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Camaguán is a town in the southwestern part of Guárico State, Venezuela. Founded by the Catholic Church in 1768, it is the capital of the Esteros de Camaguán Municipality. According to a 2022 estimate, the town has a population of 29,848.
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Camaguán is a town in the southwestern part of Guárico State, Venezuela. Founded by the Catholic Church in 1768, it is the capital of the Esteros de Camaguán Municipality. According to a 2022 estimate, the town has a population of 29,848.
Camaguán was founded on 24 September 1768 by the Capuchin priest and missionary Fray Tomás de Castro, on a sandbar located on the left bank of the Portuguesa River. The new town was established under the religious advocation of Christ "Humildad y Paciencia" ("Humility and Patience"), with a nation of Guamo indigenous people who had been gathered in 52 families. On 24 September 1768, Monsignor Diego Antonio Diez Madroñero, then Bishop of Venezuela, issued a formal decree concerning the foundation of Camaguán.
In the state constitution of 1872, promulgated by the Legislative Assembly of the state, Camaguán appears as the capital of the Departamento Crespo, which then comprised the Guayabal and Cazorla municipalities. Today, Camaguán is the capital of the Esteros de Camaguán Municipality, named for its wildlife reserve. The municipality includes the parishes of Puerto Miranda, Uverito and Camaguán, and is the second smallest of Guárico.
The Esteros de Camaguán Municipality is a wetland area of the western Venezuelan Llanos, characterized by a seasonal hydrological regime conditioned by rainfall and flooding cycles. The predominant landscape is an alluvial plain structured in three main geomorphological units: bank, lowland and estero (wetland), each with vegetation adapted to varying levels of moisture and to soils saturated for much of the year.
The rainy season is cloudy and the dry season is windy and mostly cloudy, with high temperatures and humidity throughout the year. Temperatures generally vary between 22 °C and 35 °C, rarely dropping below 21 °C or exceeding 37 °C.
The wetland area covers about 19,300 hectares, though the total surface of the Esteros de Camaguán is larger. As one of the largest water reserves in Venezuela, it originates from various tributaries of the Orinoco basin, including the Portuguesa, Capanaparo and Apure, which give the waters their characteristic dark color.
The Esteros de Camaguán have one of the greatest diversities of birds in the Llanos region, including various species of herons, storks (gabanes), spoonbill herons, jabirus (garzones), and various species of toucans, hawks, and hummingbirds.
Species present in the Portuguesa and Guárico rivers, within Camaguán territory, include the yacare caiman, anacondas, boa constrictors, mata mata turtles, sliders and the Orinoco crocodile.
Common mammal species include the Amazon river dolphin (tonina, critically endangered), the capybara (chigüire) and the armadillo (cachicamo).
Camaguán has typical Llanos and savanna vegetation, with abundant palms, trees, water lilies, herbaceous plants, carnivorous plants and naturally growing rice. In winter much of the recent vegetation dies as a result of rising water levels.
The area produces rice, and has zones devoted to fish farming, raising species such as catfish, cachama, bocachico, palometa, chorrosco and mije. Fishing is practiced year-round; when waters recede, fish concentrate in lagoons. The Esteros de Camaguán also offer recreational activities such as boat rides.
The Esteros de Camaguán Wildlife Reserve was declared by Presidential Decree number 729 of 9 March 2000, published in Gaceta Oficial number 36,911 of 15 March 2000. The reserve is located between the Francisco de Miranda and Esteros de Camaguán municipalities, with an approximate area of 19,300 hectares. Annual precipitation averages 1,600 mm and average annual temperature is 27 °C.
The reserve is a seasonal floodplain of the western Llanos. In the rainy season the rising waters of the Portuguesa River fill the esteros, located in southwestern Guárico, which become navigable in winter. The landscape features herons and a wide variety of birds, mammals and reptiles, including the toninas of the Orinoco. In the dry season, dust devils (tolvaneras) sweep across the dry savanna and "mirages" suggest lagoons in the distance where sky and savanna meet. The site has been recognized by BirdLife International as an Important Bird Area (IBA), meeting criteria A1 and A3 for the conservation of waterbirds and Llanos endemics.
The landscapes of the Esteros de Camaguán have inspired Venezuelan artists. The wetlands appear in the paintings of Cástor Vásquez, known as "El Pintor del Estero" ("The Painter of the Estero"), in the poems of Germán Fleitas Beroes, and in songs popularized from the 1950s onward, including those composed by Ángel Custodio Loyola ("El Renco Loyola"), Magdalena Sánchez and Mario Suárez (notably "Esteros de Camaguán"). The melody of that song was composed by the camaguanense harpist Juan Vicente Torrealba, with lyrics by Germán Fleitas Beroes; the work has been declared cultural heritage of Guárico State.
The town is known for its casabe (cassava flatbread). Other typical foods include the carne en vara, quesadillas, traditional sweets, and exotic dishes such as pisillo de baba (shredded caiman) and chigüire.
Camaguán is crossed by the Troncal 2 highway, with Avenida Juan Vicente Torrealba serving as the city's main thoroughfare running north–south. Avenida Carrizalero is the second-most important route, serving the industrial sector and leading to Puerto Carrizalero in the northwest. Avenida Camino Real connects the center with residential sectors and the Pedagogical University Libertador (UPEL-IMPM).
Juan Vicente Torrealba (1917–2019), harpist and composer, who although born in Caracas spent his childhood and adolescence at his family's ranch (Hato Banco Largo) near the town, where he learned to play the harp. In 2009 a statue of him was unveiled in Camaguán along the avenue that bears his name.