Information about departments of Colombia

Colombia is divided territorially into 32 departments (Spanish: departamentos, singular: Departamento) and a Capital District (Spanish: Distrito Capital). Each department has a Governor (Gobernador) and a Departmental Assembly (Asamblea Departamental) every four years re-elected. A governor can not be re-elected for a period immediately following its administration period.

Departments with many inhabitants are further divided into regions or provinces, mainly in support of the board of the relevant department and the municipalities. They have little power. The lowest level is usually that of the municipality (municipio). The densely populated departments comprise more than one hundred municipalities, the sparsely populated some (which often exceed Flanders). Some departments are very sparsely populated areas managed as departmental districts (corregimiento departamental) and municipal districts (corregimientos municipal).

The capital Bogota is organized as Capital District and is outside the division of departments. Some tasks are performed by the department of Cundinamarca. Bogota is the capital of Cundinamarca, although the city formally is no part of that department. Cundinamarca is the only department whose capital is defined by the national constitution. This means that a relocation of the capital requires a constitutional amendment and not a simple decision of the Provincial Assembly.