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Vaupés is a department in the jungle covered Amazonas Region. It is located to the southeast of the country, bordering Brazil to the east, the Amazonas Department to the south, Caquetá and Guaviare and the Guainía Department to the north. The department is sparsly populated as it covers an area of 54,135 km² but with 3 municipalities only. Its capital is the town of Mitú.
During Spanish colonization and in the early part of the republic, the territory of Vaupes was part of the Province of Popayán, (during the Greater Colombia period). After independence from Spain between 1821 and 1830, the area became part of the first version of the Boyaca Department. Between 1831 and 1857 the territory became part of the National Territory of Caquetá to later become part of the Sovereign State of Cauca. In 1886 it became part of the then recently created Cauca Department.
The area was first made into a territorial division in 1910 and functioned as Commissaries (Comisarias) with the town of Calamar as capital (located in present day Guaviare) but later moved to the town of Mitú to make an "act of presence" near the border with Brasil. In 1963 Guainía segregated from the Vaupes and became a commissary. In 1977, Guaviare followed the same path. The Department was created after the Colombian Constitution of 1991 which established it as a Department of Colombia on July 4, 1991.
The department's main economic activities feature logging and fishing, with many exports going to neighboring Brazil. The vast majority of the population consists of indigenous inhabitants. With the expansion of the rubber industry and the industrial revolution, exploration for rubber brought colonizers that altered the way of life the majority of the indigenous population that were the main population here.
Because of its location in the Amazon jungle, there are no roads connected to the rest of the country or internally from settlement to settlement. Commerce and contact with the outside world is achieved via rivers and air travel. Several small settlements have airstrips with service to the department's capital, Mitú, which in turn has connections to the rest of the country.
In November, 1998 an estimated army of 1,000 guerrillas of the Eastern Bloc of the FARC-EP tried to forcibly take over the capital Mitú, against 120 National Police members and one Colombian National Army Batallion. The Colombian Air Force and Army Aviation supported ground forces with air raids. Mitú was left partially destroyed and some 60 policemen and 10 civilians died. In their escape FARC took hostages as human shields including some 40 to 45 members of the Colombian Military.
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