The Orinoco, with its rich alluvial soils, binds the largest and most important river system of the country; it originates in one of the largest watersheds in Latin America. Venezuela borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south.
Venezuela has territorial disputes with Guyana formerly United Kingdom , largely concerning the Essequibo area, and with Colombia concerning the Gulf of Venezuela. In , after years of diplomatic attempts to solve the border dispute, from Venezuela, the dispute over the Essequibo River border flared up, it was submitted to a "neutral" commission composed of British, American and Russian representatives and without a direct Venezuelan representative , which in decided mostly against Venezuela's claim.
Venezuela's most significant natural resources are petroleum and natural gas, iron ore, gold and other minerals. It also has large areas of arable land and water.
Annual rainfall varies between mm The precipitation level is lower in the period from November to April and later in the year from August to October. These periods are referred to as Hot-Humid and Cold-Dry seasons. Other charasteristic of the climate is this variation throughout the country by the existence of a mountain range called "Cordillera de la Costa" which crosses the country from east to west.
The majority of the population lives in these mountains. The country falls into four horizontal temperature zones based primarily on elevation, having Tropical, Dry, Temperate with Dry Winters, and Polar Alpine tundra climates, amongst others. Venezuela lies within the Neotropic ecozone; large portions of the country were originally covered by moist broadleaf forests. One of seventeen megadiverse countries, Venezuela's habitats range from the Andes mountains in the west to the Amazon Basin rainforest in the south, via extensive llanos plains and Caribbean coast in the center and the Orinoco River Delta in the east.
They include xeric scrublands in the extreme northwest and coastal mangrove forests in the northeast. Its cloud forests and lowland rainforests are particularly rich.
Animals of Venezuela are diverse and include manatees, Amazon river dolphins, and Orinoco crocodiles, which have been reported to reach up to 6. Venezuela hosts a total of 1, bird species, 48 of which are endemic. Important birds include ibises, ospreys, kingfishers, and the yellow-orange Venezuelan Troupial, the national bird. Notable mammals include the Giant Anteater, jaguar, and the capybara, the world's largest rodent. More than half of Venezuelan avian and mammalian species are found in the Amazonian forests south of the Orinoco.
For the fungi, an account was provided by R. Dennis which has been digitized and the records made available on-line as part of the Cybertruffle Robigalia database.
That database includes nearly 3, species of fungi recorded from Venezuela, but is far from complete, and it is likely that the true total number of fungal species already known from Venezuela is higher. Among plants of Venezuela, over 25, species of orchids are found in the country's cloud forest and lowland rainforest ecosystems. These include the flor de mayo orchid Cattleya mossiae , the national flower. Venezuela is among the top twenty countries in terms of endemism.
Although the amount of available information is still very small, a first effort has been made to estimate the number of fungal species endemic to Venezuela: species of fungi have been tentatively identified as possible endemics of the country.
In recent decades, logging, mining, shifting cultivation, development, and other human activities have posed a major threat to Venezuela's wildlife; between and , 0. The country has a biosphere reserve that is part of the World Network of Biosphere Reserves; five wetlands are registered under the Ramsar Convention. Venezuela is divided into 23 states estados , a capital district distrito capital corresponding to the city of Caracas, and the Federal Dependencies Dependencias Federales , a special territory.
Venezuela is further subdivided into municipalities municipios ; these are subdivided into over one thousand parishes parroquias. The country can be further divided into ten geographical areas, some corresponding to climatic and biogeographical regions. In the north are the Venezuelan Andes and the Coro region, a mountainous tract in the northwest, holds several sierras and valleys. East of it are lowlands abutting Lake Maracaibo and the Gulf of Venezuela.
The Central Range runs parallel to the coast and includes the hills surrounding Caracas; the Eastern Range, separated from the Central Range by the Gulf of Cariaco, covers all of Sucre and northern Monagas. It suffers high levels of corruption. Venezuela has the least expensive petrol in the world because the consumer price of petrol is so heavily subsidized. Most of Venezuela's gold held abroad is located in London.
Venezuela manufactures and exports heavy industry products such as steel, aluminium and cement, with production concentrated around Ciudad Guayana, near the Guri Dam, one of the largest in the world and the provider of about three-quarters of Venezuela's electricity.
Other notable manufacturing includes electronics and automobiles, as well as beverages, and foodstuffs. Venezuela exports rice, corn, fish, tropical fruit, coffee, beef, and pork. The country is not self-sufficient in most areas of agriculture; Venezuela imports about two-thirds of its food needs.
Since the discovery of oil in the early 20th century, Venezuela has been one of the world's leading exporters of oil, and it is a founding member of OPEC. The s also saw Venezuela experience a major banking crisis in In , Venezuela was listed as having the highest inflation rate in the world, averaging Venezuela has some of the largest oil and natural gas reserves in the world, and consistently ranks among the top ten world crude oil producers.
Compared to the preceding year another The country's main petroleum deposits are located around and beneath Lake Maracaibo, the Gulf of Venezuela both in Zulia , and in the Orinoco River basin eastern Venezuela , where the country's largest reserve is located. Besides the largest conventional oil reserves and the second-largest natural gas reserves in the Western Hemisphere, Venezuela has non-conventional oil deposits extra-heavy crude oil, bitumen and tar sands approximately equal to the world's reserves of conventional oil.
The electricity sector in Venezuela is one of the few to rely primarily on hydropower, and includes the Guri Dam, one of the largest in the world. In the first half of the 20th century, US oil companies were heavily involved in Venezuela, initially interested only in purchasing concessions. In the s PDVSA became more independent from the government and presided over an apertura opening in which it invited in foreign investment.
Managers and skilled highly paid technicians of PDVSA shut down the plants and left their posts, and by some reports sabotaged equipment, and petroleum production and refining by PDVSA almost ceased. Activities eventually were slowly restarted by returning and substitute oil workers.
In the south and east the Amazon rainforest region has limited cross-border transport; in the west, there is a mountainous border of over 2, kilometres 1, mi shared with Colombia.
The Orinoco River is navigable by oceangoing vessels up to kilometres mi inland, and connects the major industrial city of Ciudad Guayana to the Atlantic Ocean. The Maracaibo Metro and Valencia Metro were opened more recently. Venezuela has a road network of nearly , kilometres 62, mi in length, placing the country around 45th in the world; around a third of roads are paved.
With social programs such as the Bolivarian Missions, Venezuela made progress in social development in s, particularly in areas such as health, education, and poverty.
It is expected that Venezuela will meet all eight goals by the deadline. The people of Venezuela come from a variety of heritages. It is estimated that the majority of the population is of mestizo, or mixed, ethnic heritage. Venezuela's racial structure can be classified as Chavez also strives to build Venezuelan influence, providing subsidized oil to Cuba in exchange for the services of Cuban doctors and teachers.
He sells oil to other South American countries and China at below-market rates. At the same time, though, Chavez neglects to spend money maintaining oil facilities, and production declines. Muduro soon begins consolidating his power, using authority given him by the National Assembly to rule by decree. In January, opposition leader Guaido, head of the National Assembly, invokes the Venezuelan constitution to declare himself interim president , setting up a power struggle that is still yet to be resolved.
But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! Twice a week we compile our most fascinating features and deliver them straight to you. This allows President Chavez to stand again when his term expires in Opposition makes significant gains. President Chavez threatens to expropriate companies that do not comply with the price controls. Nicolas Maduro, his chosen successor, is elected president by a narrow margin.
The opposition contests the result. Image source, Getty Images. Riots, martial law and general strike follow, with hundreds killed in street violence. Nicolas Maduro, Hugo Chavez's chosen successor, is elected president by a narrow margin, and presides over an imploding economy and divided nation.
President's office. Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela Capital: Caracas. Image source, Getty Images. Rallies for and against President Hugo Chavez were a regular feature of his time in office.
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