Departamento

Summary

A departamento (Spanish pronunciation: [depaɾtaˈmento]) is a country subdivision in several Latin American countries, mostly as top-level subnational divisions (except in Argentina). It is usually simply translated as "department".

Current use edit

Ten countries currently have departamentos.

Country Level Num. Subdivisions
  Argentina 2nd (under provincias) 378 municipios
  Bolivia 1st 9 provincias
  Colombia 1st 32 municipios
  El Salvador 1st 14 municipios
  Guatemala 1st 22 municipios
  Honduras 1st 18 municipios
  Nicaragua 1st 15 municipios
  Paraguay 1st 17 municipios
  Peru 1st 24 municipios
  Uruguay 1st 19 provincia

Past use edit

Mexico in the 1830s was divided into 24 departamentos, which were first-level divisions. It was during an attempt to centralize the government.