Fonseca, La Guajira  Fonseca is a municipality located in the Colombian Department of La Guajira. The town celebrates the Festival del Retorno in honor of St Augustine with religious celebrations, vallenato music events and others. The municipality of Fonseca has a total area of 622 km² at an altitude over sea level of 11 m over sea level at the seat of the municipality. The municipality is on a depression in the valley of the Ranchería River which flows through the municipality from west to east, between the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta and the Serranía del Perijá. Fonseca limits to the north with the municipality of Riohacha and Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta mountain range; to the south with the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and the Serranía del Perijá mountains; to the east with the municipality of Barrancas and to the west narrowly with the municipality of San Juan del Cesar. The average temperature throughout the year is of 28°Cº variating only between the two rainy seasons and two dry seasons or by altitude due to the mountainous environment. The area of Fonseca was inhabited by different indigenous groups; Chimila, Tupe, Wayuu, Cariachile people and Motilon. There are two hypothesis about the foundation of Fonseca. One describes that by the year 1750 [Catalan]] colonizer Agustín Fonseca and Italian José Agustín Parodi founded the village. Agustín Fonseca was the leader of a group of adventurers who settled by the Ranchería river, but in a rainy season the river flooded the area bringing diseases. They moved to a dryer place on what is supposedly the present-day main plaza of Fonseca. José Agustín Parodi was a captain of the Spanish Crown and arrived by orders of the Spanish monarchy. In 1773 the settlement of Fonseca was registered as jurisdiction of the Province of Santa Marta, only until 1967 La Guajira separated of Magdalena Department. On June 13, 1829 Fonseca became a municipality of the Intendencia of La Guajira by Decree 1954. Fonseca became a municipality of the Department of La Guajira in 1954. Since the 1970s Barrancas has been influenced by the Colombian armed conflict because of its strategic location between the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, the Serranía del Perijá mountain ranges and the border with Venezuela.