Potosí Department


Potosí is a department in southwestern Bolivia. It comprises 118,218 km² with 823,517 inhabitants. The capital is the city of Potosí.
It is mostly a barren, mountainous region with one large plateau to the west, where the largest salt flat in the world, Salar de Uyuni, is located.
Cerro Potosí was the richest province in the Spanish empire, providing a great percentage of the silver that was shipped to Europe.
Potosi is also the location of the San Cristóbal silver, zinc and lead mines, developed by the US-company Apex Silver Mines Limited of Colorado and in November 2008 sold to the Japanese Sumitomo Corporation.

Government

The chief executive office of Bolivia departments 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, Esteban Urquizu Cuéllar of the Movement for Socialism – Political Instrument for the Sovereignty of the Peoples was elected on 4 April 2010.
Date BeganDate EndedPrefect/GovernorPartyNotes
23 Jan 200630 May 2010Mario Virreira IporreMAS-IPSPFirst elected prefect. Elected in Bolivian general election, December 2005
30 May 201031 May 2015Félix GonzálesMAS-IPSPElected in regional election on 4 April with 63.1% of the vote; first governor
30 May 201031 May 2015Juan Carlos CejasMAS-IPSPElected in regional election on 29 March.

Legislative Assembly

Under the 2009 Constitution, each Bolivian department has an elected Departmental Legislative Assembly. The first elections were held 4 April 2010.

Provinces of Potosi Department

The department is divided into 16 provinces which are further subdivided into 40 municipalities and 219 cantons.
ProvinceCapitalArea km²Population
Map Number
Alonso de IbáñezSacaca2.17029.8211
Antonio QuijarroUyuni14,89054,94712
Bernardino BilbaoArampampa64010,2242
CharcasSan Pedro de Buena Vista2,96441,2143
ChayantaColquechaca7,02697,2515
Cornelio SaavedraBetanzos2,37555,1007
Daniel CamposLlica12,1065,85013
Enrique BaldiviesoSan Agustín2,2541,68415
José María LinaresPuna5,13649,6198
Modesto OmisteVillazón2,26044,64511
Nor ChichasCotagaita8,97942,2489
Nor LípezColcha K20,89214,05714
Rafael BustilloUncía2,23586,9474
Sud ChichasTupiza8,51655,87910
Sud LípezSan Pablo de Lípez22,3556,83516
Tomás FríasPotosí3,420229,0476

Languages

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

Places of interest