Venezuela ( or ; in Spanish ), officially titled
Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela (Spanish:
República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a
tropical country on the northern coast of
South America.
It is a continental mainland with numerous
islands located off its coastline in the Caribbean Sea
. The republic won its independence from
Spain in 1821.
Venezuela
borders Guyana
to the east
of the Essequibo
River
, Brazil
to the
south, and Colombia
to the
west. Trinidad and Tobago
, Grenada
, St. Lucia
, Barbados
, Curaçao
, Bonaire
, Aruba
, Saint Vincent
and the Grenadines
and the Leeward Antilles
lie just north, off the Venezuelan coast.
Its size is 916,445 km² with an estimated population of
26,414,816.
Its capital is Caracas
. The
colors of the Venezuelan flag are yellow, blue and red, in that
order: the yellow stands for land wealth, the blue for courage, and
the red for independence from Spain.
Venezuela
has territorial disputes with Guyana, largely concerning the
Essequibo area, and with Colombia
concerning the Gulf of
Venezuela
. In 1895, after the dispute over the Essequibo
River border flared up, it was submitted to a neutral commission
(composed of United
Kingdom
, United
States
and Russian
representatives and without a direct Venezuelan representative),
which in 1899 decided mostly against Venezuela's claim.
Venezuela is known widely for its
petroleum industry, the
environmental diversity of its territory, and
its natural features. Venezuela is considered to be among the
world's
18 most biodiverse
countries, featuring diverse
wildlife in a variety of
protected
habitats.
Venezuela is among the most urbanized countries in
Latin America; the vast majority of
Venezuelans live in the cities of the north, especially in the
capital Caracas which is also the largest city.
Other major cities
include Maracaibo
, Valencia
, Maracay
, Barquisimeto
, Merida
, Barcelona
-Puerto La Cruz and
Ciudad
Guayana
.
Etymology
The name
"Venezuela" is believed to have originated from Amerigo Vespucci, an Italian explorer who,
along with Spaniard Alonso de Ojeda,
working for the Spanish crown led
a 1499 naval expedition along the northwestern coast's Gulf of
Venezuela
. On reaching the Guajira Peninsula
, the crew observed dwellings and villages that the
native people had built over the water (which the local population
called palafitos).
This
reminded Vespucci of the city of Venice
( ), so he
named the region "Venezuola," meaning "little Venice" in
Italian. The word has the same meaning in Spanish, where the
suffix -zuela is used as a
diminutive term (e.g.,
plaza / plazuela,
cazo / cazuela); thus, the term's original sense would
have been that of a "
little
Venice."
Nonetheless, although the Vespucci story remains the most popular
and accepted version of the origin of the country's name, a
different reason for the name comes up in the account of
Martín Fernández de
Enciso, a member of the Vespucci and Ojeda crew. In his work
Summa de Geografía, he states that they found an
indigenous population who called themselves the
"
Veneciuela," which suggests that the name "Venezuela" may
have evolved from the native word.
History
Human habitation of Venezuela could have commenced at least 15,000
years ago from which period
leaf-shaped tools,
together with chopping and
plano-convex
scraping implements, have been found exposed on the high riverine
terraces of the Rio Pedregal in western Venezuela.
Late Pleistocene hunting artifacts,
including spear tips, have been found at a similar series of sites
in northwestern Venezuela known as "El Jobo"; according to
radiocarbon dating, these date from
13,000 to 7,000 BC.
Venezuela
was first colonized by Spain in 1522 in
what is now Cumaná
.
These portions of eastern Venezuela were incorporated into
New Andalusia.
Administered by the Audiencia of Santo Domingo
since the early 16th century, most of Venezuela
became part of the Viceroyalty of New Granada in the
early 18th century, and was then reorganized as an autonomous
Captaincy General
starting in 1776.
In the 16th century, during the
Spanish colonization,
indigenous peoples
such as many of the
Mariches, themselves
descendants of the
Caribs rejected paganism
and embraced
Roman Catholicism.
Some Spaniards treated the natives harshly. Indian
caciques (leaders) such as
Guaicaipuro and
Tamanaco
attempted to resist Spanish incursions, but were ultimately
defeated; Tamanaco was put to death by order of Caracas' founder
Diego de Losada.
After a series of unsuccessful uprisings, Venezuela—under the
leadership of
Francisco de
Miranda, a Venezuelan marshal who had fought in the
French Revolution—
declared independence
on July 5, 1811. This began the
Venezuelan War of
Independence. However, a devastating
earthquake that struck Caracas in
1812, together with the rebellion of the Venezuelan
llaneros, helped bring down the
first Venezuelan
republic. A
second
Venezuelan republic, proclaimed on August 7, 1813, lasted
several months before being crushed as well.
Sovereignty was only attained after Simón Bolívar, aided by José Antonio Páez and Antonio José de Sucre, won the
Battle of
Carabobo
on June 24, 1821. José Prudencio Padilla and
Rafael Urdaneta's victory in the
Battle of Lake Maracaibo on
July 24, 1823, helped seal Venezuelan independence. New Granada's
congress gave Bolívar control of the Granadian army; leading it, he
liberated several countries and founded
Gran Colombia.
Sucre, who won many battles for Bolívar,
went on to liberate Ecuador and later become the second president
of Bolivia
. Venezuela remained part of Gran Colombia
until 1830, when a rebellion led by Páez allowed the proclamation
of a newly independent Venezuela; Páez became the first president
of the new republic. Two decades of warfare had cost the lives of
between a quarter and a third of the Venezuelan population, which
in 1830 numbered no more than 800,000.
Much of Venezuela's nineteenth century history was characterized by
political turmoil and
dictatorial rule.
During first half of the 20th century,
caudillos (military strongmen) continued to
dominate, though they generally allowed for mild social reforms and
promoted economic growth. Following the death of
Juan Vicente Gómez in 1935 and the
demise of
caudillismo (authoritarian rule), pro-democracy
movements eventually forced the military to withdraw from direct
involvement in national politics in 1958. Since that year,
Venezuela has had a series of democratically elected governments.
The discovery of massive
oil deposits
during
World War I prompted an economic
boom that lasted into the 1980s; by 1935, Venezuela's per capita
gross domestic product was
Latin America's highest.
After World War
II the globalization and heavy
immigration from Southern Europe (mainly from Spain, Italy, Portugal
) and poorer Latin American countries markedly
diversified Venezuelan society.
The huge public spending and accumulation of internal and external
debts during the Petrodollar years of the 1970s and early 1980s,
followed by the
collapse of oil prices
during the 1980s, crippled the Venezuelan economy. As the
government started to devaluate the currency in February 1983 in
order to face its financial obligations, Venezuelans' real standard
of living fell dramatically. A number of failed economic policies
and increasing corruption in government led to rising poverty and
crime, worsening social indicators, and increased political
instability.
In February 1992
Hugo Chávez, an
army paratrooper, staged a
coup d'état
attempt seeking to overthrow the government of President
Carlos Andrés Pérez. Chávez
failed and was placed in jail. In November 1992, another
unsuccessful coup attempt occurred, organized by groups loyal to
Chávez remaining in the armed forces. Chávez was acquitted in March
1994 by president
Rafael
Caldera, with his political rights intact.
In 1998, Chávez was elected president after a vigorous campaign, in
contrast with the feeble discourse of the weakened traditional
parties' candidates.His reform program, which he later called the
"
Bolivarian Revolution", was
aimed at redistributing the benefits of Venezuela's oil wealth to
the lower socio-economic groups by using it to fund programs such
as health care and education, but has encountered great criticism
by the previous establishment. In April 2002 he suffered a
coup
d'état. He was returned to power after two days as a
result of popular demonstrations in his favour and actions by the
military. Chávez has also survived an all-out national strike that
lasted more than two months in December 2002 – February 2003,
including a strike/lockout in the state oil company
PDVSA, and a
recall referendum in
August 2004. He was elected for another term in December
2006.
Economy

* Sources: WDI/World Bank.
GDP and GDP per capita is in year 2000 VEB, adjusted for
inflation.
Unemployment data for 2005 is the CIA World Factbook
estimate.
1 trillion = 1,000,000,000,000.
The vertical scales do not start at 0 to make more details
visible.
Oil production figures from IEA in millions of barrels per
day.
The
petroleum sector dominates Venezuela
mixed economy, accounting for roughly
a third of
GDP, around 80% of
exports and more than half of government revenues. Gold, diamonds
and iron ore are mined as well. Venezuela contains some of the
largest oil and natural gas reserves in the world. It consistently
ranks among the top ten crude oil producers in the world.
The
country's main petroleum deposits are located around and beneath
Lake
Maracaibo
, the
Gulf of
Venezuela
(both in Zulia), and in the
Orinoco River basin (eastern Venezuela), where the country's
largest reserve is located. Venezuela has the
least expensive petrol in the
world because of its high government subsidies.
Inflation has been a problem. It was expected to slow to 26%
annually in 2009, according to the president of the national bank,
Nelson Merentes.
Personal income
Per capita
GDP for 2008 was US$13,500, ranking
it 84th in the world. About 30 % of the population of the country
live on less than US$ 2 per day.
Petroleum and other resources
When oil was discovered at the Maracaibo strike in 1922,
Venezuela's dictator Juan Vicente Gómez allowed Americans to write
Venezuela's petroleum law. But oil history was made in 1943 when
Standard Oil of New
Jersey accepted a new agreement in Venezuela based on the 50–50
principle, "a landmark event." Terms even more favorable to
Venezuela were negotiated in 1945, after a coup brought to power a
left-leaning government that included
Juan Pablo Pérez Alfonso. In
1958 a new government again included Pérez Alfonso, who devised a
plan for the international oil cartel that would become
OPEC. In 1973 Venezuela voted to nationalize its oil
industry outright, effective January 1, 1976, with
Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA)
taking over and presiding over a number of holding companies; in
subsequent years, Venezuela built a vast refining and marketing
system in the U.S. and Europe.
prospects remain highly dependent on oil prices and the export of
petroleum. A founding member of the
Organization of
Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), Venezuela reasserted its
leadership within the organization during its year as OPEC's
president, hosting the organization's Second Leadership Conference
in 40 years, as well as having its former
Minister of Energy,
Alvaro Silva Calderon, appointed as
Secretary General. The collapse of oil prices in 1997–98 prompted
the Rodriguez administration to expand OPEC-inspired production
cuts in an effort to raise world oil prices. In 2002, this sector
accounted for roughly a quarter of GDP, 73% of export earnings, and
about half of central government's operating revenues. Venezuela is
the fourth-leading supplier of imported crude and refined petroleum
products to the United States.
The Government of Venezuela has opened up much of the hydrocarbon
sector to foreign investment, promoting multi-billion dollar
investment in heavy oil production, reactivation of old fields, and
investment in several petrochemical joint ventures. Almost 60
foreign companies representing 14 different countries participate
in one or more aspects of Venezuela's oil sector. The Venezuelan
national oil company Petroleos de Venezuela, S.A. (PDVSA) and
foreign oil companies have signed 33 operating contracts for
marginal fields in three bidding rounds. New legislation dealing
with natural gas and petrochemicals is further opening the sector.
A new domestic retail competition law, however, disappointed
investors who had been promised market-determined prices.
On November 13, 2001, under the enabling law authorized by the
National Assembly,
President Chávez enacted the new
Hydrocarbons Law, which came into effect in
January 2002. This law replaced the Hydrocarbons Law of 1943 and
the Nationalization Law of 1975. Among other things, the new law
provided that all oil production and distribution activities were
to be the domain of the Venezuelan state, with the exception of
joint ventures targeting extra-heavy crude oil production. Under
the new Hydrocarbons Law, private investors can own up to 49% of
the capital stock in joint ventures involved in upstream
activities. The new law also provides that private investors may
own up to 100% of the capital stock in ventures concerning
downstream activities, in addition to the 100% already allowed for
private investors with respect to gas production ventures, as
previously promulgated by the National Assembly.
During the December 2002-February 2003 all-out national strike
where managers and skilled highly paid technicians of PDVSA shut
down the plants and left their posts, petroleum production and
refining by PDVSA almost ceased. At the same time, many business
owners across Venezuela closed down their stores, both actions
aimed at ousting Chavez from government. After more than 60 days of
getting nowhere the strike died off, and activities eventually were
slowly restarted by returning and substitute oil workers. Out of a
total of 45,000 PDVSA management and workers, some 19,000 were
subsequently dismissed with no compensation; many of whom were
managers and highly paid professionals and technicians who
thereafter were banned from working in the petroleum industry, even
indirectly.
Manufacturing, agriculture, and trade
Manufacturing contributed 17% of GDP in 2006. The manufacturing
sector continues to increase dramatically at a rate of 26.93%
annually. Venezuela manufactures and exports
steel,
aluminum, transport
equipment,
textiles,
apparel,
beverages, and
foodstuffs. It produces
cement,
tires,
paper,
fertilizer, and
assembles cars both for domestic and export markets.
Agriculture accounts for approximately 3% of GDP, 10% of the labor
force, and at least one-fourth of Venezuela's land area. Venezuela
exports
rice,
corn,
fish, tropical
fruit,
coffee,
beef, and
pork. The country is not self-sufficient in
most areas of
agriculture; Venezuela
imports about two-thirds of its food needs. In 2002, U.S. firms
exported $347 million worth of agricultural products, including
wheat, corn,
soybeans,
soybean meal,
cotton,
animal fats,
vegetable oils, and other items to
make Venezuela one of the top two U.S. markets in South
America.
Due to petroleum exports, Venezuela usually posts a
trade surplus. In recent years, nonpetroleum
exports have been growing rapidly but still constitute only about
one-fourth of total exports. The United States is Venezuela's
leading trade partner although Brazil is expected to surpass the
U.S. by 2011. During 2002, the United States exported $4.4 billion
in goods to Venezuela, making it the 25th-largest market for the
U.S. Including petroleum products, Venezuela exported $15.1 billion
in goods to the U.S., making it its 14th-largest source of
goods.
Geography
Venezuela
is a country in the north of South
America, bordering the Caribbean Sea
. It is bounded on the south by Brazil, and
on the west by Colombia. Venezuela has a total area of and a land
area of , about twice the size of California. Shaped roughly like
an inverted triangle, the country has a coastline.
With of coastline, there is a variety of landscapes. The extreme
northeastern extensions of the
Andes reach
into Venezuela's northwest and continue along the northern
Caribbean coast.
Pico Bolívar
, the nation's highest point at , lies in this
region. The country's center is characterized by the
llanos are high extensive plains
that stretch from the Colombian border in the far west to the
Orinoco River delta in the east.
To the south, the
dissected Guiana Highlands contains the
northern fringes of the Amazon Basin
and Angel
Falls
, the world's highest waterfall. The Orinoco, with its rich
alluvial soil, binds the largest and most
important
river system of the
country; it originates in one of the largest
watersheds in Latin America. The
Caroní and the
Apure are other major rivers. The country can be
further divided into ten geographical areas, some corresponding to
climatic and biogeographical regions. In the north are the
Venezuelan Andes and the
Coro region, a mountainous tract in the
northwest, holds several
sierras and valleys.
East of
it are lowlands abutting Lake Maracaibo
and the Gulf of Venezuela
. The Central Range runs parallel
to the coast and includes the hills surrounding Caracas
; the Eastern Range, separated from the Central
Range by the Gulf of Cariaco, covers
all of Sucre
and
northern Monagas. The Llanos region
comprises a third of the country's area north of the Orinoco River.
South of it lies the
Guiana Shield, a
massive
Precambrian geological formation
featuring
tepuis, mysterious table-like
mountains.
The Insular Region includes all of
Venezuela's island possessions: Nueva Esparta and the various Federal
Dependencies
. The Deltaic
System, which forms a triangle covering Delta Amacuro
, projects northeast into the Atlantic
Ocean
.
Geology
Venezuela's mainland rests on the
South American Plate.
Climate

200 px
Though Venezuela is entirely situated in the tropics, its climate
varies from humid low-elevation plains, where average annual
temperatures range as high as , to glaciers and highlands (the
páramos) with an average yearly temperature of . Annual
rainfall varies between in the semiarid portions of the northwest
to in the Orinoco Delta of the far east. Most precipitation falls
between June and October (the rainy season or "winter"); the drier
and hotter remainder of the year is known as "summer", though
temperature variation throughout the year is not as pronounced as
at temperate latitudes.
The country falls into four horizontal temperature zones based
primarily on elevation. In the tropical zone—below 800
meters—temperatures are hot, with yearly averages ranging between
26°C and 28°C. The temperate zone ranges between 800 and 2,000
meters with averages from 12°C to 25°C; many of Venezuela's cities,
including the capital, lie in this region. Colder conditions with
temperatures from 9°C to 11°C are found in the cool zone between
2,000 and 3,000 meters. Pastureland and permanent snowfield with
yearly averages below 8°C cover land above 3,000 in the high
mountain areas known as the páramos.
Subdivisions
Venezuela is divided into 23 states (
estados), a
capital district (
distrito
capital) corresponding to the city of Caracas, the Federal
Dependencies (
Dependencias Federales, a special
territory), and
Guayana Esequiba
(claimed in a border dispute with Guyana). Venezuela is further
subdivided into 335
municipalities
(
municipios); these are subdivided into over one thousand
parishes (
parroquias). The states
are grouped into nine administrative regions (
regiones
administrativas), which were established in 1969 by
presidential decree. Historically, Venezuela has also claimed all
Guyanese territory west of the Essequibo River; this tract was
dubbed
Guayana Esequiba or the
Zona en
Reclamación (the "zone to be reclaimed").
Demographics
Venezuela's birth rate is among the highest
in South America, after Bolivia
, Paraguay
and French
Guyana
.
Since 1930, Venezuelan census does not contain information about
ethnicity so only rough estimates are available. Some 60% of the
population are
Mestizo defined as a mixture
of Europeans and Amerindians, respectively; another 30% are
whites, mostly of
Spanish,
Italian,
Portuguese and
German descent. Two of the main
Amerindian tribes located
in the country are the
Wayuu, located in the
west, in
Zulia, and the
Timotocuicas, also in the west, in
Mérida, in the
Andes. Other important groups include
Afro-Venezuelans, though their numbers are unclear due to poor
census data. People from the Asian continent, mainly
Lebanese and
Chinese, make up a small percentage of the
population. About 1% of Venezuelans are
indigenous. These groups were joined by
sponsored migrants from throughout Europe and neighboring parts of
South America by the mid-20th century economic boom.
According to the
World Refugee Survey 2008, published by
the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, Venezuela hosted a
population of
refugee and asylum seekers
from Colombia numbering 252,200 in 2007. 10,600 new asylum seekers
entered Venezuela in 2007. Between 500,000 and one million
illegal immigrants are estimated to be
living in the Venezuela.
About 85% of the population live in urban areas in northern
Venezuela; 73% live less than from the coastline. Though almost
half of Venezuela's land area lies south of the Orinoco, only 5% of
Venezuelans live there.
The national and official language is
Spanish; 31 indigenous languages are also
spoken, including
Guajibo,
Pemon,
Warao,
Wayuu, and the various
Yanomaman languages.
According to government estimates, 92% of the population is at
least nominally
Roman
Catholic, and the remaining 8% are
Protestant, a member of another religion, or
non-religious. The Venezuelan Evangelical Council estimates that
Evangelical Protestants constitute
10% of the population.
Government
The Venezuelan president is elected by a vote with direct and
universal suffrage, and functions
as both
head of state and
head of government. The term of office is
six years, and a president may be re-elected an unlimited number of
times as of February 15, 2009. The president appoints the
vice-president and decides the size and composition of the
Cabinet and makes appointments to it
with the involvement of the legislature. The president can ask the
legislature to reconsider portions of laws he finds objectionable,
but a simple parliamentary majority can override these
objections.
The
unicameral Venezuelan
parliament is the
National Assembly or
Asamblea Nacional. Its 167 deputies, of which three are
reserved for indigenous people, serve five-year terms and may be
re-elected for a maximum of two additional terms. They are elected
by popular vote through a combination of party lists and single
member constituencies. The highest
judicial body is the
Supreme Tribunal of
Justice or
Tribunal Supremo de Justicia, whose
magistrates are elected by parliament for a single twelve-year
term. The
National Electoral
Council (
Consejo Nacional Electoral, or
CNE)
is in charge of electoral processes; it is formed by five main
directors elected by the National Assembly.
The voting age in Venezuela is 18 and older. Voting is not
compulsory.
Politics
There are currently two major blocs of
political parties in
Venezuela: the incumbent leftist bloc
United Socialist Party of
Venezuela (PSUV), its major allies
Fatherland for All (PPT) and the
Communist Party of Venezuela
(PCV), and the opposition bloc led by
A New
Era (UNT) together with its allied parties
Project Venezuela,
Justice First,
Movement for Socialism
and others. Following the fall of
Marcos Pérez Jiménez in 1958,
Venezuelan politics was dominated by the
third-way Christian democratic COPEI and the center-left
social democratic Democratic Action (AD) parties; this
two-party system was formalized by
the
puntofijismo arrangement.
However, this system has been sidelined following the initial
1998 election
of current President Hugo Chávez, which started what he calls the
Bolivarian Revolution.
Most of the political opposition boycotted the
2005 parliamentary
election. Consequently, Hugo Chávez's MVR-led bloc secured all
167 seats in the National Assembly. Then, the MVR voted to dissolve
itself and join the new
United Socialist Party of
Venezuela, while Chávez requested that MVR-allied parties merge
themselves into it as well. The National Assembly has twice voted
to grant Chávez the ability to
rule by
decree for several months in several broadly defined areas,
once in 2000 and again in 2007. This power had only rarely been
granted to previous administrations, and then only for
extraordinary circumstances and for a short time.
Chavez has
established alliance with several Latin American countries which
have elected leftist governments, such as Argentina
, Bolivia
, Brazil
, Ecuador
, Guatemala
, Nicaragua
, El
Salvador
, Honduras
and Paraguay
.
Public health

Valle Guanape reservoir
Venezuela has a national universal health care system that is free
of charge. The current government has created a program to expand
access to health care known as
Misión
Barrio Adentro.
Infant mortality in Venezuela stood
at 16 deaths per 1,000 births in 2004, much lower than the South
American average (by comparison, the U.S. stands at 5 deaths per
1,000 births in 2006). Child
malnutrition (defined as stunting or wasting in
children under age five) stands at 17%; Delta Amacuro and Amazonas
have the nation's highest rates. According to the
United Nations, 32% of Venezuelans lack
adequate sanitation, primarily those living in rural areas.
Diseases ranging from
typhoid,
yellow fever,
cholera,
hepatitis A,
hepatitis B, and
hepatitis D are present in the country.
Venezuela has a total of 150 plants for sewage treatment. However
still 13% of the population lack access to drinking water but this
number seems to be dropping.
Travelers to Venezuela are advised to obtain vaccinations for a
variety of diseases including typhoid, yellow fever, cholera,
hepatitis A, hepatitis B and hepatitis D. In a cholera epidemic of
contemporary times in the Orinoco Delta, Venezuela's political
leaders were accused of
racial
profiling of their own indigenous people to deflect blame from
the country's institutions, thereby aggravating the epidemic.
The nation had one of the worst murder rates in the world, 96
homicides every 100.000 inhabitants in 2007. in 2008, the Interior
Minister resigned, apparently because he had failed to change voter
perceptions that crime was out of control. In 2008, polls indicated
that crime was the number one concern of voters.
Foreign relations
most of the 20th century, Venezuela maintained friendly relations
with most Latin American and Western nations. Relations between
Venezuela and the United States government worsened in 2002, after
the
2002
Venezuelan coup d'état attempt during which the U.S. government
recognized the short-lived interim presidency of
Pedro Carmona. Correspondingly, ties to
various
Latin American and Middle
Eastern countries not allied to the U.S. have strengthened.
Venezuela
seeks alternative hemispheric
integration via such proposals as the Bolivarian Alternative
for the Americas trade proposal and the newly launched
pan-Latin American television
network teleSUR. The Venezuelan
government has also expressed its support for the Russian position
on the
International
recognition of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, which United States
and its allies strongly oppose.
Venezuela was a proponent of OAS
's decision to adopt its Anti-Corruption Convention,
and is actively working in the Mercosur
trade bloc to push increased trade and energy integration.
Globally, it seeks a "
multi-polar" world based
on strengthened ties among
Third World
countries.
Military

Su-30MKV of the Venezuelan Air
Force
Venezuela's national armed forces include roughly 100,000 personnel
spread through four service branches: the
Ground Forces,
Navy (including the Marine
Corps), the
Air Force, and the
Armed Forces of Cooperation (FAC), commonly known as the
National Guard. As of 2008, a
further 600,000 soldiers were incorporated into a new branch, known
as the Armed Reserve. The
President of Venezuela is the
commander-in-chief of the
national armed forces.
Animals and plants
Venezuela lies within the
Neotropic
ecozone; large portions of the country were originally covered
by
moist broadleaf
forests. One of seventeen
megadiverse countries and among the
top twenty countries in terms of
endemism,
some 38% of the over 21,000 plant species are unique to the
country; 23% of
reptilian and 50% of
amphibian species are also endemic.
Venezuela hosts significant
biodiversity across habitats ranging from
xeric scrublands in the
extreme northwest to coastal
mangrove
forests in the northeast. Its
cloud
forests and lowland
rainforests are
particularly rich, for example hosting over 25,000 species of
orchids. These include the
flor de
mayo orchid (
Cattleya mossiae), the national
flower.
Venezuela's national tree is the
araguaney, whose characteristic
lushness after the rainy season led novelist
Rómulo Gallegos to name it
«[l]a
primavera de oro de los araguaneyes» ("the golden spring of
the
araguaneyes"). Notable
mammals
include the
giant anteater,
jaguar, and the
capybara, the
world's largest
rodent. More than half of
Venezuelan avian and
mammalian species are
found in the
Amazonian forests
south of the Orinoco.
Manatees,
Boto river dolphins, and
Orinoco crocodile, which have been
reported to reach up to in length, are notable aquatic species.
Venezuela hosts a total of 1,417 bird species, 48 of which are
endemic. Important birds include
ibises,
ospreys,
kingfishers, and the yellow-orange
turpial, the national bird.
In recent decades, logging, mining,
shifting cultivation, development, and
other human activities have posed a major threat to Venezuela's
wildlife; between 1990 and 2000, 0.40% of forest cover was cleared
annually. In response, federal protections for critical habitat
were implemented; for example, 20% to 33% of forested land is
protected. The country has a
biosphere
reserve that is part of the
World Network of Biosphere
Reserves; five
wetlands are registered
under the
Ramsar Convention. In
2003, 70% of the nation's land was under conservation management in
over 200 protected areas, including 43 national parks.
Image:IMG
2908.JPG|Puerto Cruz beach in Isla Margarita
Image:Angel falls.jpg|Angel Falls
, the tallest waterfall in the
worldImage:PicoBolivarMerida.JPG|Pico
Bolívar
Image:Playa Blanca Estado Sucre
Venezuela.JPG|Mochima National Park
Image:Mt Kukenan in Venezuela
001.JPG|Canaima
National Park
has Precambrian
geological formations that rank among the world's
oldest.File:Deltaorinoco.jpg|
Orinoco RiverFile:La carretera de
Mérida.JPG|The countryside in
MéridaFile:El Amor Beach, Coche Island
(4).jpg|Coche
Island
Culture
Venezuela's heritage, art, and
culture have been heavily influenced by the Caribbean
context. These elements extend to its
historic buildings, architecture, art, landscape, boundaries, and
monuments.
Venezuelan culture
has been shaped by
indigenous,
Spanish and African influences.
Before this period, indigenous culture was expressed in art
(
petroglyphs),
crafts, architecture (
shabonos), and social organization. Aboriginal
culture was subsequently assimilated by Spaniards; over the years,
the hybrid culture had diversified by region.
Venezuelan art was initially
dominated by religious motifs but began emphasizing historical and
heroic representations in the late 19th century, a move led by
Martín Tovar y Tovar.
Modernism took over in the 20th century.
Notable
Venezuelan artists
include
Arturo Michelena,
Cristóbal Rojas,
Armando Reverón,
Manuel Cabré; the
kinetic artists Jesús-Rafael Soto and
Carlos Cruz-Diez; and contemporary artist
Yucef Merhi.
Venezuelan literature
originated soon after the Spanish conquest of the mostly
pre-literate indigenous societies; it was dominated by
Spanish influences. Following the rise of
political literature during the War of Independence, Venezuelan
Romanticism, notably expounded by Juan
Vicente González, emerged as the first important genre in the
region. Although mainly focused on
narrative writing, Venezuelan literature was
advanced by poets such as
Andrés
Eloy Blanco and Fermín Toro. Major writers and novelists
include
Rómulo Gallegos,
Teresa de la Parra,
Arturo Uslar Pietri,
Adriano González León,
Miguel Otero Silva, and
Mariano Picón Salas. The great poet
and humanist
Andrés Bello was also
an educator and intellectual. Others, such as
Laureano Vallenilla Lanz and
José Gil Fortoul, contributed
to Venezuelan
Positivism.
Carlos Raúl Villanueva was the
most important Venezuelan architect of the modern era; he designed
the Central University of
Venezuela
, (a World Heritage
Site) and its Aula Magna. Other notable
architectural works include the Capitolio, the Baralt Theatre, the Teresa
Carreño Cultural Complex
, and the General Rafael Urdaneta
Bridge
.
Indigenous
musical styles of
Venezuela are exemplified by the groups Un Solo Pueblo and
Serenata Guayanesa. The national
musical instrument is the
cuatro. Typical musical styles and
pieces mainly emerged in and around the
llanos region,
including
Alma Llanera (by
Pedro Elías
Gutiérrez and
Rafael Bolivar
Coronado),
Florentino y el Diablo (by
Alberto Arvelo Torrealba),
Concierto en la Llanura by
Juan Vicente Torrealba, and
Caballo Viejo (by
Simón Díaz). The Zulian
gaita is also a popular style,
generally performed during Christmas. The national dance is the
joropo.
Teresa Carreño was a world-famous 19th
century piano virtuosa. In the last years, Classical Music has had
great performances. The
Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra
has realized excellent presentations in many European concert
halls, notably at the 2007
Proms, and has
received honors of the public.
Baseball is Venezuela's most popular sport,
although
football , spearheaded by
the
Venezuela national
football team, is gaining influence.
Venezuela is well-known for its successions in beauty pageants.
Miss Venezuela is a big event in the
country, and Venezuela has received 5
Miss
World, 6
Miss Universe and 5
Miss International titles.
The
World Values Survey has
consistently shown Venezuelans to be among the happiest people in
the world, with 55% of those questioned saying they were "very
happy".
Education
In 2008, 95.2% of the adult population was literate. Net
primary school enrollment rate was at 91 % in
2005. Net secondary enrollment rate was at 63 % in 2005. Venezuela
has a number of universities.
See also
References
- . p. 177.
- Kipfer 2000, p. 172.
- . p. 103.
- A short history of Venezuela. New
Internationalist, June, 2006.
- . pp. 616–617.
- The coup installed chamber of commerce leader Pedro
Carmona.
- "Venezuela 2002-2003: Polarisation, Confrontation, and
Violence," Margarita LÓpez Maya; in Olivia Burlimgame Guombri, ed.,
The Venezuela Reader. 2005, Washington D.C., U.S.A. Page
16.
- Venezuela Energy Profile, Energy Information
Administration, Accessed June 25, 2008.
- Reuters report on central bank presidents
comments retrieved September 18, 2009
- [1]
- http://hdr.undp.org/en/media/HDI_2008_EN_Tables.pdf
- Daniel Yergin, The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money,
and Power [Simon and Schuster, 1990], pp. 233–236; 432
- Yergin, p. 435
- Yergin, pp. 510–513
- Yergin. p. 767
- Venezuela - Population. Source: U.S. Library of
Congress.
- International Religious Freedom Report 2008:
Venezuela. United States Bureau of Democracy,
Human Rights and Labor (December 21, 2008)
- CNN.com - U.S. death rate
- UNDP. Human Development Report 2006: Venezuela.
Accessed March 8, 2007.
- FAO. Venezuela. Accessed September 20, 2006.
- Unicef. Venezuela. Accessed September 20, 2006.
- Venezuela Guardian. Accessed September 20,
2006.
-
http://www.gobiernoenlinea.ve/misc-view/sharedfiles/Metas_Milenio.pdf
(Page 65)
- Venezuela Guardian. Accessed September 20,
2006.
- Stories in the Time of Cholera by Charles
L. Briggs
- El Pais retrieved 03.Nov.2009: "96 homicidios
por cada 100.000 habitantes"
- Reuters news retrieved September 22, 2009
- Reuters retrieved September 22, 2009
- [ http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKN0847789320080908 Reuters
news]
- [2]
- .
- Dydynski & Beech 2004, p. 42
- .
-
http://hdrstats.undp.org/en/countries/data_sheets/cty_ds_VEN.html
External links