It is the 160th most populated town of Colombia, and the 6th in the department after Cúcuta, Ocaña, Villa del Rosario, Los Patios and Pamplona.

The church greatly contributed to the development of the village by designing the first streets and distributing lots for the first houses and the cathedral.

It was erected municipality later on January 1, 1977, in the midst of the jungle of the Catatumbo Region an almost human inhospitable land between Colombian and Venezuela.

The area has been a constant dispute between government forces, the guerrillas of the FARC and ELN and paramilitary groups.

[2] On June 16, 1996 AUC members perpetrated the Gabarra Massacre while struggling for control of the area with insurgents.