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San Andres and Providencia Department (Colombia)

San Andrés y Providencia

by Andres Villaveces , 5 January 2000

The Flag
The Coat of Arms
The Department
Reported Wrong Flags

The Flag

I have contacted the Instituto Geografico Agustin Codazzi (IGAC) (http://www.igac.gov.co). The official geography institute of the government of Colombia and they have verbally described the flag to me. I have made a new file which resembles much more their description and I'm including it here.
As described by the representative of the IGAC, the flag of San Andrés is "Petroleum Green with white diagonal lines in the shape of an X from corner to corner and sorrounded by a black line.
The actual text of the email I received in Spanish says: "En atención al e-mail del asunto, le comunico que la bandera de San Andrés y Providencia es de color verde petroleo con dos líneas diagonales formando una X de extremo a extremo en color blanco y los bordes de la X van en color negro."
No mention of the emblem is made
Andres Villaveces , 5 January 2000

IMHO, the saltire flag is clearly related to the main island's name.
Antonio Martins , 23 December 1999

The Coat of Arms

by Andres Villaveces , 22 December 1999

The Official emblem of the department of San Andres and Providencia which I got from http://www.sanandres.net/
Andres Villaveces , 22 December 1999

The Department

Just for the record, San Andres and Providencia are two colombian small islands off the atlantic coast of Nicaragua . ISO lists this department as San Andrés, Providencia y Santa Catalina.
Antonio Martins , 23 December 1999

In 'Les Chiffres du Monde 1998' (Encyclopaedia Universalis Yearbook 1998), San Andres & Providencia is listed as a 'regular' department, with capital San Andres. It is the smallest department of Colombia, with an area of 44 square km (0.004% of the total area of the country) and a population of 61,040 inhabitants (0.2% of the total population of the country), but very crowdy, with a density of 1387 inhabitants/sq. km!
Ivan Sache , 26 December 1999

My maps are not coincident relatively to this. While most consider this department as consisting only of the island of San Andres, island of Providencia, cayos (rocks, or reefs) of Este Sudeste and cayos of Albuquerque, another atlas, the one that is more into showing internal divisions, extend the department into the cayos of Quinta Suen~o, cayos of Roncador, Bank of Serrana, Bank of Serranilla and Bajo Novo (a small reef, I suppose).
In any case, there is no Santa Catalina visible anywhere...
Jorge Candeias , 28 December 1999

Yes, there is. Read [San Andrés,] [Providencia y Santa Catalina]. It is an islet just north of Providencia (AKA Old Providencia) - Providencia is a kind of archipelago, with Providencia Isl. in the south point and Santa Catalina in the north. Most atlases I consulted have no name for the north island; only Stielers Handatlas (1877) has a name. I made a scan of the area.
Jarig Bakker , 28 December 1999

The department includes the island of San Andrés, Providencia, the islet of Santa Catalina and the Cayos (reefs) of Este Sudeste, Albuquerque, Roncador, Quitasueño, Serrana, and the banks of Serranilla and Bajo Nuevo. I'm also including a map also from the IGAC that shows the department.
Andres Villaveces , 5 January 2000

Reported Wrong Flags

Flag reported by Andres Villaveces , 22 December 1999

Above is a flag I got from the official web-page of the Department of San Andres and Providencia at : http://www.sanandres.net/
Andres Villaveces , 22 December 1999

Flag reported by Jorge Candeias , 23 December 1999

Something puzzles me, though. To be noted first of all that this page is not governmental, instead it's the flag of the tourist board of the Department. It is official, no doubt, but not from the kind of organism that pays more attention to flags. Then what puzzles me: I have an image taken from the web that shows a small flag of San Andres y Providencia. It shows a lot of differences to the flag Andres posted : for starters, the field is darker, about the same shade as the scottish flag, then the cross is narrower, the proportions are also different, seemingly in the 1:2 area, and finally the coat of arms (COA) is present in the upper quadrant of the flag.
Now, what I'd like to ask to those who knows : which is the official flag? Why the different shades of blue? Was there any evolution in flag usage in the islands in recent years?
Jorge Candeias , 23 December 1999