Buenaventura, city in western Colombia, in Valle del Cauca Department, a seaport on Cascajal Island, in Chocó Bay. The city is served by several railroads, highways, and airlines. An important trade center and the chief Pacific port of Colombia, Buenaventura is also the processing center for the surrounding region in which platinum, gold, and silver are mined. In the city are distilleries, canneries, lumberyards, and tanneries. The chief exports include coffee, hides, sugar, gold, and platinum. Founded about 1545, the city was destroyed by Native Americans before 1600. Later rebuilt, Buenaventura thrived after the opening of the Panama Canal in 1914. Population (1995 estimate) 266,988.
