GUAVIARE

departamento, southeastern Colombia. Guaviare lies in an area of tropical, semideciduous rain forest merging into Llanos, grassland plains, on the north. It is bounded on the north by the Guaviare River; on the east by the highlands of the mesas (tablelands) Cubiy and Carur; on the south by the departamentos of Vaups and Caquet; and on the west and north by Meta departamento. Guaviare's area incorporated the majority of Vaups' inhabitants when it was formed as a comisara (commissariat) in 1977; it became a departamento in 1991. Guaviare has one principal settlement, the frontier capital San Jos del Guaviare, located on the right bank of the Guaviare River in the north. Land transportation is provided by an unimproved road from Bogot, to the northwest, through Villavicencio, capital of Meta departamento, to San Jos del Guaviare. Difficult river transport on the Guayabero and Guaviare rivers exists for light-cargo transport. Air service, however, is the primary form of access to San Jos del Guaviare from northern and western Colombia. Many of the area's inhabitants are indigenous Indians. Area 16,342 square miles (42,327 square km). Pop. (1992 est.) 63,886.