CASANARE

departamento, north-central Colombia. It is located in the eastern Llanos (Plains) and is bounded on the west by the Cordillera Oriental, on the north by the Casanare River, and on the south and east by the Meta River. Casanare was an autonomous province during the Colombian wars of independence and was a self-governing national territory in the late 19th century. Until 1974, when it became an intendencia (intendency), Casanare was formally a part of the department of Boyac. The intendencia became a departamento in 1991. Casanare consists of mostly grassland within the Llanos. It is low-lying, tropical in climate (with alternate wet and dry seasons), and has an average elevation of only 3301,300 feet (100400 m). The principal economic activities are cattle raising and subsistence agriculture. Roads were practically nonexistent in the region before the discovery (1978) and foreign extraction (1983) of local petroleum pools. El Yopal is the capital. Area 17,236 square miles (44,640 square km). Pop. (1992 est.) 176,826.