From Frontier Town to Metropolis

Although Villavicencio the capital of the Department of Meta is located just 120 miles from Bogotá the mountains of the eastern Andean Cordillera lie between the two cities. As a result after its founding in 1842 Villavicencio remained an isolated frontier outpost for more than one hundred years. From Frontier Town to Metropolis recounts the history of the town and explains how by the twenty-first century it became a thriving metropolis with a population nearing three hundred thousand. During the next sixty years it became the principal urban center of the Llanos despite the continual presence of militant guerrillas paramilitaries and drug traffickers. Noted researcher Jane M. Rausch offers a detailed treatment of the development of Villavicencio and the Department of Meta as a microcosm of Colombia's eastern frontier.