Caño limón: bonanza petrolera, economía e instituciones en el departamento de Arauca[Caño limón: oil boom, economy and institutions in arauca department]

The discovery of the Caño Limón oilfield in 1983 triggered an unprecedented bonanza in Arauca’s history. Today, however, this region lags behind in economic and social terms. This paper seeks to determine the impact of the discovery and subsequent exploitation of the Caño Limón oilfield on Arauca’s economy. From an institutional approach, a statistical-descriptive analysis is carried out on the behaviour of oil exploitation, economic growth, and socioeconomic indicators during the periods 1990 to 2005 and 2005 to 2018, for the departments of Arauca, Meta and Casanare, and the seven Araucanian municipalities. From this, it is concluded that the economic impact of the discovery and exploitation of Caño Limón was limited, in terms of growth and well-being of the population, due to the weakness of local institutions