VENEZUELA: THE NATION REPORTArman Vatanpur

GEOGRAPHY Size:

Approximately 912,050 square kilometers. Topography:

Four well-defined regions--Maracaibo lowlands in the northwest, northern mountains stretching from Colombian border along the Caribbean Sea, central Orinoco plains (llanos), and Guiana highlands in southeast. Climate:

Varies from tropical humid to alpine depending on elevation, topography, and prevailing winds. Rainy season for most regions runs from May through November.

Venezuela is a federal presidential republic consisting of 23 states, the Capital District (covering Caracas), and Federal Dependencies (covering Venezuela's offshore islands). Venezuela is among the most urbanized countries in Latin America;[4][5] the vast majority of Venezuelans live in the cities of the north, especially in the capital, Caracas, which is also the largest city.

GEOGRAPHY Venezuela is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders

Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south. Its roughly 2,800 kilometers (1,700 mi) northern coastline includes numerous islands in the Caribbean Sea, and in the north east borders the northern Atlantic Ocean. Caribbean islands such as Trinidad and Tobago, Grenada, Curaçao, Aruba and the Leeward Antilles lie near the Venezuelan coast. Venezuela's territory covers around 916,445 square kilometers (353,841 sq mi) with an estimated population of 29,105,632. Venezuela is considered a country with extremely high biodiversity, with habitats ranging from the Andes mountains in the west to the Amazon Basin rainforest in the south, via extensive llanos plains and Caribbean coast in the center and the Orinoco River Delta in the east.

PEOPLE Venezuelan people are from a

multiethnic nation in South America called Venezuela. Venezuelans are predominantly Roman Catholic and overwhelmingly speakers of Spanish, and a majority of them are the result of a mixture of Europeans, Africans, and Amerindians.

With approximately 28 million people in 2006,[3] Venezuela is the sixth-most populous country in Latin America, after Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, and Peru.

The National Institute for Statistics (INE) does not collect religious statistics, and accurate reports are hard to obtain. Based on various studies, more than 95% of the population adheres to Christianity,[5] in which a huge segment of the population, between 81% and 90%, practices Roman Catholicism. About 1% of Venezuelans practice indigenous religions.

PEOPLE Venezuela was colonized by

Spain in 1522, overcoming resistance from indigenous peoples. It became the first Spanish American colony to declare independence (in 1811), but did not securely establish independence until 1821 (initially as a department of the federal republic of Gran Colombia, gaining full independence in 1830).

a large proportion of Venezuelans are young, largely because of recent decreases in the infant mortality rate. 30 percent of the people are 14 years of age or younger, just 4 percent are aged 65 or older.

CULTURE The culture of Venezuela is a

melting pot which includes mainly to three different families: the indigenous, African and Spanish.

Acculturation and assimilation, typical of a cultural syncretism, conditioned to arrive at the current Venezuelan culture, similar in many respects to the rest of Latin America, although the natural environment means that there are important differences.

The African influence in addition to musical instruments like the drum.

CULTURE 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 Bolívar 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 hosted a number of excellent presentations in many European concert halls, notably at the 2007 Proms, and has received several honors. The orchestra is the pinnacle of El Sistema, a publicly financed voluntary sector music education program.

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.[13] 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 7000 BC.

Venezuela was colonized by Spain in 1522, overcoming resistance from indigenous peoples.

It became the first Spanish American colony to declare independence (in 1811), but did not securely establish independence until 1821 (initially as a department of the federal republic of Gran Colombia, gaining full independence in 1830).

During the 19th century Venezuela suffered political turmoil and dictatorship, and it was dominated by regional caudillos (military strongmen) into the 20th century.

It first saw democratic rule from 1945 to 1948, and after a period of dictatorship has remained democratic since 1958, during which time most countries of Latin America suffered one or more military dictatorships.

HISTORY Since the discovery of oil in the early 20th century,

Venezuela has been one of the world's leading exporters of oil. Previously an underdeveloped exporter of agricultural commodities such as coffee and cocoa, oil quickly came to dominate exports and government revenues. The 1980s oil glut led to an external debt crisis and a long-running economic crisis, which saw inflation peak at 100% in 1996 and poverty rates rise to 66% in 1995[6] as (by 1998) per capita GDP fell to the same level as 1963, down a third from its 1978 peak.[7] The recovery of oil prices after 2001 boosted the Venezuelan economy and facilitated social spending, although the fallout of the 2008 global financial crisis saw a renewed economic downturn.

Venezuela is a federal presidential republic consisting of 23 states, the Capital District (covering Caracas), and Federal Dependencies (covering Venezuela's offshore islands). Venezuela is among the most urbanized countries in Latin America.

Venezuela is a founder member of the United Nations (1945), the Organization of American States (1948), the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) (1960), the Group of 15 (1989), the World Trade Organization (1995), the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas (ALBA) (2004) and the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) (2008).

SOURCES

WIKIPEDIAhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venezuela Google Images Country Studies - Library of Congresshttp://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/vetoc.html