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'Distrito Federal'

Flag
Map of Brazil highlighting the Federal District
States of Brazil
'Capital'	Brasilia
'Area'	5 802 km²
'Population'   - Total   - Density	2,383,784 353.5/km²
'Governor'	José Roberto Arruda (DEM)
'Demonym'	''Brasiliense''
'HDI' (2000)	0.844 (high)
'Timezone'	GMT-3
'ISO 3166-2'

The 'Brazilian Federal District' (Portuguese: ''Distrito Federal'' ^[1]) is set apart for Brasília, the capital of Brazil. It is surrounded by the state of Goiás.

Contents

History

Flag

Voting rights

See also

Notes

External links

History

The government was transferred to Distrito Federal in April 21 1960, which was then split off from Goiás (major part) and Minas Gerais. Before the transfer, the Brazilian Federal District used to be the municipality of Rio de Janeiro. After the transfer, the municipality of Rio de Janeiro became the Estado da Guanabara (State of Guanabara), which existed from 1960 until 1975 when the State of Guanabara and the State of Rio de Janeiro merged, to be named the state of Rio de Janeiro.
Originally, the majority of the population consisted of local workers who built the capital (called "Candangos") and federal government employees who were transferred to the new capital, Brasília. The capital is a thoroughly planned city with designated areas for
residence, business, schools etc. No streets have names, but are identified instead by letters and numbers arranged in a geographical system. Originally built for up to one million inhabitants, the city has recently grown way past this number. Due to its complex organization, the growth of the city itself has been slow. This has forced many to settle in neighboring cities around Brasília, which now house a significant percentage of the population of the Distrito Federal.

Flag

The white color symbolizes peace, while the green and yellow colors in the middle refer to the national colors of Brazil. The four yellow arrows symbolize the native people of Brazil, their pointing into the four cardinal directions of the compass stands for the power emanating from the center. The yellow arrows also form a cross, which symbolizes the Southern Cross carried by Pedro Álvares Cabral. With their feathers they form a lozenge in the middle, another reference to the national flag of Brazil.
The flag was created by the poet and herald Guilherme de Almeida, and was adopted by decree no. 1090 from August 25 1969.

Voting rights

Residents of the Federal District elect eight representatives and three senators.

See also

★ List of cities in Brazil (all cities and municipalities)

Notes

1. The possible pronunciations in the Brazilian Portuguese are: (São Paulo and Central West); (Rio de Janeiro); (Minas Gerais), (South Region); and (Northeast). The European Portuguese pronunciation is: //.

External links

★ Informative Federal District page, with aeroplane view

★ Feature article on CityMayors.com

★ Distrito Federal at Google Maps

★ Map of the Brazilian Federal District