Background
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República
Bolivariana de Venezuela
Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela
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Flag
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Coat
of arms
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Capital
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Caracas
10°30'N 66°58'W
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Largest city
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Caracas
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Official language
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Spanish
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Government
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Federal Republic
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- President
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Hugo
Chávez Frías
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Area
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Total
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916,445 kmē
353,841 sq mi
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Water (%)
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0.3
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Population
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July 2007 estimate
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27,483,200
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2001 census
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23,054,210
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Density
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30/km²
77/sq mi
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GDP (PPP)
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2006 estimate
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Total
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$176.4 billion
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Per capita
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$6,900
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Human Development Index (2003)
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0.784 (medium)
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Currency
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Venezuelan
bolívar (VEB)
1 Bolivar = 100
centimos
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Hours ahead (+) or behind
(-) SA:
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-6
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Internet TLD
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.ve
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Calling code
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+58
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ISO code
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VE
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VenezuelaSpanish:Venezuelaofficially
the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela,
is a country on the northern coast of South America. Comprising a continental mainland
and numerous islands in the Caribbean
Sea, Venezuela borders Guyana to
the east, Brazil to
the south, and Colombia to
the west. Trinidad
and Tobago, Barbados, Curaçao, Bonaire, Aruba,
and the Leeward
Antilles lie just north of the Venezuelan coast.
A former Spanish
colony, Venezuela is a federal
republic. Historically, Venezuela has had
territorial disputes with Guyana,
largely concerning the Essequibo area,
and with Colombia concerning
the Gulf
of Venezuela. Today, Venezuela is known widely
for its petroleum industry,
the environmental
diversity of its territory, and its natural
features. Christopher
Columbus, upon seeing its eastern coast in
1498, referred to Venezuela as "Tierra de
Gracia" ("Land of Grace"), which has become
the country’s nickname.
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 largest
metropolis, Caracas.
Other major cities include Maracaibo, Barquisimeto, Valencia, Maracay,
and Ciudad
Guayana.
Politics
The Venezuelan
president is elected by 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 to a
single consecutive term. 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.
Economic overview
The petroleum sector
dominates Venezuela's mixed
economy, accounting for approximately a third
of the GDP,
around 80% of export earnings, and more than half
of government revenues. The country's main petroleum
deposits are located around and beneath the large
fresh-water Lake
Maracaibo connected to the Gulf
of Venezuela from the north by a tidal channel
and fed by the Catatumbo, Santa Ana and Chama rivers.
Oil tankers enter the lake through the tidal channel
which was dredged in 1956 to accommodate the ships.
The oil sector operates through the government-owned Petroleos
de Venezuela (PDVSA), which among other things
owns the US-based distributor CITGO and
its more than 14,000 retail gasoline outlets.
Venezuela is the United States' largest foreign
supplier of oil.
As of 2007, 37% of the population lives in poverty;
the unemployment rate stands at 8.4%.
Venezuela is also highly dependent on its agricultural
sector. Sectors with major potential for
export-led growth are production of both coffee and cocoa crops.
At one time, Venezuela ranked close to Colombia
in coffee production, but in the 1960s and 1970s,
as petroleum temporarily turned Venezuela into
the richest country in South America, coffee
was relegated to the economic back burner. Today,
Venezuela produces less than 1% of the world's
coffee, most of it consumed by the domestic market.
However, Venezuelan coffees are again entering
the North American specialty markets. Venezuela's
cocoa industry has decayed since the days of
Spanish colonialism, when African slaves worked
on cocoa estates. The focus of cocoa cultivation
has long since moved to tropical West
Africa. In recent years, there has been an
attempt to resuscitate this industry, as its
rare variety of cacao,
known as Chuao, is considered the finest
and most aromatic in the world and is used in
certain single-origin chocolates.
The largest Venezuelan fine chocolate producer
is El Rey, though some companies such as Savoy (Nestlé)
also manufacture chocolate from Venezuelan cacao
and export it to Europe.
Venezuela is one of the five founding members
of OPEC,
the international oil cartel. Through the initiative
of Juan
Pablo Pérez Alfonzo, OPEC was proposed
in 1960 as a response to low domestic and international
oil prices. Since 2005, Venezuela has been a member
of Mercosur,
joining Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay,
and Uruguay;
it has yet to gain voting
rights. Venezuela is also a member of the South
American Community of Nations (SACN).
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