Yaracuy

The tribes of the Jirajaras, the coyones, the guayones, the chipas, the noaras, the ayamanes and the caquetíos, constituted the primitive inhabitants of the area; The jirajaras, the guayones and the caquetíos distinguished themselves from these tribes, due to their expansion and dominance.

With certainty, there is little data about the way of life that the indigenous people who populated the Yaracuy regions led. The information we have is based on the references given by people who passed through those sites during colonization and on the persistent remains at that time. The Indians who inhabited the lands of the Yaracuy were almost entirely nomads, led a slightly sedentary life and lived in constant confrontation with their neighbors. They essentially relied on hunting and fishing, since they did not apply much to agriculture, something in which the jirajaras differed from the rest of the tribes, as they characterized themselves as great farmers.

These primitive inhabitants dedicated temples and offered sacrifices to the divinity, they also had combat techniques (poisoned arrows) and some ate human flesh. Their villages were sometimes up to half a mile in length, and the tribes were organized into obedient confederations, each with a chief chieftain. The women were slender and beautiful, which is why the valley was called by the Spanish "Valley of the Ladies".

Yaracuy as part of the Province of Barquisimeto in 1840

The territory of the Yaracuy State belonged to the province of Venezuela created in 1527, then to the Province of Caracas and later the Province of Carabobo. By the Law of Territorial Political Division of the Republic of 1824, the lands of the Yaracuy State were included in the Province of Carabobo, to which the cantons of San Felipe, Yaritagua and Nirgua belonged.

Later in 1832 the Province of Barquisimeto was created to which the cantons of San Felipe and Yaritagua belonged, while that of Carabobo retained its jurisdiction over the canton of Nirgua, the latter being separated from the Yaracuyana community. Then in 1855, under the presidency of José Tadeo Monagas, a new province was created made up of the cantons San Felipe and Yaritagua of the Province of Barquisimeto and Nirgua, of that of Carabobo, with San Felipe as the capital. In this way, the Province of Yaracuy became one of the 21 territorial units that made up the country.

In 1864, under the Federalist Constitution it was renamed Yaracuy State and in subsequent years it was subject to several modifications until 1899, when the 20 federal states were established according to the 1864 constitution, among them Yaracuy, which since then has been maintained as a federal entity.

Average annual temperatures and rainfall are high with variations depending on the altitude: the climate is temperate at the top of its mountains, the subtropical climate in the high valleys of the Sierra de Nirgua; and in most of the state the tropical climate prevails, with average annual temperatures of 22°C and annual rainfall of 1900 mm.

In the valleys of Aroa and Yaracuy, the average temperature is 26 °C and rainfall exceeds 1000 mm per year. Humidity conditions are optimal for cocoa cultivation in the northern sector; in San Felipe 1374 mm of rain is registered, descending to 1332 mm in Chivacoa and 1098 mm in Urachiche. In the highlands of the Sierra de Aroa and part of the Nirgua massif, rainfall is recorded during most of the year, exceeding 1400 mm per year, thus enabling the formation of its most representative vegetation, the evergreen forest.

Cabuy dam, Yaracuy state

The most important rivers belong to the Caribbean basin and are the Yaracuy and Aroa, both of which are over 130 km long. The Yaracuy River crosses Yaracuy and Carabobo, where it forms the Urachiche Gorge, and has the characteristics of a plain river. In the rainy season, its waters tend to go out of the way producing floods. It receives numerous fluvial currents, like Quebrada Grande, Guama, Yurubí, Agua Blanca and Taría, among others.

The Aroa River has its source at 1200 m altitude, on the northern slope of Palo Negro Hill, north of the entity. Its basin covers an area of 2402 km², located between the basins of the Tocuyo River, to the north and west, and the Yaracuy River, to the south and east. Important tributaries are the Yumare, Tupe, Zamuro, Guarataro and Tesorero rivers, as well as the Guacamaya, Carapita, Guaicayare and Galapago streams. It flows through the Golfo Triste into the Caribbean Sea, after a journey of approximately 150 km. Other rivers such as the Turbio and Buria are shorter and flow into the Orinoco basin through the Portuguesa and Cojedes Rivers, respectively. The Cabuy, San Pablo, Yurubí, Guama, Tamboral, Yumare and Crucito Rivers are also located here.

In general, the rivers of the Yaracuy state are characterized by being irregular, that is, the rest of the rivers, outside of the main ones, do not maintain their fixed flow throughout the year; This fact is not due to evaporation, nor to deforestation at the headwaters of the rivers, nor to the rainy regime of the area. The cause of this irregularity is the nature and sandy constitution of the basin where the rivers flow.

Cerro Azul waterfall, Yaracuy

Yaracuy offers throughout its geography a number of rivers such as: the Yaracuy, Yurubí, Aroa, Guama, Los Ureros, Carabobo, etc., and three reservoirs, Cumaripa, Guaremal and Cabuy. The rivers of the Yaracuy State are part of the Caribbean slope and the Atlantic slope. The Yaracuy and Aroa river basins correspond to the side of the Caribbean Sea, and the Cabuy, Turbio, Buria, and Nirgua rivers fall into the Atlantic basins, which form the hydrographic system of the Cojedes and San Carlos rivers.

Water plays a preponderant role in the development of agricultural and industrial activity. In this sense, the Yaracuy state does not present restrictions, given the abundance of water resources it possesses, due to the magnitude of the rainfall that in its territory determines high annual runoff yields in its different hydrographic basins.

Regarding groundwater, the entity has a high potential, which represents positive perspectives for the development of agriculture under irrigation.

65% of the territory of the Yaracuy state is made up of mountainous formations and foothills of hills, which in their distribution allow to differentiate three large spaces, these are: the Bobare Coordillera, which separates the Yaracuy state from the Falcón state; the Sierra de Aroa, separated from the Bobare Coordillera by the Aroa River Valley, and the Macizo de Nirgua, separated from the Sierra de Aroa by the Turbio-Yaracuy Depression, giving rise to an alternation of mountains, flat lands, valleys and depressions.

Mountainous landscape in the State of Yaracuy

The Yaracuy state relief is extremely diverse, presenting an alternation of valleys, plains, depressions, foothills and mountains (65% of the territory). It corresponds to the sector where the Coordillera de los Andes ends, and the Coordillera de la Costa begins, a sector that is occupied by three well-differentiated formations, the Macizo de Nirgua, the Sierra de Aroa and that of Bobare, the three separated from each other by the Yaracuy Turbio depression and the Aroa River Valley.

The Nirgua Massif formed by a group of foothills that are linked to the coastal range, has its culminating point at Cerro la Copa (1810 m). The Sierra de Aroa, located in the central part and oriented in a southwest–northeast direction, divides the two main depressions and has its highest point at Cerro el Tigre (1780 m). The Sierra de Bobare separates Yaracuy from Falcón.

In the northern part of Yaracuy State, sand and silt (mud) can be found mostly, while other sectors present a frank-clayey character. The state has significant mineral resource potential, especially in the non-metallic category, among which are sand and gravel, red clay, limestone, talc, marble, feldspathic sands, peat, feldspars, and gypsum.

Exotic Tropical Flora Park, Yaracuy State

The more representative vegetation of the forest entities is that, despite the interventions to which they have been subjected, it proliferates both in the valleys of the Aroaya-Yaracuyuy rivers and in the Nirgua field. At an altitude of 800msnms, a dense cloud forest develops, while on the banks of the Yar River, the forest prevails. The rest of the state space is covered by bushes, savannah vegetation, pastures and cultivated areas, fundamentally due to the greater human intervention.

The flora of the state of Yaracuy is very varied, and has been the subject of numerous studies. Some regions of the state were visited by the Swiss naturalist Henri Pittier in the 1820s, who left detailed records of his findings in numerous publications and deposited the first botanical samples in the herbarium of the Museo Comercial e Industrial de Venezuela, which later became part of the National Herbarium of Venezuela. However, botanical activity in subsequent years has been irregular and some groups of plants are still considered underrepresented in national herbariums. Recently, several specific inventories of floristic elements from the natural and cultivated regions of the state have been made.

An Iguana in Nirgua, Yaracuy State

At least 40 species of land mammals and 51 species of bats have been recorded in the Sierra de Aroa, and at least one species of shrew and tree frog endemic to this locality has been described.

Exhaustive inventories of the insects of the state of Yaracuy have not been published, but there are some specific studies of the diurnal butterflies and coprophagous beetles in an agricultural-forest mosaic of the foothills of Zapatero Hill in the Guáquira hacienda.

Among the butterflies, some 129 species were registered, predominantly from the family Nymphalidae, but it is estimated that there are more than 240 species. At least 22 species of beetles were also found, including a species endemic to Venezuela, Bdelyropsis venezuelensis Howden, 1976.

It is made up of the Yaracuy State Governor and a group of State Secretaries appointed by him who assist him in government functions. The Governor is elected by the people by direct and secret vote for a period of four years and with the possibility of immediate reelection for equal periods, being in charge of the state administration.

Since 1989, governors have been chosen in direct elections by the population, the current government is headed by Julio César León Heredia, who has been in power since 2008.

The state legislature rests on the Yaracuy State Legislative Council, a unicameral parliament, elected by the people by direct and secret vote every four years, being able to be re-elected for additional consecutive periods, under a system of proportional representation of the state population and its municipalities, the State has 9 deputies. The regional parliament approves the local budget and state laws.

One of the administrative buildings of the Government of Yaracuy

According to the 2011 Census, the racial composition of the population was:[6]