Tapajós () was the name for a proposed new
Brazil
Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...
ian
state
State may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Literature
* ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State
* ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States
* ''Our S ...
, which would consist of the western part of the current state of
Pará
Pará is a Federative units of Brazil, state of Brazil, located in northern Brazil and traversed by the lower Amazon River. It borders the Brazilian states of Amapá, Maranhão, Tocantins (state), Tocantins, Mato Grosso, Amazonas (Brazilian state) ...
. Along with a simultaneous proposal to create another state called
Carajás from another part of Pará, the proposal was defeated in a
referendum in 2011 and by law could not be revived until 2015; as of 2019, no new such proposal has been made. Although voters within the territory of the proposed new states voted strongly in favor, the vote was strongly negative among the much larger population in what would have remained of Pará.
Municipalities
The new state's largest city and proposed capital would be
Santarém. Tapajós would have a population of about 1.3 million and an area of , comprising 27 out of Pará's 144
municipalities
A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate.
The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...
. As of 2011, its GDP of
BRL
The Brazilian real (plural, pl. '; currency symbol, sign: R$; ISO 4217, code: BRL) is the official currency of Brazil. It is subdivided into 100 centavos. The Central Bank of Brazil is the central bank and the issuing authority. The real repl ...
6.4 billion constituted 11% of the total GDP of Pará. The planned
Belo Monte Dam
The Belo Monte Dam (''formerly known as'' Kararaô) is a hydroelectric dam complex on the northern part of the Xingu River in the state of Pará, Brazil. After its completion, with the installation of its 18th turbine, in November 2019, the inst ...
would be located on the border of the territory of Tapajós with either the new, smaller Pará or the also proposed new state of
Carajás.
The two most populous municipalities would be Santarém (population 294,774) and
Altamira
Altamira may refer to:
People
* Altamira (surname)
Places
*Cave of Altamira, a cave in Cantabria, Spain famous for its paintings and carving
*Altamira, Pará, a city in the Brazilian state of Pará
* Altamira, Huila, a town and municipality in ...
(population 105,030).
List of municipalities in the proposed state
2011 referendum
In a referendum held on December 11, 2011, the residents of the entire state of Pará were asked to vote on proposals to split the state into three parts: Tapajós in the west,
Carajás in the southeast, and a rump Pará in the northeast. The proposal to create Tapajós was defeated by a margin of 66.1% to 33.9%. Voting was highly polarized regionally, with voters in the territories of the proposed new states voting strongly in favor, while voters in the rump Pará voted strongly against. In particular, more than 90% of voters in Santarém voted in favor, while more than 90% of voters in Pará's capital city of
Belém
Belém (; Portuguese for Bethlehem; initially called Nossa Senhora de Belém do Grão-Pará, in English Our Lady of Bethlehem of Great Pará) often called Belém of Pará, is a Brazilian city, capital and largest city of the state of Pará in t ...
voted against. As Belém and its surrounding area comprise over half the population of the original state, the proposal had no chance of passing. The mayor of Santarém, Maria do Carmo, vowed to continue efforts to create the new state.
References
External links
*
See also
*
Carajás - the other proposed state to be carved out of Pará, with the proposal also defeated in the December 2011 referendum
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tapajos (Proposed Brazilian State)
Pará
Proposed states and territories of Brazil