Canela is one of four

communes An intentional community is a voluntary residential community which is designed to have a high degree of social cohesion and teamwork from the start. The members of an intentional community typically hold a common social, political, religious, ...

in the

Choapa Province Choapa Province is one of the provinces making up the Coquimbo Region of Chile. It has an area of 10,079.8 km² and a population of 81,681. The capital of the province is the town of Illapel. Administration The current presidential provinci ...

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

's north-central IV Coquimbo Region. The

capital Capital may refer to: Common uses * Capital city, a municipality of primary status ** List of national capital cities * Capital letter, an upper-case letter Economics and social sciences * Capital (economics), the durable produced goods used f ...

is the town of Canela Baja.

Administration

As a

commune A commune is an alternative term for an intentional community. Commune or comună or comune or other derivations may also refer to: Administrative-territorial entities * Commune (administrative division), a municipality or township ** Communes of ...

, Canela is administered by a

municipal council A municipal council is the legislative body of a municipality or local government area. Depending on the location and classification of the municipality it may be known as a city council, town council, town board, community council, rural counci ...

, headed by a directly elected

alcalde Alcalde (; ) is the traditional Spanish municipal magistrate, who had both judicial and administrative functions. An ''alcalde'' was, in the absence of a corregidor, the presiding officer of the Castilian '' cabildo'' (the municipal council) a ...

. The municipal building (''alcaldía'') is located at Luis Infante Nº 520 in Canela Baja. The commune is administered by alcalde Juan Bernardo Leyton Lemus (Independent-PC) from 2012 to 2016, who won the election with 50,21% of the vote against 41,15% of his nearest rival, former mayor Norman Araya Araya (Independent). The commune has a total of six councilors: # Manuel Ángel Navarro Vega (PC) # Ana Margarita Vega Flores ( PPD) # Miguel Pereira Bugueño ( RN) # Darwin Cortés Palma (

UDI Udi may refer to: Places * Udi, Enugu, a local government areas and city in Nigeria * Udi, a place in the Etawah district of Uttar Pradesh, India People * Udi Gal (born 1979), Israeli Olympic sailor * Udi Vaks (born 1979), Israeli Olympic judoka ...

) # Néstor Valle Tapia (PC- Ind.) # Gustavo Gallardo Trigo ( PDC) Canela belongs to the 9th

electoral district An electoral district, also known as an election district, legislative district, voting district, constituency, riding, ward, division, or (election) precinct is a subdivision of a larger state (a country, administrative region, or other polity ...

and the 4th Senate District (for that of the Coquimbo Region). It is represented in the

Chamber of Deputies The chamber of deputies is the lower house in many bicameral legislatures and the sole house in some unicameral legislatures. Description Historically, French Chamber of Deputies was the lower house of the French Parliament during the Bourbon R ...

of the National Congress by the Members Jorge Insunza Gregorio de las Heras (PPD) and

Luis Lemus Luis Enrique Lemus Dávila (born April 21, 1992 in Aguascalientes City) is a Mexican former professional cyclist, who rode professionally between 2012 and 2018 for the , and teams. Major results ;2011 : 2nd Time trial, National Under-23 Road ...

(PS). Currently, Coquimbo is represented in the

Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

Jorge Pizarro Jorge Pizarro Soto (born April 21, 1952) is a Chilean politician with brief Political Science studies. Since March 1997 he has been a senator for Coquimbo and was the president of the senate from 2010 to 2011. He is a member of the Christian De ...

(PDC) and Adriana Muñoz ( PPD).

Geography

Canela spans an area of . The commune is bordered to the west by the

Pacific Ocean 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 ...

and to the north by three communes of the

Limarí Province Limarí Province ( es, Provincia de Limarí) is one of three provinces of the Chilean region of Coquimbo Region (IV). Its capital is the city of Ovalle Geography and demography According to the 2002 census by the National Statistics Institute ('' ...

Ovalle Ovalle is a city in the Coquimbo Region of Chile, founded in 1831 as a settlement. It has a population of more than 113,000 people. The name Ovalle was chosen to honor to Chile's vice-president, José Tomás Ovalle. Ovalle is the capital of the ...

Punitaqui Punitaqui is a town and commune of Chile in the Limarí Province. History Punitaqui was once part of the Ovalle Department before the administrative restructuring of 1976. 1997 earthquake On October 15, 1997 the town was nearly demolished by ...

, and

Combarbalá Combarbalá is the capital city of the commune of Combarbala. It is located in the Limarí Province, Region of Coquimbo, at an elevation of 900 m (2,952 ft). It is known for the tourist astronomic observatory Cruz del Sur; the petro ...

to the north and east. To the southeast lies the commune of

Illapel Illapel () is a Chilean city, which is the capital of the Choapa Province, Coquimbo Region. It lies along the Illapel River and marks the country's narrowest point along a parallel (94 km). It is located to the east of Los Vilos. Administrat ...

, and

Los Vilos Los Vilos (From mapuche: ''Filu'', ‘snake’) ? is both a Chilean coastal commune and a coastal city with over 9,000 inhabitants (18,275 in comuna), located in the Province of Choapa, part of the IV Region of Coquimbo. The city has a harbour c ...

borders on the south. Canela Baja is located approximately east of the

Panamerican 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 ...

, Route 5, at kilometer 299.

Climate

The waters of the Canela stream flow into the

Choapa River Choapa River or El Río Choapa is a river of Chile located in the Coquimbo Region. The river rises in the Andes, at the confluence of the streams ''Totoral'', ''Leiva'' and ''Del Valle''. The river then flows through the town of Salamanca before ...

, which drains into the Pacific Ocean. The area's climate is steppe or semiarid. The average annual precipitation is about .

Demographics

According to data from the 2002 Census of Population and Housing, the Canela commune had 9,379 inhabitants; of these, 1,744 (18.9%) lived in

urban area An urban area, built-up area or urban agglomeration is a human settlement with a high population density and infrastructure of built environment. Urban areas are created through urbanization and are categorized by urban morphology as cities, t ...

s and 7,635 (81.4%) in

rural area In general, a rural area or a countryside is a geographic area that is located outside towns and cities. Typical rural areas have a low population density and small settlements. Agricultural areas and areas with forestry typically are descri ...

s. Thus, the Canela population represents 1.5% of regional population and 11.4% of the provincial population.

References

External links

*
Municipality of Canela
{{Authority control Communes of Chile Populated places established in 1891 Populated places in Choapa Province 1891 establishments in Chile