Araure

Araure is a town in the Venezuelan state of Portuguesa, in the north-west of the country, and it is the seat of the Araure Municipality. It was founded on 6 July 1694 under the name Nuestra Señora del Pilar de Araure, and the shorter name is the one in use today. The English Wikipedia article reports the municipality's figures from the 2001 Venezuelan census: 111,908 inhabitants, up from 75,811 at the 1990 count, which made up 15.4 percent of the population of Portuguesa at the time. The municipality's population density is given as about 175 inhabitants per square kilometre, or roughly 453 per square mile. The article also records the municipal government, naming the mayor elected in 2004, José Rafael Vásquez, who took over shortly after the October 2004 municipal elections. The town page links to the municipality's official website and to a Spanish-language information page on the Araure Municipality.