Santana do Araguaia, Pará, Northern Region, Brazil

🇧🇷 Santana do Araguaia is the southernmost city in the Brazilian state of Pará. The city lies near the Araguaia River, which marks the border with the state of Tocantins. The town was established on December 20, 1961 by then-governor of Pará, Aurélio do Carmo, after being split off from the municipality of Conceição do Araguaia.

The city is served by Santana do Araguaia Airport.

History The history of the municipality of Santana is closely related to the foundation of the village of Altas Barreiras (now the headquarters of the municipality of Santa Maria das Barreiras) in 1892. Formed by immigrants from Goiás with the support of Friar Gil de Villa Nova, this locality was developed by the extraction of rubber-caucho and other extractive products. Its main milestone was the construction of the Parish of Sant'Anna.

Over the years, Altas Barreias proved to be a very dynamic village, being elevated to the category of district on December 31, 1936, being renamed Santa Maria das Barreiras. Finally gained political autonomy through state law No. 2460, of December 29, 1961, dismembered from Conceição do Araguaia, calling itself the municipality of "Santana do Araguaia".

Campo Alegre training However, the current configuration of the municipality of Santana was built from the year 1966 with the implementation of the "Fazenda Campo Alegre" project, under the responsibility of Cia. Industrial and Agropastoral Vale do Rio Campo Alegre, a kind of joint venture formed by 13 different companies, headed by Volkswagen do Brasil. The enterprise with an area of approximately 130,000 hectares should produce prayers for the abete in slaughterhouses of Belém.

In 1975 the enterprise obtained authorization from the National Institute of Colonization and Agrarian Reform (INCRA) for the construction of a company town in the area to be called "Campo Alegre", in order to form an administrative nucleus and fixing of labor. The construction of Campo Alegre was very fast, with its completion taking effect in 1976.

Under the auspices of Volkswagen (with the participation of other financial groups) construction begins in 1978 near Campo Alegre the mega-enterprise "Frigorífico Atlas", with financial support from the Superintendence of the Development of the Amazon (SUDAM). Campo Alegre became from then on a kind of working-s city and an attractor demographic point.

Great flood of 1980/1981 In 1980 the region of Tocantins Araguaia was hit by a large flood of its rivers, a fact that partially destroyed the headquarters of the municipality of Santana do Araguaia. This flood lasted into the year 1981. As Campo Alegre was the locality endowed with the best infrastructure in the municipality (including better than the headquarters itself), the administrative apparatus were transferred to it and remained there.

The vulnerability of the old headquarters and the difficulty in rebuilding it, disqualified it to remain with such a category. In this way, on November 5, 1984 through state law No. 5,171, the headquarters of Santana do Araguaia was definitively transferred to the locality of Campo Alegre, reversing the locality of Santa Maria das Barreiras to its former category, as a district.

With this, as much as Santana do Araguaia (Campo Alegre) is "original" of Santa Maria das Barreiras, it became heir to the administrative rights of the old municipality.

Dismemberment By pressure from the barreirense community, dissatisfied with its new political status, on May 10, 1988 the municipality of Santa Maria das Barreiras was created, through state law nº 5.451, dismembered from Santana do Araguaia.

Subdivisions The municipality is subdivided into three main districts and numerous villages and villages. The headquarters district itself, the city of Santana do Araguaia, is subdivided into neighborhoods, which serve to better spatial distribution.

The districts of the municipality are: • Headquarters District: basically formed by the city of Santana do Araguaia, but which includes the villages of Santa Fé, Barreira do Aricá, Fartura and Nova Barreira; • District of Barreira do Campo: settled in the homonymous village, but which also includes the villages of Porto Trajano and Pai Eterno; • District of Vila Mandi: settled in the homonymous village, but which also includes the villages of Paxiba and Promissão.

Transport In air transport, the municipality is served by Santana do Araguaia Airport, which connects it, with regional domestic flights, mainly to the municipalities of Pará, Tocantins and Mato Grosso.

In road transport Santana is cut from north to south by the federal highway BR-158, which connects it to the state of Mato Grosso to the neighboring municipalities of Pará, being its main road trunk.

Other highways are the state PA-411, PA-463 and PA-485. The first two connect Santana to the municipality of Santa Maria das Barreiras and the state of Tocantins and; the last connects the municipal headquarters to the village of Barreira do Aricá, in the region of Ilha do Bananal. At the northern end there is also a portion of PA-235.

The only ports in the municipality are located in the district of Barreia do Campo and in the village of Porto Trajano, both on the banks of the Araguaia River; the River Port of Porto Trajano gives access, by ferry service, to the municipality of Caseara, in Tocantins.

Education The municipality houses one of the campuses of the Federal University of the South and Southeast of Pará (UNIFESSPA), the main public institution of higher education in the south and south-east of Pará.