Guanta is the capital and largest city of Guanta Municipality. Together with Barcelona, Puerto La Cruz and Lecher�a it forms a conurbation of around 1.2m inhabitants.
The town is named for the cacique Guantar of the Cumanagoto people, the indigenous inhabitants of the area at the time of the Spanish conquest. Formally founded in 1594, it was already an indigenous settlement before this time. The Guanta Municipality is one of the 21 municipalities (municipios) that makes up the eastern Venezuelan state of Anzo�tegui and, according to a 2007 population estimate by the National Institute of Statistics of Venezuela, the municipality had a population of 31,629. The town of Guanta is the shire town of the Guanta Municipality
