San Francisco Municipality, Zulia
{{Infobox settlement
| name = San Francisco
| other_name =
| settlement_type = Municipality
| image_skyline = Plaza Las Banderas.jpg
| imagesize = 300px
| image_caption = Plaza Las Banderas, on the boundary between San Francisco and Maracaibo
| image_seal = Escudo Municipio Blvno San Francisco (Zulia).jpg
| image_flag = Bandera de San Francisco (Zulia).svg
| image_map = Venezuela - Zulia - San Francisco.svg
| map_caption = Location of San Francisco in Zulia and Venezuela
| subdivision_type = Country
| subdivision_name = {{flag|Venezuela}}
| subdivision_type1 = State
| subdivision_name1 = Zulia
| seat_type = Capital
| seat = San Francisco
| leader_title = Mayor
| leader_name = Gustavo Fernandez
| established_title = Created
| established_date = 22 January 1995
| area_total_km2 = 185
| population_as_of = 2011
| population_total = 446757
| population_density_km2 = auto
| timezone = VET
| utc_offset = −4
| coordinates = {{coord|10.56|N|71.64|W|region:VE|display=inline,title}}
| elevation_footnotes =
| elevation_m =
| website = [https://www.alcaldiasanfrancisco.gob.ve/ Official website]
| footnotes =
}}
San Francisco is a municipality in the metropolitan area of Maracaibo, Venezuela's second largest city. San Francisco covers an area of {{convert|185|km2}} and recorded a population of 446,757 in the 2011 Venezuelan census.
Geography
San Francisco is situated on the Maracaibo Plain on the west shore of Tablazo Strait, which connects Lake Maracaibo with the Caribbean Sea. It borders the municipalities of Maracaibo to the north, Jesús Enrique Lossada to the west, and La Cañada de Urdaneta to the south.{{cite report |url=http://www.corpozulia.gob.ve/archivos/SAN_FRANCISCO_2010-2011.pdf |title=Municipio San Francisco |language=es |publisher=Corporación de Desarrollo de la Región Zuliana |date=2010 |accessdate=12 October 2020}}
San Francisco has a semi-arid climate, with an average annual temperature of 27.8 °C and annual rainfall of 700 mm.
History
In his 1830 atlas of Venezuela, Agustín Codazzi recorded a Punta de San Francisco located between the towns of Maracaibo and La Cañada. San Francisco was first officially recorded as the name of a parroquia in 1881.{{cite web |last=Fernández León |first=Julio |date=6 October 2011 |title=HISTORIA DEL MUNICIPIO SAN FRANCISCO (Monografía) |url=http://juliofernandezleon.blogspot.com/2011/10/historia-del-municipio-san-francisco.html |language=es |accessdate=12 October 2020}} The current municipality was created on 22 January 1995 from the parroquias of San Francisco, Francisco Ochoa, Marcial Hernandez, and Domitila Flores, all previously part of the municipality of Maracaibo.{{cite web |url=http://www.ine.gov.ve/documentos/AspectosFisicos/DivisionpoliticoTerritorial/pdf/DPTconFinesEstadisticosOperativa2013.pdf |title=División Político Territorial de la República Bolivariana de Venezuela 2013 |language=es |publisher=National Institute of Statistics (Venezuela) |pages=153–154, 159 |date=September 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200529033749/http://www.ine.gov.ve/documentos/AspectosFisicos/DivisionpoliticoTerritorial/pdf/DPTconFinesEstadisticosOperativa2013.pdf |archive-date=29 May 2020}}
Government
The following people have served as mayor (alcalde) of San Francisco:
- Saady Bijani, 1995–2008{{cite news |last=Pulgar |first=Andreína |date=22 January 2014 |title=San Francisco cumple 19 años entre esperanzas y carencias |url=http://www.laverdad.com/zulia/44782-san-francisco-cumple-19-anos-entre-esperanzas-y-carencias.html |language=es |publisher=La Verdad |accessdate=12 October 2020}}
- Omar Prieto, 2008–2017
- Dirwings Arrieta, 2017–2021{{cite news |date=10 December 2017 |title=Este es el perfil de Dirwings Arrieta, el nuevo alcalde del municipio San Francisco |url=https://noticialdia.com/2017/12/este-perfil-dirwings-arrieta-nuevo-alcalde-del-municipio-san-francisco/ |language=es |publisher=Noticia al Día |accessdate=12 October 2020}}
=Subdivisions=
File:Mapa San Francisco Parroquias.png
San Francisco is divided into seven parroquias, of which San Francisco serves as the capital of the municipality. The newest parroquia is José Domingo Rus, which was created in 2006.
| class="wikitable sortable"
! Parroquia ! Population (2011 census) |
| San Francisco
| 126,852 |
| El Bajo
| 18,554 |
| Domitila Flores
| 124,247 |
| Francisco Ochoa
| 49,088 |
| Los Cortijos
| 32,197 |
| Marcial Hernández
| 33,248 |
| José Domingo Rus
| 62,571 |
Economy
San Francisco is highly urbanized and its economy is sustained by secondary and tertiary activities.{{cite journal |last=Ortiz |first=Rosa E. |date=22 January 2014 |title=Caracterización de las Organizaciones No Gubernamentales: El caso de los municipios Maracaibo y San Francisco |url=https://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=29003207 |language=es |journal=Revista Venezolana de Gerencia |volume=10 |issue=32 |pages=652–674 |accessdate=12 October 2020}} Major industries include coal, oil, cement, and fish processing.
Infrastructure
File:General Rafael Urdaneta Bridge view from the lake to Cabimas side.jpg, which connects San Francisco with Santa Rita on the other side of the Tablazo Strait.]]
File:Terminal de buses Simón Bolívar.jpg
San Francisco is the western terminus of the Troncal 3 highway, which crosses the Tablazo Strait over the General Rafael Urdaneta Bridge and connects Maracaibo to Coro, the capital of Falcón, and the town of Morón in Carabobo. San Francisco also lies on the Troncal 6 highway, which runs north-south through Zulia from the border crossing to Colombia at Paraguachón to La Fría in Táchira.
Intercity buses stop at the Simón Bolívar bus terminal at the interchange of Troncal 3 with Avenida 5.{{cite news |date=8 August 2016 |title=Terminal de San Francisco cubre rutas hacia varios estados a precios solidarios |url=https://versionfinal.com.ve/ciudad/terminal-de-san-francisco-cubre-rutas-hacia-varios-estados-a-precios-solidarios/ |language=es |publisher=Versión Final |accessdate=12 October 2020}} The bus terminal is also the terminus of a circular bus route which serves San Francisco and is operated by Maracaibo's Metromara bus system.{{cite web |date=2016 |title=Cuáles son las rutas de BusMetroMara TransGuajira BusUrdaneta y BusLaConcepción |url=https://www.notilogia.com/2016/01/cuales-son-las-rutas-de-busmetromara-transguajira-busurdaneta-y-buslaconcepcion.html |language=es |publisher=Notilogía |accessdate=12 October 2020}}
La Chinita International Airport, which serves the Maracaibo area, is located in San Francisco.
The municipality has two hospitals.
Recreational areas in San Francisco include the Zulia Metropolitan Zoo and a botanical garden.
References
{{Reflist|30em}}
External links
{{commons category-inline|San Francisco Municipality (Zulia)}}