# Cardenal Caro Province

Cardenal Caro Province (Spanish: Provincia Cardenal Caro) is one of the three provinces of the central Chilean region of O'Higgins (VI). The capital of Cardenal Caro is Pichilemu.

## Name

The province is named after Cardinal José María Caro Rodríguez, native of Pichilemu, and who was the first Cardinal of Chile.

## History

On July 13, 1973, President Salvador Allende Gossens decreed the creation of the Cardenal Caro Department with Marchigüe its capital. The decree was published in the Diario Oficial de la República de Chile in August of the same year, making it official. However, the coup d'état that occurred in September of that year made the decree "dead text".
The province of Cardenal Caro was created on October 3, 1979 by General Augusto Pinochet. The communes of Litueche (formerly El Rosario), La Estrella, Marchigüe, Paredones were joined to form it, with Pichilemu added from Colchagua Province and Navidad added from San Antonio Province.
It was named in honour of José María Caro Rodríguez, the first Chilean Roman Catholic Cardinal, who was born in Ciruelos near the province's capital city of Pichilemu.
From its founding in 1979 to 2021 its government was led by a series of governors appointed by the President of Chile:
| # | Governor | Took office | Left office |
| 1 | Marcelo Nogueira Hidalgo | 1979 | 1990 |
| 2 | Hernán Vieira Herrera | 1990 | 1994 |
| 3 | Rolando Cárdenas Ibarra | 1994 | 2000 |
| 4 | Cristián Oyarzún Estay | 2000 | 2002 |
| 5 | José Saúl Bravo Gallegos | 2002 | 2004 |
| 6 | Fabricio Jiménez Mardones | 2004 | 2006 |
| 7 | Hernán San Martín Valdés | 2006 | 2007 |
| 8 | Loreto Puebla Muñoz | 2009 | 11 March 2010 |
| 9 | Julio Diego Ibarra Maldonado | 16 March 2010 | 12 March 2014 |
| 10 | Teresa Núñez Cornejo | 12 March 2014 | 11 March 2018 |
| 11 | Carlos Ortega Bahamondes | 11 March 2018 | 14 July 2021 |
The first, Marcelo Nogueira Hidalgo, was appointed by dictator Augusto Pinochet Ugarte. The last, Carlos Ortega Bahamondes, was appointed by President Sebastián Piñera Echenique.

## Administration

As a province, Cardenal Caro is a second-level administrative division of Chile, governed by a provincial delegate who is appointed by the president. In 2021, a new regionalization law was enacted and the former post of governor of Cardenal Caro province was superseded by the Presidential Provincial Delegate of Cardenal Caro. Carlos Ortega Bahamondes, originally appointed as governor in 2018, was confirmed as presidential provincial delegate by president Sebastián Piñera on 14 July 2021.
| # | Presidential Provincial Delegate | Took office | Left office |
| 1 | Carlos Ortega Bahamondes | 14 July 2021 | 11 March 2022 |
| 2 | Carlos Cisterna Pavez | 11 March 2022 | 26 October 2023 |
| 3 | Josefina Toro Rodríguez | 1 December 2023 | Incumbent |
The province is composed of six communes, each of which is governed by a popularly elected alcalde.

### Communes

Communes of Cardenal Caro :
* Navidad
* Litueche
* La Estrella
* Pichilemu
* Marchigüe
* Paredones

## Geography and demography

According to the 2002 census by the National Statistics Institute (INE), the province spans an area of 3,324.7 km$^2$ (1,284 sq mi) and had a population of 41,160 inhabitants (22,127 men and 19,033 women), giving it a population density of 12.4/km$^2$ (32/sq mi). Between the 1992 and 2002 censuses, the population grew by 11.2% (4,151 persons). persons).