Placilla is a

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...

town A town is a type of a human settlement, generally larger than a village but smaller than a city. The criteria for distinguishing a town vary globally, often depending on factors such as population size, economic character, administrative stat ...

and commune in Colchagua Province, O'Higgins Region.

Demographics

According to the 2002

census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...

of the National Statistics Institute, Placilla spans an area of and has 8,078 inhabitants (4,134 men and 3,944 women). Of these, 2,114 (26.2%) lived in

urban area An urban area is a human settlement with a high population density and an infrastructure of built environment. Urban areas originate through urbanization, and researchers categorize them as cities, towns, conurbations or suburbs. In urbani ...

s and 5,964 (73.8%) 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 are typically desc ...

s. The population grew by 3.6% (279 persons) between the 1992 and 2002 censuses.

Administration

As a commune, Placilla is a third-level

administrative division of Chile The administrative division or territorial organization of Chile exemplifies characteristics of a unitary state. State administration is functionally and geographically decentralized, as appropriate for each authority in accordance with the law ...

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, borough cou ...

, headed by an

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

who is directly elected every four years. The 2012–2016 mayor was José Joaquín Latorre Muñoz ( PDC); Latorre, however, died as a consequence of a car crash on 22 July 2013. Latorre had previously held the mayoral office between 1992 and 2008. He was succeeded by Tulio Contreras Álvarez, a member of the local council, who has been reelected until 2024. He died in 2022, during his third term as mayor of Placilla, and was succeeded by Marcelo González, also a Christian Democrat.

References

External links

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Municipality of Placilla
{{Communes in O'Higgins Region Communes of Chile Populated places in Colchagua Province