PUNO, DIOCESE of. — City and diocese in the department of the same name in Peru (South America), suffragan of the archdiocese of Arequipa.
It has an area of 67,703 sq km and a population of 800,000 inhabitants, almost all Catholic; 72 parishes served by 30 diocesan and 18 regular priests; 4 male and 5 female religious communities (Ann. Pont., 1951, p. 326).
The diocese was created by a bull of Pius IX dated 7 October 1861. Its first bishop was Mariano Chacon y Becerra, who resigned from office and was replaced by Juan Ambrosio Huerta, appointed in 1865.
BIBL.: anon., s. V. in Enc. Eur. Am., XLVIII, pp. 560–63; J. Moreno-Lacalle, s. V. in Cath. Enc., XII, pp. 569–70.