It is the second-largest department in the country (after Santa Cruz), covering 213,564 square kilometers (82,458 sq mi), and it was created by supreme decree on November 18, 1842, during the administration of General José Ballivián.

[3] Although Beni is rich in natural resources, the poverty level of its inhabitants is high, mainly as a result of centuries of exploitation of native populations by European-descended elites[citation needed].

In addition, an underground economy linked to illegal narcotics activities flourished in the area during the last decades of the 20th century, with many cocaine laboratories hidden behind the façade of remote cattle ranches.

[3] The Beni region is wide and flat, featuring many large mounds connected by straight earthen causeways, which are believed by researchers to have been built by ancient inhabitants.

In the 21st century, archeologists and anthropologists such as Americans Clark Erickson and William Balée, respectively, believe these earthwork structures are evidence of a large and sophisticated indigenous civilization that flourished for thousands of years before European colonization.

[4] The first European settlers in this area were Spanish Jesuit missionaries during the 18th century, sent to convert the native inhabitants, chiefly in the southern half of the department.

Though the Beni lies in the southern reaches of the Amazon Basin, an area renowned for tropical disease, the population has fewer health problems than in the Andes Region, especially those related to malnutrition.

Considerable resentment existed against the central government, which allegedly did very little to build roads or integrate the Beni into the economy and political life of Bolivia.

These attitudes persisted although Beni residents benefited greatly by the Agrarian Reform instituted following the 1952 Revolution, with many citizens gaining ownership of significant tracts of land.

The absence of a reliable road linking the department to the main centers of power in the country (owing to the difficult terrain) continued to contribute to the Benianos' perception of isolation, as did a downturn in the cattle industry.

As a result, both the white/mestizo population and departmental authorities supported the Santa Cruz-led effort to federalize the country and devolve powers to the departments at the expense of the central government.

However, this is where many products that are now used worldwide originated in native cultivation: among them tobacco, peanuts, cotton, cassava (manioc), vanilla and sweet potatoes.

[10] The December 2011 suspension of Governor Ernesto Suarez was backed by 15 votes, including the MAS and MNR delegations, and two indigenous or campesino representatives.

Beni borders upon Brazil to the northeast, and the departments of Santa Cruz to the southeast, La Paz to the west, Pando to the northwest, and Cochabamba to the south.

Beni's territory is mainly covered by rainforest (particularly the northern and eastern portions of the department) and pampa (notably the grassland Moxos Plain to the south, closer to the Andean reaches).

Trinidad has an entire museum, the Museo Ictícola, dedicated to Beni's fish fauna which is the third largest of its type in South America.

The most commonly fished and consumed species are pacú, tambaquí, surubí, palometa (a type of piranha), sábalo, bagre (catfish), and blanquillo.

During the winter (June and July) the weather can be cool and winds blowing northward from the South Pole and Argentina's Patagonia region can cause temperatures to drop quite drastically very quickly.