Cotoca

Cotoca
Town
Main church
Cotoca Municipality within Andrés Ibáñez
Cotoca Cotoca Municipality within Andrés Ibáñez
Coordinates: 17°45′13″S 62°59′48″W / 17.75361°S 62.99667°W
Country	Bolivia
Department	Santa Cruz Department
Province	Andrés Ibáñez Province
Municipality	Cotoca
Area
• Total	8.35 km^2 (3.22 sq mi)
Elevation	363 m (1,191 ft)
Population (2012)
• Total	26,305
• Density	3,200/km^2 (8,200/sq mi)
Time zone	BST (UTC-4)

Cotoca is a canton and Municipality of Andrés Ibáñez Province in Santa Cruz Department, Bolivia. The municipality consists of two cantons - Cotoco itself and Puerto Pailas. In 2010 it had an estimated population of 23,951 for the canton and 56,451 for the municipality. ^[1]

In 1799, the Catholic Church authorised the building of a shrine to the Virgen de Cotoca, an image of Mary (mother of Jesus) that was seen in the town. The Virgin is now the patron saint of the entire province of Santa Cruz and her feast from 8 to 15 December draws thousands of Bolivians. ^[2]

The population increased tenfold in the last forty years:

Year	Canton	Municipality
1976	2,107[3]
1992	9,229[4]	21,252 [5]
2001	15,181[6]	36,425[7]
2009	23 951[8]	56,451[9]

Politics

In the Bolivian regional election, 2010, Cotoca placed the Verdes (Bolivia) party of Governor Rubén Costas first, although by less than the overall result for the province: ^[10]

Party	Votes	%	% across Department
Verdes (Bolivia)	5,623	34.0%	50.6%
MAS	3,533	21.4%	36.3%
Tiluchi	3149	19.1%	n/a
SOL	3067	18.6%	n/a
ASIP	703	4.3%	n/a
Broad Front (MNR & Autonomia)	453	2.7%	4,3%

References

1. "World Gazetteer". Archived from the original on 2008-10-24.
2. See Virgen de Cotoca
3. Thomas Brinkhoff: City Population
4. Nacional de Estadística Bolivia (INE) 1992
5. Instituto Nacional de Estadística Bolivia (INE) 1992
6. Instituto Nacional de Estadística Bolivia (INE) 2001
7. Instituto Nacional de Estadística (INE) 2001
8. "World Gazetteer". Archived from the original on 2011-11-20.
9. Instituto Nacional de Estadística - Proyecciones (PDF; 1,59 MB)