Simple directory > Regional > Venezuela

Country :Venezuela Official name: República Bolivariana de Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela) Head of State: President Hugo Chávez Frías (MVR) (forced to resign 12 Apr 2002; formally resumed presidential powers 15 Apr 2002) Head of government: President Hugo Chávez Frías Ruling party: Polo Patriótico (PP) (Patriotic Pole Coalition), led by the Movimiento V República (MVR) (Movement for the Fifth Republic) and Patria Para Todos (PPT) (Fatherland for All) Area: 916,490 square km Population: 25.51 million (2004) Capital: Caracas Official language: Spanish Currency: Bolívar (B) = 100 céntimos Exchange rate: B2,541.01 per US$ (Nov 2004) (the bolívar was devalued by 16.7 per cent in Feb 2004) GDP per capita: US$2,940 (2003) GDP real growth: -13.00% (2003) Labour force: 9.90 million (2003) Unemployment: 21.20% (2003) Inflation: 34.10% (2003) Oil production: 2.99 million bpd (2003) Balance of trade: US$12.13 billion (2003) Foreign debt: US$38.20 billion (2003)

Historical profile

1498 Christopher Columbus first sighted Venezuela.

1499 Alonso de Ojeda found Lake Maracaibo and called the area `little Venice', or Venezuela, after the houses the local inhabitants built on stilts.

1520s Spanish colonisation began.

1749 First rebellion against Spanish rule.

1810–21 Simón Bolívar defeated the Spanish army in a long war and created Greater Colombia out of Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Bolivia and Peru.

1830 Simón Bolívar was succeeded by a rebel general, José Antonio Paez, after which there was a struggle for power. Venezuela became an independent republic. Between 1830 and 1920, Venezuela evolved into a commercial outpost of the industrialising countries around the North Atlantic.

1870–88 General Antonio Guzmán ruled the country, increasing its international prestige, and developed the country's colonial bureaucracy into a modern state.

1908–1935 General Juan Vicente Gómez ruled the country, instituting a harsh policy of repression while developing Venezuela into an oil-based, technocratic economy. Foreign influences began to play a large role in Venezuelan life, particularly its internal politics, creating the pull towards a liberal capitalist democracy.

1945 After decades of rule by dictators, a military-civilian coup led to the creation of a new populist Acción Democrática (AD) (Democratic Action) government intent on redistributing wealth and power.

1948 The government was overthrown in a military coup backed by the capitalist class.

1958 The government was overthrown by Admiral Wolfgang Larrazabel and following elections Rómulo Betancourt was elected president. The Pact of Punto Fijo was signed between the main parties, including the AD and the Partido Demócrata Cristiano de Venezuela (Copei) (Christian Democrat Party of Venezuela), to share power and maintain a pluralistic democracy.

1969 Rafael Caldera Rodríguez became Venezuela's first Copei president and managed to achieve a degree of political and economic stability, although the developmental policy of import substitution industrialisation began to unravel.

1973 Venezuela joined the Andean Community, which also included Ecuador, Colombia, Peru and Bolivia.

1974–79 Carlos Andrés Pérez (AD) held presidential office and used massive oil revenues to nationalise industries and diversify the economy.

1979–84 The election of President Herrera (Copei) coincided with a downturn in global oil prices which led to a sequence of problems, including rising corruption, capital flight, economic stagnation and high levels of external debt.

1988 Presidential and legislative elections were held in December. Pérez became the first former president to be re-elected.

1989 There were public protests against the government's austerity programme, which involved drastic government spending cut-backs in order to stabilise the economy.The first-ever direct elections of state governors were held.

1992 Lieutenant-Colonel Hugo Chávez led an unsuccessful coup attempt by several army officers against the government of Pérez.

1998 The presidential election on 6 December was won by Chávez with more than 56 per cent of the vote.

1999 Lieutenant-Colonel Hugo Chávez's government was inaugurated on 2 February and began his 'Bolívarian Revolution', which included a new constitution adopted after a referendum. Floods in December killed approximately 30,000 people, and affected 600,000.

2000 The first elections under the new constitution were finally held, having been postponed, and Hugo Chávez was re-elected president for another six years, after having extended the presidential term of office by a year.

2001 The President passed 49 laws, under special powers without consultation, which included laws regarding land redistribution and the oil sector. There were calls for his resignation.

2002 Unrest in Venezuela interrupted oil exports. Thirteen people in an opposition rally were killed by supporters of President Chávez, who was forced by the military to resign on 12 April. Pedro Carmona Estanga became president. Carmona resigned on 13 April and Diosdado Cabello Rondón assumed power as acting president, pending the return of Chávez, who formally resumed his presidential powers on 15 April. On 2 December, an opposition-led general strike began.

2003 In January, the government imported petrol from Brazil and attempted to regain control of the strike-bound oil facilities.

2004 The electoral authority ruled that opponents of Hugo Chávez had collected enough signatures to force the President to submit to a recall referendum on 15 August. The strike was eventually called off in February. President Chávez won 58 per cent of the vote in the 15 August recall referendum.

2005 A decree for land distribution was signed by the president. During a state visit to Cuba in May, President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela and Fidel Castro signed several trade and co-operation agreements.

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