A ' () is a country subdivision in several Latin American countries, mostly as top-level subnational divisions (except in Argentina). It is usually simply translated as "

department Department may refer to: * Departmentalization, division of a larger organization into parts with specific responsibility Government and military *Department (administrative division), a geographical and administrative division within a country, ...

Current use

Ten countries currently have '.

Past use

Mexico in the 1830s was divided into 24 ', which were first-level divisions. It was during an attempt to centralize the government. Types of administrative division {{Geo-term-stub pt:Departamento