Las Tejerías is a city in

Aragua Aragua State ( es, Estado Aragua, ) is one of the 23 States of Venezuela, states of Venezuela. It is located in the north-central region of Venezuela. It has plains and jungle (terrain), jungles and Caribbean beaches. The most popular are Cata a ...

Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...

. It is the capital of the

Santos Michelena Santos Michelena (1797–1848) was a Venezuelan politician. Born in Maracay, Aragua. He was the vice president of Venezuela from 1841 until 1845. He also served as Minister of Foreign Affairs of Venezuela three times, under three different presi ...

municipality, and it had a population of 54,392 people in 2018. The name of the city is thought to have originated from

pottery Pottery is the process and the products of forming vessels and other objects with clay and other ceramic materials, which are fired at high temperatures to give them a hard and durable form. Major types include earthenware, stoneware and por ...

, as well as the manufacture of

tile Tiles are usually thin, square or rectangular coverings manufactured from hard-wearing material such as ceramic, stone, metal, baked clay, or even glass. They are generally fixed in place in an array to cover roofs, floors, walls, edges, or o ...

brick A brick is a type of block used to build walls, pavements and other elements in masonry construction. Properly, the term ''brick'' denotes a block composed of dried clay, but is now also used informally to denote other chemically cured cons ...

s and

adobe Adobe ( ; ) is a building material made from earth and organic materials. is Spanish for ''mudbrick''. In some English-speaking regions of Spanish heritage, such as the Southwestern United States, the term is used to refer to any kind of e ...

Location

The city is located at 510 meters above sea level in the transitional zone between the coastal mountain range and the Aragua valleys. Its origins date back to the end of the 19th century, linked to the construction of the Caracas-Valencia railway. The

Pan-American Highway The Pan-American Highway (french: (Auto)route panaméricaine/transaméricaine; pt, Rodovia/Auto-estrada Pan-americana; es, Autopista/Carretera/Ruta Panamericana) is a network of roads stretching across the Americas and measuring about in to ...

and the Central Regional Highway run near to the city.

Local economy

Much of the economy is based on industrial activities, where agroindustries and

manufacturing Manufacturing is the creation or production of goods with the help of equipment, labor, machines, tools, and chemical or biological processing or formulation. It is the essence of secondary sector of the economy. The term may refer to a r ...

stand out. There is agricultural development of pig breeding and sugar cane cultivation, but industrial and urban landscapes have replaced the fertile traditional agricultural spaces. Las Tejerías has two industrial zones of vital importance for the state of Aragua, with multiple important companies such as Mack de Venezuela, Galletera Puig, Concrecasa, La Montserratina and the

Chery Chery Automobile Co. Ltd., trading as Chery and sometimes known by the pinyin transcription of its Chinese name, ''Qirui'' (), is a Chinese state-owned automobile manufacturer headquartered in Wuhu, Anhui, China. Founded in 1997, it is curre ...

vehicle assembler. The first generation Range Rover was produced in the city.

History

On September 28, 1993, an accident occurred on the Central Regional Highway, as a result of the accidental rupture of a gas pipeline adjacent to the road. The event has been remembered in Venezuelan public opinion since then as the Tragedy of Las Tejerías, which left 53 people dead and 70 injured. In 2003, the Provegran Accident occurred in the city, leaving 9 dead.

2022 landslide

On the night of October 8, 2022, the Los Patos stream overflowed due to heavy rainfall caused by

Hurricane Julia The name Julia has been used for three tropical cyclones in the Atlantic Ocean and one subtropical medicane. In the Atlantic: * Hurricane Julia (2010) – Category 4 hurricane, churned across the open ocean without threatening land * Tropical ...

, causing a landslide. The next day, 43 dead and more than 50 missing were officially confirmed. The president of Venezuela

Nicolás Maduro Nicolás Maduro Moros (; born 23 November 1962) is a Venezuelan politician and president of Venezuela since 2013, with his presidency under dispute since 2019. Beginning his working life as a bus driver, Maduro rose to become a trade unio ...

decreed three days of mourning as a result of the tragedy.

Delcy Rodríguez Delcy Eloína Rodríguez Gómez (born 18 May 1969) is a Venezuelan politician serving as the vice president of Venezuela since 2018. She was also Minister of Popular Power for Communication and Information of Venezuela from 2013 to 2014, Mini ...

, the executive vice president of Venezuela, visited the site to evaluate and organize teams to care for those affected.

References

Cities in Aragua Populated places established in 1904 {{DEFAULTSORT:Las Tejerías