Santa Fe is the name of the capital of the

Santa Fe District Santa Fe is a district (''distrito'') of Veraguas Province in Panama. The population according to the 2000 census was 12,890; the latest official estimate (for 2019) is 17,341.Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Censo, Panama. The district, whi ...

in the province of

Veraguas Veraguas () is a province of Panama, located in the centre-west of the country. The capital is the city of Santiago de Veraguas. It is the only Panamanian province to border both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. It covers an area of 10,587.6&nb ...

Panama Panama ( , ; es, link=no, Panamá ), officially the Republic of Panama ( es, República de Panamá), is a transcontinental country spanning the southern part of North America and the northern part of South America. It is bordered by Cos ...

. It has a

population Population typically refers to the number of people in a single area, whether it be a city or town, region, country, continent, or the world. Governments typically quantify the size of the resident population within their jurisdiction using a ...

of 3200 and lies at an altitude of about 430m. Santa Fe lies close to the

continental divide A continental divide is a drainage divide on a continent such that the drainage basin on one side of the divide feeds into one ocean or sea, and the basin on the other side either feeds into a different ocean or sea, or else is endorheic, not ...

and just 60 km from the

Mosquito Coast The Mosquito Coast, also known as the Mosquitia or Mosquito Shore, historically included the area along the eastern coast of present-day Nicaragua and Honduras. It formed part of the Western Caribbean Zone. It was named after the local Miskit ...

at the

Caribbean Sea The Caribbean Sea ( es, Mar Caribe; french: Mer des Caraïbes; ht, Lanmè Karayib; jam, Kiaribiyan Sii; nl, Caraïbische Zee; pap, Laman Karibe) is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean in the tropics of the Western Hemisphere. It is bounded by Mexico ...

, but is only connected to the

Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

coast with a paved road to 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 city of

Santiago de Veraguas Santiago de Veraguas () is the capital of the province of Veraguas, in the Republic of Panama, and the district or municipality of the same name. Located in the countryside next to the Pan American Highway. Bounded on the north by San Francisco Di ...

. Santa Fe is known throughout Panama for its natural environment. The Santa Fe national park surrounds the town in three directions, measuring 72.636 hectares. The park is home to at least 300 bird species, 300 species of orchids and rare flora and fauna. The Santa Maria River and its tributaries spring from the park. The air quality and forests make the area a popular tourist destination for outdoor activities such as hiking and bird watching.

History

After the Spanish conquests in the Americas, what is now the province of Veraguas was awarded to Columbus’ grandson Luís, who launched several expeditions to subdue the native population and firmly establish control. He sold his rights back to the Spanish crown after the attempts proved unsuccessful. The Spanish crown then established the Province of Veragua and made the Spanish captain Francisco Vázquez, survivor of a dramatic El Dorado expedition, its first governor in 1560. Santa Fe was founded around that time for the purpose of gold mining. Very little is known about its early days; the town remained isolated until the 1950s, when rebels tried to instigate a Cuba-like revolution in the area. By that time Santa Fe had become dominated by a few powerful families who controlled most of the resources in the valley. Contact with the outside world was severely limited because of the absence of any paved roads, which made it impossible to travel to the much bigger town of Santiago during most of the year. The situation started to change with the arrival from Colombia of a Catholic priest by the name of Jesús Héctor Gallego Herrera in 1967. Gallego began to organize the peasants into

cooperative A cooperative (also known as co-operative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democratically-control ...

s, thus bypassing the monopolies of the town's elite. By 1971 his popular peasant movement had grown well outside the boundaries of Santa Fe, and Gallego was viewed as an adversary by the country's populist dictator,

Omar Torrijos Omar Efraín Torrijos Herrera (February 13, 1929 – July 31, 1981) was the Commander of the Panamanian National Guard and military leader of Panama from 1968 to his death in 1981. Torrijos was never officially the president of Panama, ...

. With the help of one of the local families, Gallego was arrested one night and "

disappeared An enforced disappearance (or forced disappearance) is the secret abduction or imprisonment of a person by a state or political organization, or by a third party with the authorization, support, or acquiescence of a state or political organiza ...

". However, Santa Fe got connected by road in 1971, and the cooperative founded by Héctor Gallego continues to function until this day.

Gallery

Image:Santa Fe seen from Cerro Mariposa.JPG, Over 1400 meters, Cerro Mariposa is one of the highest peaks near Santa Fe offering an excellent view of the town and its surroundings Image:SantaFe ElTute Panama.jpg, Mount El Tute, symbol of the little town Image:Church SantaFe Panama.jpg, The church in the center of the village Image:El Salto waterfall Santa Fe.JPG, The hamlet of El Salto is about 10 kilometres from Santa Fe, in de Al Alto sub-district Image:Héctor Gallego statue on town square Santa Fe.JPG, Hectór Gallego, a priest who resisted local elites and was eventually killed by Omar Torrijos Image:Cerro Tute seen from Las Brujas, Santa Fe.JPG, Iconic Cerro Tute mountain seen from Las Brujas near Santa Fe Image:Alto de Piedra waterfall Santa Fe.JPG, A small waterfall located near Alto de Piedra, on the road from Santa Fe to Guabal

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Santa Fe, Veraguas Populated places in Veraguas Province Populated places established in 1558