Along the Llanos-Andes Border in Zamora, Venezuela

OME of the communities of South America now have a relatively lower position than they enjoyed in colonial days. Such is the state of Zamora in Venezuela, whose capital, Barinas, was once second only to Caracas in size and importance. The prime cause of its backwardness is assuredly the poor state of communications, discouraging alike immigration of foreigners and enterprise on the part of the native inhabitants. Here is a state with an area of I3,500 square miles-larger than Massachusetts and Connecticutand a population density of only four to the square mile (I926), almost the lowest rank among the Venezuelan states. The roads within the state itself and those connecting it with external centers are practically intransitable in the wet season. The automobile road from Pedraza (Ciudad Bolivia) to Acarigua is open only five months of the year, and even then one may be delayed in fording a flooded stream. From May to November, inclusive, travel in any degree of personal comfort is impossible. Necessary traffic in freight is carried on by pack trains which cross the mountains in the Santo Domingo Valley to connect with the great Transandine highway. A little freight comes in bongos, dugout canoes, up the rivers Canagua, Suripa, and Santo Domingo from the Apure. Mule carts come from Acarigua to Barinas in a week or ten days over water-soaked roads. This shows how necessary is the completion of the road under construction from Acarigua, Portuguesa, to San Crist6bal, Tachira. The number of large rivers to be bridged makes the project particularly costly. Except in a few places, the road, the Carretera Occidental, follows a major physiographic boundary-that between the llanos and the mountains. This interesting border region has been mapped by the author and is shown in Figure I.1 THE LLANOS

Geography · Cultural and political discourse analysis · Environmental and Ecological Studies · Gender, Health, and Social Inequality · History

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