Vaupés (Spanish pronunciation:[bawˈpes]) is adepartment of southeasternColombia in thejungle coveredAmazonía Region. It is located in the southeast part of the country, borderingBrazil to the east, the department ofAmazonas to the south,Caquetá to the west, andGuaviare, andGuainía to the north; covering a total area of 54,135 km2. Its capital is the town ofMitú. As of 2018, the population was 40,797, making it the least populous department in Colombia.
With the expansion of the rubber industry and the industrial revolution, exploration for rubber reached the area bringing colonizers that altered and in some cases extinguished the majority of theindigenous population.
The territory was first made into a territorial division in 1910 and functioned asCommissaries (Comisarias) with the town ofCalamar as capital (located in present-dayGuaviare) but later moved to the town of Mitú to make an "act of presence" near the border withBrazil. In 1963Guainía segregated from the Vaupes and became a commissary. In 1977,Guaviare followed the same path.
The department was created after theColombian Constitution of 1991 which established it as a Department of Colombia on July 4, 1991.[7]
Because of its location in theAmazon jungle, it has no roads connecting it with the rest of the country or internally from settlement to settlement, and commerce and contact with the outside world is achieved through travel along the main rivers and by means of air travel. Several of the small settlements have airstrips with service to the department's capital,Mitú, and from there with the rest of the country.[9]
Because of its small population and vast extension of land, Vaupés only has three municipalities. Other sections of the department were classified as special types of corregimientos, which has certain hybrid functions from a municipality and corregimiento.
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