climate
At 416 meters above sea level, it is warm and tropical most of the year. Winters are short and last only 2–3 months but can get very cold very suddenly. "Surazos" can drop the temperature by as much as 30 degrees overnight. This extreme cold lasts only a few days at a time and the beautiful, sub-tropical Santa Cruz is pleasant throughout most of the year. Here the climate varies by geographical zone: temperate to cold in the western sierras and warm to hot and humid as one descends into the extensive plains.Provinces
The Department of Santa Cruz is divided into 15 provinces.| Province | Capital | Area | |
| Andrés Ibáñez | Santa Cruz de la Sierra | 4,821 | 1,653,001 |
| Ignacio Warnes | Warnes | 1,216 | 108,888 |
| José Miguel de Velasco | San Ignacio | 65,425 | 69,972 |
| Ichilo | Buena Vista | 14,232 | 92,721 |
| Chiquitos | San José | 31,429 | 82,429 |
| Sara | Portachuelo | 6,886 | 42,278 |
| Cordillera | Lagunillas | 86,245 | 120,111 |
| Vallegrande | Vallegrande | 6,414 | 26,576 |
| Florida | Samaipata | 4,132 | 32,842 |
| Obispo Santiesteban | Montero | 3,673 | 181,169 |
| Ñuflo de Chávez | Concepción | 54,150 | 116,545 |
| Ángel Sandoval | San Matías | 37,442 | 14,415 |
| Manuel Maria Caballero | Comarapa | 2,310 | 23,267 |
| Germán Busch | Puerto Suárez | 24,903 | 42,799 |
| Guarayos | Ascensión | 20,293 | 48,301 |
Calls for autonomy
During the later stages of the Chaco war between Paraguay and Bolivia, as the Paraguayan army approached Santa Cruz department, local nationalists backed by a Paraguay-based independence movement sought to create a separate independent state in Santa Cruz department.A referendum on autonomy was held in Santa Cruz department in 2008. Eastern departments in Bolivia, including Santa Cruz, have majority of the natural gas reserves. Bolivian president Evo Morales was planning to introduce legislation to tackle the poverty in the country using tax revenues from richer departments like Santa Cruz. Additionally, Morales's attempts to change the constitution were opposed by the opposition governors who run five of Bolivia's nine regions. 85.6 percent voted in favour of autonomy. The Bolivian government considered the referendum illegal.
, Santa Cruz.