Llanos (Colombia)

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Llanos (Colombia)

The eastern tropical plains of Colombia cover approximately 98,000 square miles, or one-fifth of the national territory. Stretching eastward from the Eastern Cordillera to the Venezuelan border, the llanos are bounded on the north by the Arauca River and on the south by the Guaviare River. Included within the sparsely populated region are the departments of Arauca, Casanare, Meta, and Vichada, which had a combined population of about 880,000 in 1993. Villavicencio, the capital of Meta and the largest city in the llanos, had a population of 253,000 in 1993.

Cut off from the heart of Colombia by the Eastern Cordillera, the llanos have played a marginal role in the country's history. Although Europeans seeking El Dorado began to explore the region in the 1530s, few Spaniards settled there. In 1778 the llanos were home to only 1,535 whites, who were devoted mainly to cattle raising. In the mid-seventeenth century missionaries moved into the area to proselytize the original inhabitants, who were gathered into mission towns, which numbered thirty-one by 1760.

The llanos became a battleground during the Wars of Independence as well as a place of refuge for patriots during the Spanish reconquest (1816–1819). The region suffered population loss and economic disruption because of the conflict and experienced little growth during the nineteenth century. One significant nineteenth-century change was the decline of the northern llanos and the shift of population south to Meta. Villavicencio, founded in 1850, had a population of nearly 5,000 by 1918.

After 1930 the national government regularized regional administration and created an infrastructure to encourage settlement and development. Cattle raising remained a major economic activity, supplemented by petroleum production and the cultivation of rice and other commercial crops. The llanos were a center of Liberal guerrilla activity during La Violencia, especially during the period 1949–1953, and the scene of agrarian conflict during the 1970s and 1980s.

By 1994 Casanare had become Colombia's leading oil-producing department because of the exploitation of large reserves (about two billion barrels) found there by British Petroleum in association with Ecopetrol, the state petroleum agency, and other foreign firms. Production in the Casanare fields of Cusiana and Cupiagua peaked in 1999, producing 434,000 barrels daily.

See alsoWars of Independence, South America .