Country Profile: Venezuela

Last reviewed: 16 July 2008

Country information

Map of Venezuela

VENEZUELA TODAY

Country Facts

Area: 916,445 sq km
Population: 26.6 million (2005 estimate)
Capital City: Caracas (greater Caracas population 5 million)
People: Mestizo (67%), Caucasian (21%), Black (10%), Indigenous (2%). Colombians form the largest expatriate community (1.6 million)
Language: Spanish
Religion(s): Roman Catholic
Currency: Bolivar Fuerte
Major political parties: Hugo Chávez's Partido Socialista Unido de Venezuela (PSUV) is a broad based pro-Government unity party comprising his previous party, Movimiento Quinta República (MVR), and some representatives from Patria Para Todos (Fatherland For All - PPT), and other smaller parties. The main opposition parties are Un Nuevo Tiempo (A New Time – UNT), Primero Justicia (Justice First), Acción Democrática (AD), Christian Social Democrats (COPEI), Movimiento al Socialismo (Movement Towards Socialism -MAS) and Proyecto Venezuela. The opposition parties withdrew from the last elections for the National Assembly so are not represented in parliament.
Government: Federal Republic comprising 23 States, one capital District and 72 islands which are Federal Dependencies. The executive dominates the four branches of government: the legislature, the Consejo Moral Republicano (CMR, Moral Republican Council), the judiciary and the Consejo Nacional Electoral (CNE, the National Electoral Council).
Legislature: The 1999 Constitution established a unicameral legislature. The National Assembly consists of 167 deputies.
Head of State: President Hugo Chávez-Frías
Foreign Minister: Nicolas Maduro
Membership of international groupings/organisations: UN, OPEC, ALADI (the Latin American Integration Association), IMF, the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank, the Organisation of American States, Mercosur (in process of becoming a full member), Association of Caribbean States, South American Community of Nations (SACN), G77, G15, WTO, WHO, WIPO, ICC.

DID YOU KNOW?

Longest and highest cable car in the world (12.5km, 4,750m): Merida
Longest river is Orinoco (2,574km) Largest lake in South America: Maracaibo in Zulia State
Highest waterfall in the world: Angel Falls (978m)

HEALTH

Under the 1999 constitution, the Chávez Government guaranteed a publicly funded health service. The Government has since invested large sums of money in social programmes to provide health services to local communities through Misión Barrio Adentro. Cuba has provided a large number of doctors and nurses for these programmes. Residents of some of the poorest areas of Venezuela now have access to basic free health care where before there was nothing.

Basic Health Facts

Life Expectancy: 73 years
Infant Mortality Rate: 22 per 1,000 births (1999)
Percentage of the population living in poverty: 37% (2005)
Hospital Beds: 1.5 per 1,000 people (1999)
Access to safe water: 79 (% of population)

Environment

Venezuela is classified in the top 10 of the world's most ecologically diverse countries. Venezuela has subscribed to the following UN pacts: the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer, the Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer, the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Framework Convention on Climate Change, the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal, the World Conservation Union's Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.

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