It has an area of 18,967 sq. km. and a population of 257,825, of whom 224,565 are Catholics; it comprises 25 parishes served by 17 diocesan priests and 45 regular priests; it has 6 male and 13 female religious communities (Ann. Pont. 1953, p. 440). The diocese was erected by Pope Pius XII on 8 July 1944 by the apostolic constitution Apostolici plumbo litteris as a suffragan of Concepción.
BIBL.: AAS, 36 (1944), pp. 321-24.