THE CORUMBIARA CASE

Porto Velho

To get to know Porto Velho it is necessary to go back in the time a little and to feel the spirit that involves this city and its people.

The beginning of the village really got started in 1907, after the signing of the Agreement of Petrópolis (November 17, 1903) in which Brazil made an agreement with Bolivia to build a railroad that would link the Bolivian border of the Mamoré River, where the city of Guajará-Mirim is today, to the navigable head of the Madeira River, where Porto Velho is now located. On the other hand, the Bolivian Government would pass over to Brazil the lands to the extreme west that form the State of the Acre, today. Bolivia needed send off its production to Europe and the United States, and since it did not have access to the ocean, the most viable route at the time was toward a north direction, by way of the Mamoré, Madeira and Amazonas Rivers and the Atlantic Ocean. However, there was great difficulty for navigation in the Mamoré and Madeira Rivers because there were twenty-three waterfalls in its course, which made the task of shipping impossible. Facing the problem of no highways, the railway was the only solution. That was how Brazil’s concession came about to build a railway, in the middle of the amazon jungle, that would follow the entire course of the rivers: the Madeira-Mamoré Railway - (EFMM), the name that was given to it in reference to the two rivers to be linked up.

So it was that citizens of several nationalities came here. Among them, English, North Americans, Asians and islanders from the Caribbean, all determined to explore that border and to build the largest undertaking by man in the Western Amazônia.

Since the best technology was the foreign one, they all arrived on the spot ready to build a complete station, endowed with the best that there was in the basic and indispensable, for a well-run enterprise and for the well-being of those who would use it. With the arrival of the workers and the development the small village called Santo Antônio do Madeira, located 7 km to the south of the port of the Madeira River, was gradually transferred to the proximity of the new central station as the years went by. That is how the City of Porto Velho got started.

The exact origin of the name Porto Velho has still not been historically checked. The first version is that the name came about because of old farmer, called "Velho Pimentel" (Old Pimentel), who lived in the proximity of the location where there was a small port where vessels that were on their way to the village of Santo Antônio moored up. It used to be called “Porto do Velho” (The Old Man’s Port) and so it later became “Porto Velho” (Old Port)

The second hypothesis is that of a support and strategic point left by the Brazilian Army during the War of Paraguay, when that border was found unprotected. The war ended and the logistic point remained, with just the denomination "Porto Velho”.

The facilities of the railway complex grew, the incomes were high, trade was vigorous and the flow of foreigners was intense. That was enough for the small city to call the attention of distant nations with special interests: a small town in high-speed development, a railroad and a latent Eldorado in the middle of the Brazilian jungle.

On October 2, 1914, Porto Velho became known as a Municipal District in a political-administratively sense and in September 13, 1943 as the capital of the new Federal Territory of the Guaporé, which, later, on February 17, 1956, was changed to the Federal Territory of Rondônia, in honor of the Marshal of the Brazilian Army Cândido da Silva Rondon.

On April 10, 1979 Colonel Jorge Teixeira de Oliveira arrived to govern the then Territory, he was the last Governor of the Territory and the first of the State.

Jorge Teixeira had the mission of transforming the Territory of Rondônia into a State, preparing the Territory and organizing its capital Porto Velho to receive the constituted authorities. The Eldorado was open: it was the most impressive demographic explosion in Brazil at the time, Porto Velho finally was consolidated as a strong and prosperous capital of the last frontier of the country.

Today Porto Velho is a Municipality with eleven Districts (Abunã, Calama, Demarcação, Extrema, Fortaleza do Abunã, Jacy-Paraná, Mutum Paraná, Nazaré, Nova Califórnia, São Carlos and Vista Alegre do Abunã) with approximately 300 thousand inhabitants, composed mainly of Brazilian from of the Northeast, South and Southeast of the country, hard-working people who knew how to adapt to the native people and to love this land.

The tourists that arrive here are always welcomed by a hospitable people, with their skin the color of the jambo (a regional fruit a brown color), with their easy smile and hard working by nature, a partying people who are happy with what the city provides.