Soacha

Soacha is the most populous municipality in the department of Cundinamarca in Colombia. Its area is 184 km² (square kilometers), and its population is 808,288 (2022). Its urban area is conurbated with that of Bogotá, being part of its metropolitan area. It is the capital of the Province of Soacha, of which only two municipalities are part: Soacha and Sibaté. It is the sixth most populous municipality in the country, and the most populated among those that are not department capital.

Toponymy

The word «Soacha» is a place name from the muysc cubun (Muisca language) which is divided into two words: Sua, which means 'Sun', and < i>cha, meaning 'male'.

History

Prehistory to 1900

The settlement of Soacha is one of the oldest in Colombia, in which the human presence in the region has been evident for more than 12,000 years through hunter-gatherers who took advantage of the rocky shelters of Tequendama. Subsequently, activities of registered human groups were developed in archaeological sites such as Porto Alegre, Panama and in the Nueva Esperanza sector, where remains of sedentary settlements of the Herrera and Muisca cultures have been found, present at least until the year 200 of our era.. Numerous pictograms have been found between the limits of the Bogotá savannah, the Cerros del Sur and Canoas.

In the mythology of the Muiscas, before the punishment with a flood exerted by Chibchacum for the sins of the people, Bochica decided to open the rocks forming the Tequendama Falls and later educate the surviving people. This story had a natural origin because the presence of the waters of the ancient Humboldt Lake came from the glaciers that were melting after the last Ice Age.

Later, the town of Soacha formed part of the Zipazgo of the Muisca Confederation until the beginning of the Spanish viceregal period. In 1600 the indigenous reservation was established, at the same time that the land was distributed by different encomenderos such as Miguel de Ibarra and Luis Enríquez, the latter at the end of that year, the town was founded, since the first mentions indicate that, in December of that year, the doctrine chapel began to be built in what is now known as the Church of San Bernardino, later corroborated by the Colombian Academy of History on October 6, 2016 In 1777 the Muisca population that survived in Usaquén was displaced and added to the reservation of Soacha, which was dissolved in 1857, while most of its land was bought from the former community members by some landowners, who hoarded it.

In subsequent centuries, the importance of Soacha did not transcend beyond the Tequendama Falls, as a natural attraction for the residents of Bogotá or those who would frequent it as visitors. In addition to the number of farms that he owned at that time; some of them are part of the origin of the neighborhoods and communes of the city, others were the home of illustrious personalities of local and national importance.

Some facts should be highlighted, such as the visit of the naturists Bonpland and Humboldt (1799-1803), the marriage of Francisco de Paula Santander with Sixta Pontón (1836), the guerrilla of the owls (1877). Its election as a municipality and the first drawing of plans by Alejandro Caicedo (1875), construction of the main line of the Ferrocarril del Sur (1898-1903) and finally the construction of the Hidroeléctrica del Charquito in 1900.

20th century

Until the first half of the 20th century, the municipality of Soacha had no more than 9,000 inhabitants and a markedly rural development, described by Juan Antonio Cancino in his work Monografías. After the Bogotazo, the municipality would begin a process of industrialization on the one hand and on the other of accelerated conurbation with Bogotá, product of the presence of infrastructures such as the Muña Reservoir, the Railway and the South Highway that would give rise to new suburbs such as Ciudad Latina, León XIII, Share, San Mateo and Cazucá. In addition, the evident decrease in its territorial extension began with the segregation of the inspections of San Miguel and El Soche, respectively converted into the municipalities of Sibaté (1968) and Granada (1995). In 1955, a first future metropolitan ring was projected for Bogotá outside the municipalities that were already within the particular district and Soacha has been included in this conglomerate due to its already evident proximity. In fact, it should be mentioned that the hydroelectric plant and the dam were located in the hamlets of Sibaté and El Muña respectively, although at that time they belonged to the municipality of Soacha.

This decade also allowed Soacha to become an industrial center Bogotá, even though it had not yet developed a significant residential region and was mostly preserved as a town, for the 1973 census its population corresponded to barely 28,000 inhabitants, it would be in the following decade once it would have a huge urbanization and population increase, by the 1985 census its proportion of inhabitants had skyrocketed and reached 122,276 people, becoming the second city with the most inhabitants in the department, above the port of Girardot.

Between 1973 and 1975, several new neighborhoods appeared, as a result of the subdivisions of Rafael Forero Fetecua around the Laguna (reservoir) of Terreros and the action of the Central Nacional Provivienda that delimited lots in the Altos de Cazucá, while, on the other side of the hills, in Bogotá, the same thing happened with the outpost of subdivisions in the Altos de La Estancia. At the end of the century and to meet the needs of the inhabitants of the urban area, the six communes.

In 1989, Soacha was not exempt from suffering the violence of drug cartels that affected a good part of the country, such as the assassination of presidential candidate Luis Carlos Galán Sarmiento in August and the attack on Avianca Flight 203, whose remains fell on the Canoas hill in the Vereda El Charquito in November.

21st century

Despite the limitations that it must face, Soacha would continue its urban expansion given the decrease in land in Bogotá with the creation of new residential citadels in the form of macro-projects such as Ciudad Verde, Maiporé, Hogares Soacha and Terreros, in which transportation services would be partially integrated with line G of TransMilenio in 2013 and the opening of new shopping centers on the one hand and the gradual disappearance of the industrial sector on the other, which at that time was the engine of its economy, which is being trying to consolidate with the mining, service and informal trade sectors.

The events to highlight were the organization of the 2004 National Sports Games that were held in conjunction with Bogotá, Fusagasugá and Girardot, the false positives scandal, which occurred in the government of Álvaro Uribe Vélez, which affected to the Soachuna population and the neighboring Bogotá town of Ciudad Bolívar and the construction of the Canoas Wastewater Treatment Plant.

Geography

Soacha is located in the central area of the country, on the Eastern Cordillera, south of the Bogotá savannah. Administratively it is part of the province of Soacha together with Sibaté in what refers to its political division of the Department of Cundinamarca.

Limits

Northwest: Bojacá San Antonio del Tequendama	North: Mosquera (veredas Balsillas and San José)	Northeast: Bogotá, D.C. Location of Bosa (Tunjuelo, broken Tibanica Carrera 77H Bogotá/Carrera 24 Soacha)
West: Grenada		This: Bogotá, D.C. Location of Bolivar City (UPZ Ismael Perdomo, Jerusalem and Lucero and paths Quiba Alta and Baja)
Southwest: Sibaté (from Industrial Area of the Muña to the Romeral sidewalk	South: Pasca	Sureste: Bogotá, D.C. Bolivar City location. (sings Pasquilla, Mercedes and Las Margaritas)

Physiography and hydrography

Tequendama jump.

A part of its territory is located in an area of various mountain ranges, between which small ravines and fertile ravines are formed. And the other, the largest of all, in the Bogotá savannah, land suitable for agriculture and livestock. The relief is to highlight several sites such as the hills of Dos Tetas, San Mateo, El Cheba, El Cuclí, Altos de Cazucá, La Chucuita, Canoas, Cerro Seco and La Veredita, where the subxerophytic ecosystem exists.

Regarding its bodies of water, the southern mountainous region is crossed by the Soacha River, which flows into the Bogotá River in Dos Puentes, which also crosses its territory from Bosa-Mosquera to Girardot and flows into the Magdalena. Other river bodies that start or end in Soacha include the Tunjuelito (northwest, from Bogotá), Quebrada Tibanica (Río Claro, shares a border with the capital to the east), Balsillas (Bosatama, from Mosquera), Sabaneta (El Charquito from Granada). and Aguas Claras (Hungary, ends at the Muña reservoir).

View to the southwest, the pedestrian bridge TM La Despensa on Bogota-Girardot.

Soacha also has several wetlands such as Neuta, Tierra Blanca, Tibanica (shared with Bogotá), San Isidro, El Vínculo, La Muralla-El Cajón, Chucuita Ogamora and Terreros Lagoon. Los Colorados Lagoon is located on the limits of Soacha with Pasca, located in the eastern cordillera, with a páramo thermal floor and belonging to the Sumapaz páramo system.

The ecosystems present in the municipality are:

• Inundable Forest: Present on Bosatama, Canoas, El Charquito and part of the urban area (Communes 1, 2, 3 and 6).
• Lower Andean Forest (2550 a 2750 m. n. m.): Present in the urban area and in the streets of Bosatama, Canoas, Chacua, Fusungá and Panama.
• Alto Andino de Niebla Forest (2750 a 3000 m. n. m.) Located on the paths of Cascajal, San Francisco and Alto de la Cruz.
• Alto Andino Forest (2750 to 3000) and Subpáramo (3000 to 3300 m. n. m.): Located on the streets of San Jorge and Villanueva.
• Paraamo (3000 to 3800 m. n. m.): Located on the streets of Hungary, Alto del Cabra and Romeral.

Climate

In the mountainous area the climate is quite cold, moorland. In the lower part the climate is moderate, between 9 and 15 °C (degrees Celsius), approximately.

Average climate parameters of Soacha, Cundinamarca
Month	Ene.	Feb.	Mar.	Open up.	May.	Jun.	Jul.	Ago.	Sep.	Oct.	Nov.	Dec.	Annual
Temp. max. abs. (°C)	20.8	23.0	20.2	19.4	20.2	19.4	19.4	19.0	20.0	19.4	19.6	19.4	23.0
Average temperature (°C)	16.4	16.6	16.6	16.0	16.2	15.7	14.9	15.4	15.8	15.9	16.0	16.1	16
Average temperature (°C)	11.5	11.7	11.9	12.0	12.0	11.7	11.2	11.3	11.5	11.6	11.7	11.6	11.6
Temp. medium (°C)	6.3	6.9	7.2	7.6	7.4	7.2	7.0	7.0	6.8	7.0	7.2	6.7	7
Temp. min. abs. (°C)	0.5	0.2	0.2	2.0	0.1	0.5	0.0	3.8	0.5	0.1	0.1	1.0	0.0
Rains (mm)	27	38	54	89	97	65	57	55	55	89	90	41	757
Days of rain (≥)	7	9	12	17	19	20	21	18	15	17	16	11	182
Hours of sun	150	129	124	111	125	138	148	156.	139	121	117	148	1606
Relative humidity (%)	81	81	82	83	83	82	82	82	82	83	84	82	82.3
Source: IDEAM Climate Parameters August 12, 2018

Demographics

Statistically speaking, the urban area concentrates a large part of the population while a large part of the rural territory is hardly populated and this explains why, given its conurbation with Bogotá (especially with towns in the southwest such as Bosa and Ciudad Bolívar), it has hosted a number of population from Colombian territory and also from Venezuela, which has generated a considerable urban and demographic impact. (28,000 people in 1973 to 360,000 inhabitants in 2005 and then 500,000 in 2015), enormous problems, to the point that its institutional weakness allowed the growth of illegal invasions in the Cerros del Sur and some peripheral areas of the Center and limits with the capital city) without the minimum necessary services, deterioration of the environment and corruption in the political class municipal. In addition, there are disagreements between DANE and the Municipal Mayor's Office regarding the true figure that is currently available and, consequently, the impact of the economic aid that it receives from the national government.

At a social level, Soacha has its inhabitants divided into various types: descendants of the Muiscas and mestizos, some of them considered raizales which are concentrated in Commune 2 and the rural area, while the rest of the inhabitants are classified thus: those from Bogotá, who mostly live in the municipality but work in the latter (rolos), those from other regions of the country (including the capital) who live and/or work in the municipality or who were born in the same (neosoachunos), the displaced of armed conflict and the inhabitants of the street. These reflect both the cultural influence of the neighboring city and the country. In terms of ethnic composition, there is a considerable presence of Afro-Colombians and in addition to the former, where there is barely any representation in the council, there are also various indigenous communities such as Nasa, Pijaos, Emberas, Misak and Kamëntšá, who do not have them as a result of displacement forced. The demonym is soachuno.

Urbanism

The urban center of Soacha is of Spanish origin in most of its history, being partly autonomous and, on the other, due to the expansion of the urban perimeter of neighboring Bogotá since 1970, which merged the cities into one even though they are politically and administratively distinct entities, but united by the main way of articulation; initially the old road that left Carrera 27 in Bogotá with Calle Primera (La Hortúa sector), then the southern section of the Ferrocarril de la Sabana and finally the Autopista Sur. Despite this, its Hispanic architecture both in the most central area and in the nearby haciendas has seriously diminished due to changes in use and new constructions, both in the popular style (most of the communes, houses and premises without a garden but with access to the street) and modern buildings (residential complexes, shopping centers and public offices).

View to the west from the pedestrian bridge of Mercury (August 2017).

Nomenclature

Faced with the urban nomenclature, the national system has been adopted in which the streets in the urban area of Soacha start from the border with Bogotá to the east and end in the vicinity of Sibaté and the Bogotá River to the southwest, being the traditional north-south dividing line on Calle Primera (Avenida San Marón) passing towards the Altico sector in Comuna de San Humberto, while the races refer to the Autopista Sur (for the municipality it is Carrera Cuarta) and Carrera Séptima (which passes through the Plaza de Soacha), its extreme north being the shore of the Tibanica ravine between Ciudad Verde and the path of Bosatama and to the south the neighborhoods located in the Cerros del Sur by the communes of Compartir (Maiporé), San Humberto (Altos de Florida, El Cardal), San Mateo (residential San Mateo and Santa Rita) and Cazucá (Ciudadela Sucre). These include for each one the roads and pedestrian crossings in an oblique direction, such as transversal and diagonal ones, and avenues are considered to be vehicle roads that have the opposite direction in parallel and have their own name.

Each property built in Soacha is identified with the vinotinto plate, highlighting the generating road in contrast to the lateral one (whether or not it has subdivisions and these are identified with letters preceded by the number) and the meters that start from the latter towards the entrance/exit gate. It is also available to identify the corners of the roads, both pedestrians, roads, parks and malls. The current nomenclature was the result of a necessary unification due to the fact that nomenclatures had been used around the urban area of the municipality that did not have continuity in areas other than the center of the municipality, such as Santa Ana, the Commune of La Despensa (except Ciudad Verde and which was heir to the one used in Bosa until after its annexation to Bogotá) and that of Cazucá and generated confusion for both residents and visitors and courier services.

• The neighborhoods mentioned in front of the Soacha districts belong to the bogotana town of Bosa

Political-administrative organization

Administrative division

Soacha Administrative Division.

It is divided into six communes, namely:

1. Share
2. Central Soacha
3. The Despensa
4. Cazucá
5. San Mateo
6. San Humberto

The rural area, which covers 70% of its municipal extension, is divided into two corregimientos and these, in turn, into villages:

• Correction 1: Formed by Alto del Cabra, Chacua, Fusungá, Hungary, Panama, Romeral, San Jorge and Villanueva, located south of the urban center.
• Corrigendum 2: Formed by Alto de la Cruz, Bosatama, Canoas, Cascajal, El Charquito and San Francisco, located north and west of the urban center.

With the elevation of the city of Bogotá to the district level, its absolute political, fiscal and administrative separation from the department of Cundinamarca occurred. For this reason, since the creation of the Special District of Bogotá in 1954 (that is, when the 7 neighboring municipalities were annexed), the now Capital District became an entity outside the territorial jurisdiction of the department of Cundinamarca, but maintaining itself as the headquarters and therefore capital of the territorial body. This situation has led to considering the possibility of establishing Soacha as an option to be the new capital for the department, in which it was denied by the Congress of the Republic in October 2022.

Politics

The Municipality of Soacha has a Municipal Mayor's Office whose holder is elected for four years by popular election and administratively attached by the various secretariats and office addresses (General, Government, Education and Culture, Health, Infrastructure, Valorization and Public Services, Social Development and Community Participation, Planning and Territorial Ordering, Mobility, Legal Advisory Office and Treasury), as well as a municipal council. The only decentralized bodies are the Soacha Sports and Recreation Institute (IMRDS) and the Soacha Public Company (EPUXUA). It also has the regional headquarters of the Colombian Institute for Family Welfare, the Immediate Reaction Unit of the Prosecutor's Office, the family police stations and the Special Police District.

Through these dependencies the municipality plans, executes and develops the different policies and programs of the development plan, and tries to provide the different ones of the State to the population. However, the political and administrative structure continues to be insufficient and ineffective to respond to the growing and complex local reality. Normally they always count on the frequent consultation of the Capital District and the Government of Cundinamarca in regional and metropolitan matters due to the great dependence it has on both.

The current president is Juan Carlos Saldarriaga Gaviria, elected on October 27, 2019 for the constitutional period 2020 to 2023.

Economy

Soacha as a municipality has undergone an economic transformation that went from being an eminently rural one (still having that active vocation) to a city where the industrial, mining and service sectors congregate with regional projection, the Almacafé logistics center stands out for example in the Chusacá sector, according to the 2003 census that reports an unemployment rate of 15.6 but that may be higher if underemployment is taken into account. In the SISBEN survey, the people who declare themselves unemployed is 25%, largely due to the productive structure of the municipality. In the services sector, two sub-sectors are characterized: specialized services: such as financial, health, passenger and cargo transportation, maintenance of computer and automotive equipment, in which, with the exception of automotive maintenance services, 72% of the workforce is non-residents in the municipality and correspond to equally non-resident owners.

Current services such as: restaurants, beauty parlors, telephone and Internet sales and rental services, video game rental, etc. 93% are local labor and managed by owners residing in the municipality.

In general, the economic sectors of the municipality manifest among their observations as common denominators: insecurity, the lack of road infrastructure, the use of public space by informal commerce and the lack of institutional support.

Cycle in Soacha (Sector of Leo XIII).

Mobility

In Soacha, like the city of Bogotá, more than 13 million trips are made every day. Most of these trips are carried out by collective public transport. The other public transport system is the metropolitan mass transport system TransMilenio. In private transport, the car and the motorcycle play a very important role.

Accesses

The main access route from Bogotá is the Autopista Sur, which crosses from east to south throughout Soacha, becoming the Bogotá-Girardot highway. After the Chusacá toll, the road divides into the Silvania branch, which is the Pan-American highway in the direction of Fusagasugá and then the San Miguel branch, which connects it with Sibaté.

The municipality also has other access roads.

North:

• In the town of Bosa there are the roads that connect the neighborhoods Ciudad Verde and Bosa La Primavera, known as Variante San José, which is a continuation of the Avenida San Bernardino in intersection with the City of Cali and when arriving in the municipality it becomes Carrera 38 and links with the Avenidas Terreros and Potrero Grande. Near the Southern Highway is the Avenida de las Torres that goes from Bosa La Estación to the limits of the municipality and to Casaes Soacha.
• Towards the municipality of Bojacá is the way that leaves the Avenida Indumil towards the two corridor which is already forged towards the municipalities of La Mesa and Mosquera

Southeast: Calle 60 Sur that connects the town of Ciudad Bolívar with Commune 4 of Cazucá and in the southeastern part of the latter are streets 41 and 42, which lead through the Terreros wetland towards the homonymous avenue.

West: Take the road to the municipality of El Colegio from the Bogotá-Girardot highway through the fork in the Muña towards the town of El Charquito and enter San Antonio del Tequendama.

It is expected that in the coming years the construction of Avenida Longitudinal de Occidente will begin, a western peripheral road that seeks to decongest traffic in both the city of Bogotá and the municipality of Soacha, as well as the construction of the bridge of the Avenida Ciudad de Cali in the Tibanica ravine.

Public transport in front of the San Mateo Intermediate Station.

TransMilenio Earth Station.

Internal collective public transport and taxis

In Soacha it has its own internal urban transport system that covers all its routes in the urban area (where it has a fixed rate decreed by the municipal authority, which by 2022 is COP 1300) and part of the rural area (where the price varies according to the distance from the urban area). The companies that provide the internal urban transport service (and the corridor to Bogotá) are: Cootransoacha, Coopintransvegas, CooptranSanMateo, Coopcasur, Cootransucre and Nevada Lines. The most common destinations for the bus routes are Plaza de Soacha, Ciudad Verde, La Isla, Ciudadela Sucre, Compartir, San Nicolás, San Mateo, El Charquito, Olivos, Santo Domingo, Ciudad Latina and Hogares Soacha

Regarding taxis, by law (decree), every vehicle for this service in Colombia must carry its control card in a visible place, with information on the rate, the vehicle and the driver. The companies that cover this service for the municipality are Taxis Xua, Radio Taxi Soacha, Taxis Libres and Taxis Los Dos.

Bike lanes

Soacha has a network of bike paths that connect the neighborhoods with the Autopista Sur: among them Carrera Séptima, Avenida San Maron, Alameda El Porvenir (discontinued in Potrero Grande-La María), Avenida Terreros, Ciudad Verde (with a road link to Bosa San Diego in the Capital District), Hogares Soacha, Maiporé, San Mateo and Calle 53 in La Despensa.

TransMilenio

TransMilenio in Soacha
Legend Towards G-NQS Sur Bogotá (to the east) South Limit Bogotá / Soacha Calle 53 The Despensa Calle 41 Leo XIII pedestrian bridge Calle 39 Av. Land Diagonal 34 Land Quebrada Tibanica Communes 3 La Despensa and 5 San Mateo Calle 33 Calle 30 San Mateo Puente peatonal Calle 25 Calle 22 Race 7 Soacha Calle 15 San Humberto Rio Soacha Communes 2 Soacha Central and 6 San Humberto Av.Indumil Soacha 3M-El Altico Calle 11 Sur Ducales Diagonal 30 South Share Calle 40 Sur Portal El Vinculo
♪ in italics, the stations still to be built

On December 27, 2013, TransMilenio Line G was extended along the South Highway with the inauguration of phase I, with four stations in the municipality on the eastern edge, they are part of the first phase of construction of the system of transport in the municipality of the three projected. Given the great demand and the rapid saturation suffered by the service in the municipality, just three months after it was inaugurated, it became necessary to expand the stations, except for the Pantry, adapting them for bi-articulated operation. Simultaneously, to achieve the implementation of the feeder service, the construction of the San Mateo integrated station was necessary. The work was completed in December 2014 but due to disagreements between TransMilenio and the Soacha mayor's office, it was not It was not put into operation until 2016. Meanwhile, the SITP only operates along the border with Bogotá in certain neighborhoods with indirect benefit.

In the future, it is expected that the integration of the municipal section of the South Highway will be completed through phases II and III up to the Portal del Vínculo in the Maiporé sector, as well as the possibility of linking the Avenida Ciudad de Cali in Ciudad Verde to the system, from Bosa.

Inter-municipal transportation

The main intermunicipal destination for Bogotanos and Soachunos from and to this municipality is undoubtedly Bogotá, in which it maintains an exclusive interconnection through the transport corridor that connects it with certain towns in the Colombian capital, as well as with other municipalities in the provinces of Soacha and Sabana Occidente de Cundinamarca. This corridor is widely used by its inhabitants, despite the fact that mobility is quite complicated for both internal and inter-municipal urban transport, which seriously hinders mobility in Soacha. The urban routes from the municipality (starting from neighborhoods such as Danubio, Ciudadela Sucre, San Mateo, Compartir, Indumil, and new sectors such as Hogares and Ciudad Verde) to Bogotá run along the South Highway with destinations along Avenida Boyacá with Calle 80, Avenida 68 to the Transport Terminal, Avenida Primero de Mayo to Restrepo, and Avenida Gaitán Cortés to Teusaquillo.

Regarding transportation to other municipalities in Cundinamarca and Colombian regions, all the buses of the southern corridor that leave from the Bogotá Transport Terminal and its Southern Satellite Terminal in Bosa cross through Soacha or take routes to the provinces of Tequedama and Sabana Occidente without having to go through the capital through the Western Perimeter Highway in the El Altico sector and Avenida Indumil.

Public services

At the level of household public services (water, electricity and natural gas) they are provided mostly by companies in Bogotá such as Acueducto de Bogotá (belonging to zone 5), ENEL Codensa and Vanti for the urban area, although there are also There are local providers such as EMAR (Empresa de Acueducto el Rincón) and Acueducto y Alcantarillado Santa Ana that provide services in parts of communes 1 and 3. With the communications and internet service, Movistar, Tigo, ETB and Claro are providers. For rural areas, there are Aguasiso (Aguas de Soacha and Sibaté ESP, whose coverage includes Granada) and Aguas de Chacua.

Health

The municipality has a public network not only oriented to itself but also to the provinces of Soacha and Tequendama, such as the Mario Gaitán Yanguas Hospital located in the center of the municipality and the Julio Cesar Peñaloza Municipal State Social Enterprise, which the latter serves the communes at its headquarters in Centro, Compartir, San Marcos, San Mateo, Ciudadela Sucre and Los Olivos. The only private ones are the Cardiovascular de Cundinamarca and the Virrey Solis located in San Mateo.

Education

The city has an educational system that covers primary, secondary and university levels. Due to the constant migration of people to the municipality, the availability of places to access the education offered by the State is often insufficient. The city also has a varied system of private schools and schools, including bilingual, military, technical, rural, religious communities, as well as different school calendars and study hours, located in each commune.

Official educational institutions

Higher education

Soacha has some universities and both public and private venues, in which SENA stands out (one being the Technology Centers for Construction and Wood and the other for Transportation based in Cazucá, dependent on the regional Capital District; and apart, the Center for Industrial and Business Development based in Soacha Centro, dependent on the Cundinamarca region), the Minuto de Dios University Corporation (UNIMINUTO Headquarters in Soacha), the Andean Area University Foundation, the National Unified Corporation of Higher Education (CUN), the Cooperative University of Colombia, and the University of Cundinamarca.

Culture

Mercury Shopping Center.

The culture in Soacha has many influences that have run throughout its history despite having few development scenarios in this matter from the archaeological sites and paintings of pre-Muisca and Muisca origin such as the Nueva Esperanza Archaeological Zone, the mansions haciendas de Terreros, Potrero Grande, El Vínculo, Logroño and La Chucuita, the Main Square and some Spanish houses in the San Luis neighborhood that have survived to modern times, as well as the ruins of the town and monastery of El Tuso, located on the sidewalk El Charquito, dating from around the 17th century century. Also noteworthy are the Teatro Sua, located a few blocks from the Main Square to the north on Calle 13 and the Archaeological Museum of Soacha, to the east on Carrera 7 with Calle 14.

In gastronomy, two typical dishes of the municipality stand out, such as garullas and almojábanas, today protected as intangible heritage by Ordinance 214 of 2014 issued by the Departmental Assembly of Cundinamarca.

In August of each year, the International Meeting of Popular Arts is held under the slogan "Viva el barrio", a popular and community event that brings together the greatest exponents of dance, music, theater, oral narration and circus from invited countries, national and local companies that take over unconventional places such as squares, streets, community halls and the Sua Theater. The EIAP as it is called is carried out by the Liderarte Cultural Foundation where it also holds workshops of artistic training to vulnerable communities of the six communes that make up this municipality. During the months of November and December, the Festival of the Sun and the Moon is celebrated with large orchestras and presentations by cultural groups.

As for the media, although most of the newspapers and audiovisual signals come from Bogotá, at the local level it has community television channels such as Canal 10 Cablemas and Radio Rumbo (107.4 FM) with extra coverage in good part of the capital and Sibaté, and Internet media such as La RC Online, Periodismo Público, Soacha Ilustrada, Clarín de Colombia. Its print media include Magazín La Hora, Periódico Enfoque, Kronos and Informativo Presencia.

Sports

Stadium Luis Carlos Galán.

Soacha featured Colombian professional soccer clubs on four occasions, the first was Unión Soacha, which only competed in the 2000 and 2001 Primera B seasons. Later, La Equidad competed and won promotion during the 2006 season as a local at the Luis Carlos Galán Sarmiento Stadium. Then Juventud Soacha emerged, then a subsidiary of Independiente Santa Fe, competing between 2008 and 2009.

The team that played the longest at home in Soacha was Expreso Rojo, renamed Tigres F.C. in 2016 in the Colombian professional soccer Second Division tournament, during the 2011, 2012, 2015 and 2016 seasons. However, due to that the Luis Carlos Galán Sarmiento Stadium is not suitable to receive matches in First B, and due to the poor conditions of the pitch, he had to move permanently to Bogotá to play at the Estadio Metropolitano de Techo since 2017.

Other sports in Soacha are the two annual competitions that are the Classic Cycling in August and the International 12K Race between September and October. While the Municipal Institute of Recreation and Sports of Soacha (IMRDS) promotes cycling and aerobics with the Ciclovida program. Other sports venues are the León XIII and General Santander coliseums and the Tibanica, Potrero Grande, Logroño, Tierra Negra, Los Locos, San Carlos, Lagos de Malibú and La Arenosa de Compartir parks.

Religion

At a religious level, the majority of the inhabitants are Catholic, placing their parishes in the jurisdiction of the Diocese of Soacha:

There is also a presence of various evangelical congregations, some of them distributed in popular neighborhoods such as the Bethesda Missionary Center, Victory Reach Christian Church, El Reino Christian Crusade Church, Jesus Christ International Ministerial Church of God, United Pentecostal Church of Colombia, Trinitarian Christian, Family Worship Center and Philadelphia Christian Church. There is also a presence of Jehovah's Witnesses, atheists and Mormons.

Tourism

The main places of interest in Soacha are the Main Square, which partly preserves its village atmosphere with the Church of San Bernardino, the house of culture, some haciendas and green areas that are still preserved in its rural part. The pedestrian bridge of the TransMilenio La Despensa station, located on the Autopista Sur, is a pedestrian crossing that connects the industrial zone of Cazucá with La Despensa. In 2018 it was painted yellow to indicate to people that they are entering the municipality of Soacha and Bogotá, where there was normally confusion due to the little border difference between the two cities, although in reality the destination is the western pedestrian bridge of the neighboring station from Bosa.

Trail belonging to the Chicaque Natural Park.

The historic Salto del Tequendama, a 157 m waterfall, continues to be recognized as a tourist site in the municipality, but the contamination and damming of the Bogotá River has diminished its interest, urgently demanding an ecological rescue plan. As well as the rock formations that are on its outskirts such as the Chucuita hills in Ciudad Verde, named Parque de la Niebla. It is an ecological reserve with trails and viewpoints to contemplate the landscapes of the Bogotá savannah. Ciudad Verde is accessed by a U-shaped road that surrounds the reserve between Avenida Tierra Negra (Carrera 34) and Prado Verde (Carrera 38), and also crosses Avenida Luis Carlos Galán (Calle 13) twice. Soacha. 10 minutes from the urban center of Soacha is the Boquemonte Archaeological and Ecotourism Park, a natural reserve with important ecological development. Leaving the South Highway, through Alfagres, there is the road to the main entrance of the Chicaque National Natural Park, where you can see deer, spectacled bears, among other native species of the Soachuna savannah.

The Forest of Hope is an abstract sculpture by Giancarlo Mazzanti that serves as a roof for a sports center in the Villa Mercedes neighborhood of Comuna 4, made by the Pies Descalzos foundation.

In front of the shopping centers, a group of them are close to the TransMilenio stations of San Mateo and Terreros: Mercurio, Gran Plaza, Ventura Terreros and Unisur, located on both sides of the South Highway, located between the San Mateo and Citadel Terreros. Other more peripheral ones are Miraflores, Prado Verde and El Jardín in Ciudad Verde, Santa María, San Remo and Soacha Parque in the Center on Calle 13 and Parque Campestre on Avenida Indumil.

Symbols

Flag

Flag of Soacha.

The Soacha flag is made up of a white horizontal stripe, which occupies the upper half, and a red horizontal stripe, which complements the lower part. Keep a ratio of two times wide by three times long with two horizontal stripes; the upper white and the lower red, of equal proportion and heraldic conformity.:

• The white means silver, with respect to metal, pearl, with respect to precious stones, water, with respect to the elements. It also summarizes the meanings of integrity, obedience, firmness, vigilance, eloquence and work.

• The red means copper, with respect to the ruby metal, with respect to the precious stones, fire, with respect to the cedar elements, carnal with respect to the trees, to Mars the god of fire, with respect to mythology, also summarizes the meanings of: value, intrepicity, rice.

Shield

Soacha shield.

The coat of arms of Soacha is one of the heraldic symbols of this Cundinamarca municipality adopted in 1977 by the mayor Jorge Ramírez Vásquez. Shield cut and half divided, a jede of blue, a sun figured in gold. In the right field of Punta de Plata, the Tequendama waterfall. In the left field of the tip two red, two silver cogwheels, as synonymous with the industry. In the center, the coat of arms of the Colmenares family, of Spanish origin, the first owners of the land where the municipality is located. On the shield is a gold ribbon with the Latin motto Sol Ómnibus Lucet (the sun shines for everyone). The shield is adorned by two crossed flags behind it, with the colors of the municipality red and white, and accent leaves, in green they border the pointed fields. In place of honor, the etymology of the word Suacha, the initial name of the municipality written in the aboriginal language. The image of the sun, gold because it is the metal par excellence, the most precious, on a blue background, its house with a human face and always with eight alternate straight and eight wavy rays.

Anthem

Soacha's anthem was written by Isabel Hernández Ayala. It was presented for the first time by decree 172 of August 28, 2000 and was made official as the municipal anthem by the Municipal Council of Soacha, through Agreement No. 50 of December 19, 2000.