Guaviare is one of the thirty-two departments that, together with Bogotá, Distrito Capital, form the Republic of Colombia. Its capital is San José del Guaviare. It is located in the Amazonia region, bounded on the north by Meta, on the northeast by Vichada and on the south by Vaupés and Caquetá. With about 108,000 inhabitants In 2015 it is the sixth least populated department - ahead of San Andrés and Providencia, Amazonas, Vichada, Vaupés and Guainía, the least populated - with 52 957 km², the eighth largest - behind Amazonas, Vichada, Caquetá, Meta, Guainía, Antioquia and Vaupés- and with 2.04 inhabitants / km², the fifth least densely populated, ahead of Vaupes, Amazonas, Vichada and Guainía, the least densely populated.
It was created on July 4,1991 by the new Political Constitution of Colombia. Until that day it was a national territory with the character of a police station, which had been segregated from the then Commissariat del Vaupés, on December 23,1977.