section_path: Characteristics
section_name: Characteristics
paragraph_text: Characteristics
  
  The region has a great climatic variety and is rich in mineral resources such as oil, coal, and uranium; its soils are suitable for diversified agriculture, presenting diverse types of crops such as coffee, cocoa, corn, beans, rice, banana, and cassava. Likewise, livestock is a strong line in the region and its rivers have a great variety of fish, which have served as food for a long time to the riverside inhabitants (mainly the Motilón-Bari indigenous people). It is a highly disputed area between groups outside the law, since its climatic conditions are suitable for large-scale cultivation of coca leaves, the raw material used in the manufacture of cocaine. There are also laboratories that produce cocaine which take advantage of the dense jungle of the region to remain hidden from the Armed Forces and National Police, who fight these illegal groups and their sources of financing.
  
  Lake Maracaibo of the Catatumbo region is the location with highest occurrence of lightning in the world.