Oruro Department

Department of Oruro
Santuario de la Virgen del Socavón, Carnaval de Oruro, 2007
Flag
Location within Bolivia
Country	Bolivia
Capital	Oruro
Provinces	16
Government
– Governor	Santos Tito (MAS-IPSP
Area
– Total	53,558 km2 (20,678.9 sq mi)
Population (2005)
– Total	384,494
– Density	7.18/km2 (18.6/sq mi)
Time zone	BOT (UTC-4)
ISO 3166-2	BO-O
Languages	Spanish, Quechua, Aymara
Website	http://www.oruro.gob.bo/

Oruro is a department in Bolivia, with an area of 53,588 km². Its capital is the city of Oruro. At the time of census 2001 it had a population of 391,870.

Provinces of Oruro

The department is divided into 16 provinces which are further subdivided into municipalities and cantons.

Province	Area (km²)	Capital
Atahuallpa	5,885	Sabaya
Carangas	5,472	Corque
Cercado	5,766	Oruro
Eduardo Avaroa	4,015	Challapata
Ladislao Cabrera	8,818	Salinas de Garcí Mendoza
Litoral	2,894	Huachacalla
Puerto de Mejillones	785	La Rivera
Nor Carangas	870	Huayllamarca
Pantaleón Dalence	1,210	Huanuni
Poopó	3,061	Poopó
Sajama	5,790	Curahuara de Carangas
San Pedro de Totora	1,487	Totora
Saucarí	1,671	Toledo
Sebastian Pagador	1,972	Santiago de Huari
Sud Carangas	3,536	Santiago de Andamarca
Tomás Barrón	356	Eucaliptus

Government

The chief executive office of Bolivia departments (since May 2010) is the governor; until then, the office was called the prefect, and until 2006 the prefect was appointed by the President of Bolivia. The current governor, Santos Tito of the Movement for Socialism – Political Instrument for the Sovereignty of the Peoples, was elected on 4 April 2010.

The chief legislative body of the department is the Departmental Legislative Assembly, a body also first elected on 4 April 2010. It consists of 33 members: 16 elected by each of the department's provinces; 16 elected based on proportional representation; and minority indigenous representative selected by the Uru-Chipaya people.

Gubernatorial Candidate		Party	Votes for Governor	Percentage	Assembly Members by Territory	Votes for Assembly by Population	Percentage	Assembly Members by Population	Total Assembly Members
	Santos Tito	Movement for Socialism	107.576	59,6%	15	83.220	56,1%	10	25
	Iver Pereira Vásquez	Without Fear Movement	53.111	29,4	1	47.319	31,9%	5	6
		National Unity Front	13.933	7,7%	0	12.277	8,3%	1	1
	Guillermo Zolá Eugenio	Nationalist Revolutionary Movement	5.800	3,2%	0	5.612	3,8%	0	0
	Indigenous Representatives		Elected through usos y costumbres						1
		Valid votes	180.420	81,5%		148.428	67,1%
		Blank votes	28.055	12,7		62.222	30,2%
		Null votes	12.939	5,8%		10.706	4,8%
		Total votes	221.414	87,5% of registered voters	16	221.356	87,4% of registered voters	16	33
Source: Corte Nacional Electoral, Acto de Computo Nacional, Boletín 22: Explicación asignación de escaños departamentales

Languages

The languages spoken in the department are mainly Spanish, Quechua and Aymara. The following table shows the number of those belonging to the recognized group of speakers.^[1]

Language	Department	Bolivia
Quechua	134,289	2,281,198
Aymara	127,086	1,525,321
Guaraní	383	62,575
Another native	1,943	49,432
Spanish	342,332	6,821,626
Foreign	6,878	250,754
Only native	30,745	960,491
Native and Spanish	188,963	2,739,407
Spanish and foreign	153,439	4,115,751

Notable people

• Evo Morales who has been the Bolivian president since 2006 was born in the little village of Isallawi near Orinoca.

Places of interest

• Sajama National Park
• Parinacota Volcano
• Sajama Lines
• Poopó Lake
• Lake Uru Uru

See also

• Oruro Symphony Orchestra

References

1. ^ obd.descentralizacion.gov.bo (Spanish)

External links

• Oruro Travel Guide
• Weather in Oruro
• Carnaval 2009 folklore
• Technical University of Oruro
• Oruro News
• Feria Exposición
•  Chisholm, Hugh, ed (1911). "Oruro". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. 

Coordinates: 18°40′S 67°40′W / 18.667°S 67.667°W / -18.667; -67.667