Guanta dates from the completion of the railway to the coal mines of Naricual and Capiricual nearly 12 miles beyond Barcelona, and was created for the shipment of coal. The mayor of the Guanta Municipality is Jhonnathan Mar�n, elected on 23 November 2008 with 58% of the vote. He replaced Luis Alfredo Cardozo Belizario shortly after the elections. The municipality is divided into two parishes; Guanta and Chorrer�n (previous to 27 June 1995, the Guanta Municipality contained only a single). The Guanta Municipality, according to a 2007 population estimate by the National Institute of Statistics of Venezuela, had a population of 31,629 (up from 28,542 in 2000). This amounted to 2.1% of the state's population. The municipality's population density is 472.07 inhabitants per square kilometre (1,222.7 /sq mi)
