The Santiago Mariño Municipality is one of the 18
municipalities
A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate.
The term ''municipality' ...
(
municipio
A ' () or ' () is an administrative division in several Hispanophone and Lusophone nations, respectively. It is often translated as "municipality." It comes from ''mūnicipium'' (), meaning a township.
In English, a municipality often is define ...
s) that makes up the
Venezuela
Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many Federal Dependencies of Venezuela, islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea. It com ...
n state of
Aragua and, according to the 2011 census by the National Institute of Statistics of Venezuela, the municipality has a population of 211,010. The town of
Turmero is the
shire town of the Santiago Mariño Municipality and
Chuao where some of the finest
cocoa bean
The cocoa bean, also known as cocoa () or cacao (), is the dried and fully fermented seed of ''Theobroma cacao'', the cacao tree, from which cocoa solids (a mixture of nonfat substances) and cocoa butter (the fat) can be extracted. Cacao tree ...
s in the world are produced.
[http://www.ine.gob.ve/secciones/division/Aragua.zip ] The municipality is named for Venezuelan independence hero
Santiago Mariño.
Demographics
The Santiago Mariño Municipality, according to a 2007 population estimate by the National Institute of Statistics of Venezuela, has a population of 191,731 (up from 165,436 in 2000). This amounts to 11.5% of the state's population. The municipality's population density is .
Government
The mayor of the Santiago Mariño Municipality is Francisco J. Gerratana, elected on October 31, 2004 with 62% of the vote. He replaced Efren Rodriguez shortly after the elections. The municipality is divided into five
parish
A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...
es; Capital Santiago Mariño, Arévalo Aponte (separated from Capital Santiago Mariño parish effective January 30, 1995),
Chuao, Samán de Güere, and Alfredo Pacheco Miranda (separated from Samán de Güere parish effective December 16, 1997).
Chuao
Chuao is a small village founded in the 16th century famous in the world for its
cacao plantations. The village is surrounded by
mountain
A mountain is an elevated portion of the Earth's crust, generally with steep sides that show significant exposed bedrock. Although definitions vary, a mountain may differ from a plateau in having a limited summit area, and is usually higher t ...
s and dense
rainforest
Rainforests are forests characterized by a closed and continuous tree Canopy (biology), canopy, moisture-dependent vegetation, the presence of epiphytes and lianas and the absence of wildfire. Rainforests can be generally classified as tropi ...
s to the south
Caribbean Sea
The Caribbean Sea is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean in the tropics of the Western Hemisphere, located south of the Gulf of Mexico and southwest of the Sargasso Sea. It is bounded by the Greater Antilles to the north from Cuba ...
near the
Henri Pittier National Park. There is no road access and visitors must come by boat from the town of Puerto Colombia along the coast, or by foot, crossing the mountains and the luxurious
cloud forest
A cloud forest, also called a water forest, primas forest, or tropical montane cloud forest, is a generally tropical or subtropical, evergreen, Montane forest, montane, Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests, moist forest characteri ...
from
Turmero near
Maracay.
In the Chuao plantation there are currently pure Criollo and
hybrid varieties of cacao being grown. Criollo beans from Chuao are of very high quality, and are considered Venezuela's finest beans together with
Porcelana Blanca beans from
Lake Maracaibo (another genetically pure variety of Criollo).
Amedei, an Italian chocolate maker, an
Chocolate NAIVE a Lithuanian bean-to-bar chocolate maker, offer chocolate bars made with Chuao cacao. Naive was the winner of the European gold medal at th
International Chocolate Awards2014.
In November 2000, the cacao beans coming from Chuao region were awarded an
appellation of origin under the title "Cacao de Chuao" (from Spanish ''Cacao de Chuao'')
effectively making this one of the most expensive and sought after types of cacao.
Gallery
File:Chuao 2012 001.jpg, Chuao Bay
Image:cacao.jpg, Cacao beans
Image:Chuao_cacao01.JPG, Chuao cocoa beans under the sun
Image:Chuao_002.JPG, Plaza de Secado. The Church yard where the cocoa beans are sun dried
Image:Chuao_003.JPG, Plaza de Secado. Boy helping his mother to collect the cocoa beans. Chuao. Venezuela
Image:Chuao_004.JPG, Plaza de Secado. The mother collecting the cocoa away from the sun. Chuao. Venezuela
Image:Chuao_001.JPG, Cocoa under fermentation process
File:Iglesia de Chuao.JPG, Chuao church
File:Chuao 2012 003.jpg, Chuao Fishers boats
File:Chuao 2012 000.jpg, Chuao new town
References
External links
santiagomarino-aragua.gob.ve
{{DEFAULTSORT:Santiago Marino Municipality
Municipalities of Aragua
Turmero