Venezuela is among the most urbanized nations in Latin America. It has a number of the largest confirmed oil reserves on the earth, in addition to huge quantities of coal, iron ore, bauxite and gold.
It was one of many world's main oil exporters, however within the first many years of the 21st century the nation skilled poor financial administration.
Former President Hugo Chávez, who died in 2013, described himself as a champion of the poor throughout his 14 years in workplace and funneled billions of of Venezuela's oil wealth into social applications.
The federal government of his successor Nicolas Maduro has struggled with falling oil costs and an financial and political disaster that has left Venezuela in a state of close to collapse.
The nation is fighting rampant inflation, shortages of products, unemployment and crime. Seven million Venezuelans have fled overseas to neighboring nations.
The nation is embroiled in a long-running border dispute with neighboring Guyana over Essequibo, a disputed oil-rich territory that Guyana and beforehand British Guiana have administered since 1899.
BOLIVAR REPUBLIC OF VENEZUELA: FACTS
- Capital metropolis: Caracas
- Space: 916,445 km²
- Inhabitants: 29.7 million
- Languages: Spanish and regional languages
- Life expectancy: 67 years (males) 76 years (girls)
LEADER
President: Nicolas Maduro
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President Nicolas Maduro has been in energy since March 2013, after the demise of his mentor Hugo Chávez.
In Could 2018, he was re-elected president to a second six-year time period in a ballot that was marred by an opposition boycott and allegations of vote-rigging.
On the time, Venezuela was in deep financial disaster, with hovering inflation and a scarcity of important items, regardless of having enormous oil reserves.
Mr. Maduro did not make vital reforms to the state economic system and arrange a Constituent Meeting to bypass the Nationwide Meeting and consolidate his maintain on energy.
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Venezuela's political polarization is mirrored within the media.
State tv protection routinely ignores the opposition. Vital and exiled media function on-line.
Many journalists fled due to threats and bodily hazard, says Reporters With out Borders.
The federal government and its opponents are utilizing social media as a battleground.
TIMELINE
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A statue of Latin American hero Simon Bolivar decorates one of many predominant streets in central Caracas
Some necessary dates in Venezuela's historical past:
1498-99 – Christopher Columbus and Alonso de Ojeda go to Venezuela, inhabited by the Carib, Arawak and Chibcha peoples.
1521 – Spanish colonization begins.
1749 – First rebellion towards Spanish colonial rule.
1810 – Venezuelans use Napoleon's invasion of Spain to declare independence.
1829-30 – Venezuela separates from Higher Colombia.
1870-88 – Ruler Antonio Guzman Blanco attracts overseas funding, modernizes infrastructure and develops agriculture and schooling.
1889 – Venezuela claims two-thirds of Guyana west of the Essequibo River, however a global arbitration tribunal guidelines in Guyana's favor in 1899.
1908-35 – Beneath dictator Juan Vicente Gomez, Venezuela turns into the world's largest oil exporter.
[1945-[1945- After many years of army rule, a civilian authorities is established via a coup.
1948 – President Romulo Gallegos, Venezuela's first democratically elected chief, was overthrown inside eight months in a army coup led by Marcos Perez Jimenez.
1958 – Admiral Wolfgang Larrazabal ousts Marcos Perez Jimenez; The leftist Romulo Betancourt of the Democratic Motion Celebration (AD) wins the presidential election.
1964 – Venezuela's first presidential transition from one civilian to a different happens when Raul Leoni is elected president.
1973 – Venezuela advantages from the oil increase and its foreign money reaches highs towards the US greenback; Oil and metal industries nationalized.
1989 – Carlos Andres Perez is elected president within the midst of the financial disaster and begins austerity program with IMF loans. Riots, martial regulation and a common strike ensue, with a whole bunch killed in road violence.
1992 – Colonel Hugo Chávez and his followers try two coups. About 120 folks have been killed within the suppression of coups. Colonel Chávez was imprisoned for 2 years earlier than being pardoned.
1998 – Hugo Chávez is elected president on account of disillusionment with the established events and triggers the “Bolivarian Revolution”. He pursues socialist and populist financial and social insurance policies financed by excessive oil costs and a vociferously anti-American overseas coverage.
2005 President Chávez introduces land reform to abolish Venezuela's giant landholdings and assist the agricultural poor. Ranchers say it’s an assault on non-public property.
2006 – Venezuela indicators a $three billion arms take care of Russia, forgoing U.S. arms provides. Chávez wins a 3rd presidential election.
2012 – Within the battle towards inflation, the federal government is increasing value controls for fundamental items. Venezuela turns into a full member of the regional buying and selling bloc Mercosur. Chávez wins a fourth time period.
2013 – Chavez dies at age 58 after a battle with most cancers. His chosen successor, Nicolas Maduro, is elected president by a slim majority amid an imploding economic system and a divided nation.
2018 – UN Secretary-Basic Antonio Guterres decides to have the Worldwide Court docket of Justice (ICJ) hear Venezuela's long-standing declare that the 1899 ruling on the Venezuela-Guyana border is invalid.
2019 – Opposition chief Juan Guaidó declares himself interim president and asks the army to overthrow President Maduro, saying the 2018 elections have been rigged. The EU, the US and most Latin American nations acknowledge Mr Guaidó.
2020 – The opposition is boycotting the parliamentary elections, duly gained by President Maduro's occasion and its allies.
2023 – In accordance with the United Nations, greater than seven million Venezuelans have fled the nation.
The Worldwide Court docket of Justice rejects Venezuela's objections that it’s not the correct physique to determine the long-running border dispute between Guyana and Venezuela over Essequibo and says it is going to now rule on the matter.
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Rallies for and towards President Hugo Chávez have been a daily function throughout his time in workplace