The Venezuela is a federal République of known South America for its Biodiversité and its natural beauty. According to the legend, Christophe Colomb, while unloading in Venezuela, was so enthusiast by the landscape that it called it Tierra de Gracia (Ground of Grace), which became the nickname of the country.
According to the French-speaking organizations, the name of the country is written Venezuela (French IGN for example) or Venezuela as in Spanish; to note that the C-W communication without accent, Venezuela , is more current. One always stresses on the other hand in the derived adjective, Venezuelan () (S) , or the name of the inhabitants, Venezuelan () (S) .
History
See also: History of Venezuela
The République bolivarienne of Venezuela is a country of the northern coast of the South America.
In the beginning, the territory of current Venezuela was inhabited by several people, of which the Caribbean, Arawak S and Cumanagotos.
Christophe Colomb was the first navigator to reach this area in 1498, at the time of its third voyage. In 1520, the Spaniards started to colonize the islands and the coastal regions. Coro, founded in 1527, was the first colony of importance. The dwellings of the autochtones añu built on Pilotis inspired to the first European explorers the name of Venezuela, i.e. “Small Venice”.
First settlements
A Réserve of the biosphere of 83000 km ² was created in 1991 in the country, under the aegis of UNO, in the state of Amazonas to protect its forests and plates and the Amerindian tribes often victims from mining, forest or agricultural, even of tourism.
Geography
See also: Geography of Venezuela
If oil made the richness of Venezuela, it is initially and before all its geography which is its true treasure. Plains, plates, high tops and sand beaches white offer exceptional landscapes. Venezuela has borders with the Guyana in the east, the Brésil in the south, the Colombia in the west, and the Caribbean Sea in north. Its capital is Caracas.
The territory Venezuelan extends since the surroundings from the equator until north from the eleventh parallel. It also has 72 islands, dispersed in the Caribbean Sea and in the ocean Atlantique, gathered in the Federal Dépendances. Margarita is largest and most important. One can distinguish three great areas: the coast and the Andes in north and the west, plains in the center and the massive Guianese in south-east. The septentrional point of the Andes cordillera culminates to 5007 m with the Pico Bolívar. It encloses the Lac Maracaibo and is prolonged towards the east while skirting the coast. The large plains (the Llanos (flat in Spanish)) occupy the north of the basin of the Orénoque and of its affluents Arauca and Apure . The river is thrown in the Caribbean Sea by enormous a delta marshy which occupies all the north-eastern area of the country ( Delta Amacuro ). The south of the basin of Orénoque, with its affluent Caroni, is wild and often tourist. One finds there one of the high tourist places of the country: high falls of Salto Angel of almost 1000 meters, recognized like the highest water falls in the world. Pouring rain, followed important landslides in zones strongly populated near to the international airport Simon Bolivar (Guaira - State de Vargas) made thousands of died in December 1999. This sad page of the history vénézuélienne is usually called “the Tragedy” by the autochtones.
Big cities
See also: Cities of Venezuela
The principal cities of the country are:
Land borders
Flag
The March 7th 2006, the Parliament of Venezuela adopts the amendment of the national flag in order to adapt it to the “socialist revolution” of the president Hugo Chávez, on the initiative of the project. Entirely controlled by the partisans of the Head of the State following the boycott of the legislative elections by the opposition in December, the Parliament approved the addition of an eighth star in homage to the national hero Simon Bolivar, liberator of the Latin America and inspirer of the ideology of the mode. The deputies Venezuelans also modified the gallop of the white horse being reproduced on the national escutcheon in order to turn it, either towards the right-hand side, but towards the left, in order to symbolize the political orientation of the government. To note however that, in term of heraldic, the horse moves in fact towards the dextral one, which makes the message a little confused… The Parliament also decided certain additions on the escutcheon, such as a kayak, an arc and an arrow representing the weapons of the natives or a machete of peasant, in homage to the roots of the descendants of African origin.
Economy
See also: Economy of Venezuela
Venezuela is an important producer of Pétrole and is founding member of OPEC (created under the impulse of Venezuela in particular).
The country underwent an economic serious attack in the decade 1990. Whereas the average rate of growth of GDP PPP (purchasing power parity) in the world between 1990 and 2002 was of 57%, Venezuela is one of the rare countries where this one dropped, passing from 6 169 dollars per capita in 1990 with 5 380 dollars in 2002 and 4 740 dollars in 2003. The rise of the courses of oil since 2004 made it possible to stop this fall and to finance the socio-economic programs of the government, but inflation is always high with 17% in 2005.
Venezuela belongs to the Mercosur of which he is an effective member since 2006.
Policy
See also: Political of Venezuela
The current president is Hugo Chávez Frias, since the February 2nd 1999 (re-elected the July 30th 2000 and the December 3rd 2006). An economic attempt at destabilization leads to a coup d'etat in April 2002 which falls through very quickly following a strong popular mobilization in favor of the return of Chávez.
Hugo Chávez gained all the elections with 60% of the voices approximately since that which carried it to the capacity. The opposition causes a revocatory referendum against the president as the Constitution bolivarienne in August 2004 allows it. The " non" carries to 59.06% of the votes. At the time of the regional elections of 2004, only two areas did not decide in favor of its party. The State is theoretically a Participative democracy. Since the opposition boycotted the elections at the National Assembly of December 4th, 2005, the Parliament is dominated by the Mouvement of the fifth republic (Movimiento V República), which gained 116 seats out of 167. The elections with the presidency of December 2006 confirmed Chávez with the presidency of the country and these elections were unanimously recognized like a “transparent, equitable, democratic” process by l Organization of the American States, the European Union, the Association of the Latin-American Lawyers and the Foundation Casing.
The constitution vénézuélienne, inspired by the principles of Simón Bolivar was voted by referendum the December 30th 1999.
The opposition antichavist qualifies as for it this mode of “democracy absolutist”.
In January 2007, the president announced to want to reform in-depth the constitution, in order to go towards the creation of a " socialist Republic of Venezuela ".
Each State of Venezuela is directed by a governor elected at the time of elections by the vote for all.
The Bolivarienne Constitution of 1999 obliges the Government - dixit the official discourse - “to reverse the economic situation which, directed by the Fonds international currency (the IMF) had been the cause of the " decade perdue" (1985-1995), and its terrible negative effects on the populations and their economic systems”. President Chávez applies this Constitution with insistence. Its political action is centered on the reinforcement of the role of the State by the means of nationalizations and the revalorization of oil, the produced main thing of export of the country. It aims at being released from the impositions of a heavy debt, which burdened in 1998 50% with the national budget, by paying it. The government also seeks to satisfy the social debt urgently: health, food, education (missions civico-soldiers of great popular penetration). New laws are written concerning the land reform, the central bank, the exploitation of hydrocarbons (gas, oil), the taxation, the control of currencies and currencies, etc
In 2007, Hugo Chávez asks for special capacities which thanks to a “revolutionary law of enabling” enable him to control by decrees without passing by the Parliament, in next the eighteen months as from the first January 2007. These special capacities are limited to the social topics (recentralisation of the ministries for health, housing and food safety), to the land reform (inventory, recovery and distribution of all the grounds not or badly exploited with co-operatives) and to recovery by purchases of the public services and strategic industries, privatized in the last decades (electricity, water, telecommunications, oil industry and mine: iron, aluminum gold and diamonds). This program is already goes from there since the first January 2007, with varied repercussions: very criticized by the land great landowners, the majority holders of sometimes doubtful documents, but accepted by several, compared to the apparent flexibility applied in each particular case by arrangements to l´amiable. In oil industry, the foreign business partners must from now on be satisfied with a minority interest in all the companies. Until now all accepted, gladly badly liking, including TOTAL-FINA which exploits and modifies very heavy oils of the belt of the Orénoque.
October 24th, 2007, socialism is registered in the constitution of Venezuela: for many opponents, it is about a questioning of political pluralism. When the state of emergency is proclaimed, freedom of the press is suspended, as well as the standards of justice. This classification is however to consider with prudence because the position of RSF with respect to the government Venezuelan is discussed. Sunday, May 27, 2007, one minute before midnight, the Radio Caracas TeleVision (RCTV) ceased emitting on the national waves (but continuous to emit freely via satellite and the cable), the government having decided not to renew the concession. The chain was mainly marked to have supported the coup d'etat against Chavez in 2002. The decision of Chavez was very discussed in the world.
The space which RCTV occupied from now on will be occupied by a new chain of state of which 74% of the contents concern the diffusion and socialist information: Social Televisora Venezuelana (TVes). Since this nonrenewal, demonstrations, in particular coeds, take place to be opposed or support the decision of the State Venezuelan.
Hugo Chavez took thereafter for target Globovision, " the last television channel of opposition" according to Le Monde. In the facts, on 27 transmitting television channels in Venezuela, 5 whose TVes are public.
Culture
Music
The music of Venezuela is influenced by the Amerindian origins, African and Hispanic. The indigenous culture is present today in the music through certain instruments, inter alia the Cameo, a drum, and the Batuto, a kind of trumpet. The Hispanic culture allowed the introduction of many popular kinds, of which the Galerón, the Corrido and the Guaracha. The popular music of Afro-West-Indian origin is queen in the heart of the Venezuelans. The Merengue, the Cumbia and the salsa make dance and vibrate young people and less young people in the worldwide. These endiablés rates/rhythms cut through a path to Venezuela, influencing the largest contemporary artists of the country, Oscar Of Leon is indisputably most known of the salseros in the world.
Sport
The national sport is without any doubt the Baseball. There are however other popular sports or autochtones such as the Bolas criollas or the Coleo. Contrary to the other countries of South America, the role of football is relatively restricted, and the selection vénézuélienne is the traditional poor relation of regional football (Venezuela is the only country of South America not to have never disputed World cup), although the last results show some progress.
Science
See: Vaccine of the Leprosy, and to also see Humberto Fernandez Moran.
Demography
See also: Demography of Venezuela
- IDH : 61 out of 162
- Life expectancy: 73,5 years
- Infant mortality: 19 per 1000 births
Codes
Venezuela has as codes:- SV, according to the List of the prefixes of codes ICAO of the airports,
- VE, according to the standard ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 (code list country)
- VE, according to the Code list countries used by NATO, code alpha-2,
- .ve, according to the List of Internet TLD (Signal level domain),
- VENN, according to the standard ISO 3166-1 (code list country), code alpha-3
- VENN, according to the Code list country of the CIO,
- VENN, according to the Code list countries used by NATO, code alpha-3,
- YV, according to the international Code list of the number plates,
- YV, according to the List of prefixes ICAO of registration of the aircraft,
References
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