The Venezuela Portal


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Flag of Venezuela

Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea. Venezuela comprises an area of 916,445 km2 (353,841 sq mi), and its population was estimated at 29 million in 2022. The capital and largest urban agglomeration is the city of Caracas.

The continental territory is bordered on the north by the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Colombia, Brazil on the south, Trinidad and Tobago to the north-east and on the east by Guyana. Venezuela is a presidential republic consisting of 23 states, the Capital District and federal dependencies covering Venezuela's offshore islands. Venezuela is among the most urbanized countries in Latin America; the vast majority of Venezuelans live in the cities of the north and in the capital.

Venezuela is a developing country having the world's largest known oil reserves and has been one of the world's leading exporters of oil. Previously, the country was an underdeveloped exporter of agricultural commodities such as coffee and cocoa, but oil quickly came to dominate exports and government revenues. The excesses and poor policies of the incumbent government led to the collapse of Venezuela's entire economy. The country struggles with record hyperinflation, shortages of basic goods, unemployment, poverty, disease, high child mortality, malnutrition, severe crime and corruption. These factors have precipitated the Venezuelan refugee crisis where more than seven million people have fled the country. By 2017, Venezuela was declared to be in default regarding debt payments by credit rating agencies. The crisis in Venezuela has contributed to a rapidly deteriorating human rights situation. Venezuela is a charter member of the United Nations (UN), Organization of American States (OAS), Union of South American Nations (UNASUR), Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA), Mercosur, Latin American Integration Association (LAIA) and Organization of Ibero-American States (OEI). (Full article...)

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Top to bottom, left to right: MBR-200 combatant seeking cover; an APC on the steps of Miraflores Palace; government loyalist troops deploying to combat MBR-200; and MBR-200 troops arrested following the coup attempt's failure
The Venezuelan coup attempt of February 1992 was an attempt to seize control of the government of Venezuela by the Hugo Chávez-led Revolutionary Bolivarian Movement-200 (MBR-200) that took place on 4 February 1992. The coup was directed against President Carlos Andrés Pérez and occurred in a period marked by economic liberalization reforms, which were attempted in order to decrease the country's level of indebtedness and had caused major protests and social unrest. Despite their failure to depose the government of Carlos Andrés, the February coup attempts brought Chávez into the national spotlight. Fighting during the coup resulted in the deaths of at least 143 people and possibly as many as several hundred. (Full article...)

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Plaza Francia, also known as "Plaza Altamira", is a public space located in Altamira, east Caracas. It was built at the beginning of the 1940s and opened on August 11, 1945 with the name "Plaza Altamira". Its name was later changed due to an agreement between the cities of Caracas and Paris to have a Venezuela Square in Paris and a France Square in Caracas.

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Rómulo Ángel del Monte Carmelo Gallegos Freire (2 August 1884 – 5 April 1969) was a Venezuelan novelist and politician. For a period of nine months during 1948, he governed as the first freely elected president in Venezuela's history. He was removed from power by military officers in the 1948 Venezuelan coup.

Rómulo Gallegos is considered the most relevant Venezuelan novelist of the 20th century, and a prominent figure in Latin American literature. (Full article...)

In this month...

Laguna Victoria in the Sierra Nevada of Venezuela

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A panoramic depiction of a two-story nineteenth-century building alongside a square with several small trees.
The Universidad Central de Venezuela old campus in 1911. The building also served as the location for the National Library when it was founded in 1833. It is known as the "Palacio de las Academias".

Venezuela has a wide array of universities, offering courses in a broad variety of subjects, spread between a total 23 public and 24 private universities located across several states. As a result of a Royal Decree signed by Philip V of Spain, the Central University of Venezuela—the country's oldest—was founded in 1721 as "Universidad Real y Pontificia de Caracas". The campus was originally at the now-known "Palacio de las Academias" but, in 1944, president Isaías Medina Angarita relocated it to the University City of Caracas.

The second oldest university is the University of the Andes. Established in 1810 as the "Real Universidad de San Buenaventura de Mérida de los Caballeros", its origins date back to 1785 when Fray Juan Ramos de Lora founded a priest school in the city of Mérida. The University of Zulia—the third-oldest university—was founded in 1891 when the Federal College of Maracaibo was converted into a university. The government ordered the closure of the university for political reasons in 1904, and it remained closed until 1946. The University of Carabobo is the last to be founded before the twentieth century by being established in 1892 and dating back to 1833 when the College of Carabobo was created by presidential decree. (Full article...)

Current events

27 March 2024 – Argentina–Venezuela relations
Argentina orders the deployment of at least two gendarmerie to the Argentine embassy in Venezuela, where allies of opposition leader María Corina Machado take refuge amid more confrontation between the two countries. (Infobae)
20 March 2024 – Argentina–Venezuela relations
Argentina tells the International Civil Aviation Organization that Venezuela violated the Convention on International Civil Aviation when Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro banned Argentine aircraft from its airspace earlier this month. (Infobae)
12 March 2024 – Argentina–Venezuela relations
Argentina announces diplomatic actions against Venezuela after president Nicolás Maduro banned Argentina-licensed aircraft from entering Venezuelan airspace amid deteriorating relations between the two countries. (The San Diego Union-Tribune)

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Venezuelan patrol boat Naiguatá

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