Santander

Department in Colombia, lying to the south of the department of Norte de Santander; area 32,193 sq km/12,430 sq mi; population (1996) 1,811,741. The capital is Bucaramanga. Santander is a fertile agricultural area with coffee, tobacco, and cereals as its main crops. The De Mares oilfields lie in the west of the department on the Magdalena River, near the town of Barrancabermeja; oil is piped from here to the Caribbean port of Cartagena.

At Socorro in the department of Santander, the first uprisings against Spanish rule took place in the 1780s, in the form of protests against poverty. The area was a stronghold of revolutionary forces during the wars of liberation.