Venezuela Essay

Living in two different countries can be a great experience that can change someone's way of thinking. We live in a world with many countries and different types of people, making us compare each other and ask ourselves how is this different or similar. For example, in Brazil, they speak Portuguese, but in Colombia they speak Spanish. That's one difference. Yet, Brazil and Colombia are in the same continent. Now, that's one similarity. In my case, I have lived in Venezuela and in the United States and sometimes I start comparing many things like economy, government, culture, topography, weather, traditions, etc. Many people don't notice how many difference and similarities two countries can have.

Colombia, republic in South America, situated in the northwestern part of the continent, and bounded on the north by Panama and the Caribbean Sea, on the east by Venezuela and Brazil, on the south by Peru and Ecuador, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean. Colombia is the only country of South America with coasts on both the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean. The total land area of the country is 1,141,748 sq km (440,831 sq mi). The capital and largest city is Bogotá.

     Ecuador is one of the smallest countries of South America. It lies on the West Coast of the continent between Colombia and Peru. The equator crosses Ecuador and gives the country its name. Ecuador is the Spanish word for equator.

A country known for the Angel Falls (highest waterfall in the world), the exquisite arepas (corn cakes with cheese) and the legendarily Miss Universe titleholders; the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela is located in northern South America.  Regardless from the artistic landscapes, Venezuela is acknowledged for its vital oil reservoirs, its everlasting admiration of Simon Bolivar and its prominent watermark of Chavismo. Moreover, the country’s bureaucratic history has been influenced by Spanish colonialism, authoritarian rule, and the practice of the use caudillos (regional military leaders). Venezuela’s economy has been predisposed by agricultural surpluses of coffee and cocoa despite the fact that the production of oil has determined the country 's GDP (gross domestic product) since the 20th century; slowly turning it into a resource curse nation.  Presently, Venezuela has about 30 thousand citizens with an urbanization rate of 89 %, for this reason it is one of the most developed countries in Latin America.

Mexico is bordered by the United States on the north, the Pacific Ocean on the west, the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea on the east, and Guatemala and Belize on the south. It is characterized by an extraordinary diversity in topography and climate and is crossed by two major mountain chains, the Sierra Madre Occidental and the Sierra Madre Oriental. The high central plateau between these two mountain ranges historically funneled most of the human population toward the center of this region. Mexico features volcanic peaks, snow-capped mountains, tropical rain forests, and internationally famous beaches. Mexico City is an enormous metropolitan area and dominates the rest of the country's culture, economy, and politics. Nearly

Venezuela, located in the Latin American region, is a country that has been characterized by its abundance of oil reserve. A natural resource that has shaped the history and development of the country, affecting its economic, social and most important is political spheres. For many years Venezuela was controlled by authoritarian regimes. The country, being very important in the sense of geo-politics due to its abundance of oil, has been a key player in the international arena and most important, to those that for many years kept the country under their regime. It was not until 1958 that Venezuela experienced the change to democracy and a stable democracy was kept between the two main political parties of the time, Accion Democratica (AD)

The prison systems, which are assessed as the most violent in the world, are extremely overcrowded and often controlled by gang leaders. It is estimated that there is one gun for every two residents in Venezuela. Backing this claim is the fact that statistically Venezuela has the second highest crime rate in the world. In 2014 approximately 25,000 homicides occurred, a rate of 82 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants overall. Certain cities reflect a higher rate. Caracas, for example, reported 5,200 victims which equates to 134 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants in 2014. Bottom line, government efforts to dismantle or displace criminal activity has failed. Crime rates continue to soar certainly adversely affecting regional stability and economic prosperity.

The country of venezuela is hot, humid,and located in nothern south america.The capitol of venezuela is caracus. The name venezuela came from the explorer , alonso de ojedo ,because he admired how much it reminded him of venice. Earleist records of venezuela date back to march 30th 1845 when christopther made his third voyage in search of gold.Settlers would go to venezuela to trade for their resources because venezuela was known as the riches country.Venezuela would trade natural resiurces like : petroleum natural gas,iron ore gold minerals and diamonds.They first gained independence in 1811 on july 5th ; by the help of jose prudencio.

Venezuela’s reputation has been well established regarding its supply of oil and how it was being used for medicinal use and other purposes. It was not until the first oil well was drilled in 1912, when Venezuela became the world’s second largest oil producer behind the US, and the world’s largest oil exporter (Wilpert, 2003). With the well drill in the country it attracted many major oil producers that wanted a piece of anything they could get. The Royal Dutch Shell and Rockefeller’s Standard Oil became the main producers of the oil and maintained a high status. Everything was going great for the company, “ between 1920 and 1935 oil share’s exports went up from 1.9% to 91.2%”(Wilpert, 2003), but not everything goes according to plan. The country had a dramatic impact towards its economy that many recall, “The Dutch Disease.” “The utmost important magnitude of the Dutch Disease was that agricultural production declined to almost nothing and the country fell behind in industrializing, relative to other Latin American countries” (Wilpert, 2003). Thus, Venezuela had passed a reform oil policy that was the Hydrocarbons Act, which was from the oil revenues based on the income of the mines (Wilpert, 2003), bringing the state’s income to stability.

Venezuela is located on the north coast of South America. It is a very interesting country, since it possesses many unique attributes and resources that other countries in the region do not. There are several different systems that represent these resources and attributes. Major Kris A. Arnold (2006) states “PMESII is (sic) military acronym listed in several joint and service publications, which evolved from a systems perspective, and equates to the political, military, economic, social, infrastructure, and information systems of states. The acronym provides a starting point for identifying key interrelated systems of an adversary and facilitates analysis and kinetic and non-kinetic targeting”. Venezuela is an especially interesting case due to the political system in place, in addition to the unique economic power that the nation has.

History of the region from the pre-Columbian period and including colonization by the Spanish and Portuguese beginning in the 15th century, the 19th-century wars of independence, and developments to the end of World War II.Latin America is generally understood to consist of the entire continent of South America in addition to Mexico, Central America, and the islands of the Caribbean whose inhabitants speak a Romance language. The peoples of this large area shared the experience of conquest and colonization by the Spaniards and Portuguese from the late 15th through the 18th centuries as well as movements of independence from Spain and Portugal in the early 19th century. Even since independence, many of the various

With an economy dominated by the production of oil, Venezuela has enjoyed the highest standard of living in Latin America. In spite of its success in the oil industry, agriculture and manufacturing also play important roles in Venezuela’s economy. With this in mind, it would seem as though Venezuela’s economic state has flourished. Rather, it has suffered from the effects of political influence, corruption, and poor economic management. The distribution of wealth across Venezuela has caused the elite to benefit at the cost of the working people. This is mainly due to the economic and political structure of the country. Even with the plentiful resources Venezuela possesses, it is constantly being threatened by political instability,

The oil-rich Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, located on the northern coast of South America, was for many decades considered among the wealthiest nations in the entire continent. While having the largest proven oil reserves in the world has often proved a tremendous boon for Venezuela, the very black gold that has been the cause of its success has also proven to repeatedly be its kryptonite. Over half of the nation’s Gross Domestic Product stems from petroleum exports – which equates to approximately 95% of total exports. It is really not too hard to imagine what drastic consequences shifts in global oil prices could have on the economy.

Venezuela has the world’s largest oil reserves and by 1960, it became the wealthiest country in Latin America. Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), the state owned company, was the key to economic and social development in Venezuela under president Hugo Chavez. His government was settled in an environment where the oil prices were rising and the economy was booming, so he was able fund social programs and practices that were popular to the poor masses. This wealthy and growing Venezuela made Chavez to be very popular and his regime very powerful. Oil revenue accounted for nearly 90% of exports, more than 50% of government revenue, and 35% of country’s GDP.

The main purpose of the following report is to provide information about the profile of The Bolivarian Republican of Venezuela; in order to study the current situation of the country for further investigations in the future that may help to understand the opportunities and risk involve in importing and opening new markets in Venezuela.