Venezuela

The turpial is fairly appreciated due to its singing and was declared the National Bird on 23 May 1958.
. See also: Category:Vatican City. It can be found in woods, the llanos, at the shores of jungles, and in northern and southern Orinoco. Vatican may refer to:. Fully coloured with yellow-orange tones except in the head and the wings, which are black with a few tones in white; also has a blue spot surrounding the eyes. Magisterium. Declared National Tree on 29 May 1945. Roman Curia.

Rómulo Gallegos referred to these months as "La primavera de oro de los araguaneyes" (the golden spring of the araguaneyes). Holy See. The araguaney flourishes within the period following a rainy season, mostly on the first months of the year. Roman Catholic Church. It can reach a height between 6 and 12 m. Vatican City. Called aravanei by the caribes, it can be found mostly in regions with temperate weather. First Vatican Council.

Was given the status of National Flower on 23 May 1951. Second Vatican Council. Was first discovered in the northern land in 1839. Vatican Web. This kind of orchid is also known as Flor de Mayo (May Flower). The governments through history have officially declared these as national symbols:.

Other elements relative to the typical flora and fauna of the territory are remarkable. Venezuela's national symbols include the Flag, the Coat of Arms, and the National Anthem. See also:. Although baseball is tremendously popular (it's the national pastime), football (soccer) is also gaining popularity, due to the increasing performance of the Venezuela national football team.

Venezuela is also a reference for their world famous baseball players, such as Luis Aparicio, David Concepción, Oswaldo Guillén, Andrés Galarraga, Omar Vizquel, Luis Sojo, Bobby Abreu, and Johan Santana, winner of the Cy Young Award in 2004. Teresa Carreño was a world famous piano virtuosa during late 19th century. The national dance is the joropo. The gaitas is also a popular style, played generally on Christmas, typical of Zulia State.

The national songs are mainly from the llanos area and its environment, so is the case of the Alma Llanera (by Pedro Elias Gutierrez and Rafael Bolivar), Florentino y el Diablo (by Alberto Arvelo Torrealba) and Caballo Viejo (by Simón Díaz). The national musical instrument is the cuatro. Autoctonal music styles are sort of a crisol of the Venezuelan cultural inheritages, most noted in groups like Un Solo Pueblo and Serenata Guayanesa. Venezuelan architecture examples are the National Pantheon, the Baralt Theatre, the Teatro Teresa Carreño,and the General Rafael Urdaneta Bridge.

The great architect of the Venezuelan Modern era was Carlos Raúl Villanueva, who designed and built the Universidad Central de Venezuela, (World Heritage Site) and its Aula Magna. Other philosophers and intellectuals, like Laureano Vallenilla Lanz and José Gil Fortoul, along with many other writers, sustained the theory of the Venezuelan positivism. Another great poet and humanist was Andrés Bello, besides being and educator and an intellectual. Major writers and novelists are Rómulo Gallegos, Teresa de la Parra, Arturo Uslar Pietri, Adriano González León, Miguel Otero Silva and Mariano Picón Salas.

Although mainly focused on narrative, poets figure with great importance, being Andrés Eloy Blanco the most famous of them, aside Fermín Toro. Following the rise of political literature during the Independence War, was the Romanticism, the first important genre in the region, whose great exponent was Juan Vicente González. Venezuelan literature began developing soon after Spanish conquest, and it was dominated by Spanish culture and thinking. Some very remarkable Venezuelan artists include Arturo Michelena, Cristóbal Rojas, Armando Reverón, Jesús-Rafael Soto, Carlos Cruz-Diez (who both contributed greatly to kinetic art), and Manuel Cabré.

Modernism took over in the 20th century. Firstly dominated by religious motives, in the late 19th century changed to historical and heroic representations, led by Martín Tovar y Tovar. Venezuelan art is gaining attention within and outside the country. Aboriginal culture was subsequently assimilated by Spaniards; over the years, the hybrid culture had diversified by region.

Before this period, indigenous cultural manifestations were expressed in art (petroglyphs), crafts, architecture (shabonos) and social organization. The Venezuelan culture comes from a wide variety of heritages, mainly of the indigenous populations, Spanish and African provenance, dating from the Colony. ^[1]. Around 4% of the population adheres to other faiths.

96% of the population is at least nominally Roman Catholic. The national and official language is Spanish, but numerous indigenous languages also exist (Wayu, Pemon, Warao, etc), as do languages introduced by immigrants. While almost half of Venezuela's land area lies south of the Orinoco river, this region contains only 5% of the population. About 85% of the population live in urban areas in the northern portion of the country.

The historically present Amerindians, Spanish colonists and Africans were joined by Italians, Portuguese, Arabs, Germans, and others from neighbouring countries in South America during waves of immigration in the 20th century. The Venezuelan people comprise a rich combination of heritages.
. Since December 2005, Venezuela is a member of Mercosur, joining with Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay, although it has yet to finalize policy changes in order to gain voting rights.

The idea itself (an international oil cartel) was the initiative of Juan Pablo Pérez Alfonzo, who proposed it as a response to low domestic and international oil prices in August 1960. Venezuela is one of the five founding members of OPEC. Venezuela also depends highly on the agricultural sector; both coffee and cocoa are crops with major potential for export-led growth. The oil sector operates through the government-owned Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), which among other things owns the US-based distributor CITGO, which has 14,000 service stations in the US.

The petroleum sector dominates the economy, accounting for roughly a third of Venezuela's GDP, around 80% of export earnings, and more than half of government revenues. (more). Venezuela is one of the seventeen megadiverse countries, for the great number of animal and vegetable species that habitate there. Other major cities include Maracaibo, Barquisimeto, Valencia, Maracay, and Ciudad Guayana.

The capital, Caracas is also the country's largest city. The local climate is tropical and generally hot and humid, though more moderate in the highlands. Other important rivers are the Caroní and the Apure. The Orinoco River is the largest and most important river of the country, originating one of the biggest watersheds in Latin America.

The last geographical region is the Deltaic System forms a pantanous triangle, covering Delta Amacuro State, with the Atlantic platform branching off the coast. The Insular Region is formed by the Nueva Esparta State and the Federal Dependencies. Under it, is the South Orinoco Region (the Guianas, above described). The Llanos Region involves a third part of the country's area, above the Orinoco River.

The Central Range is tied up with the coast and the hills surrounding Caracas, while the Eastern Range, separated from the Central by the Gulf of Cariaco, covers all of Sucre State and northern Monagas. The Coro System, a mountainous block in the northern occidental territory, is the fount of several sierras and valleys. The Lake Maracaibo region comprehends the lowlands near the Gulf of Venezuela. The country can also be divided into nine geographical areas, some corresponding to the natural regions, one being the Andes Range.

This is a classical division, however. To the south are found the dissected Guiana Highlands, home to Angel Falls, the world's highest waterfall, and the northern edge of Amazonia. The centre of the country is characterised by extensive plains known as the llanos that stretch from the Colombian border to the river delta of the Orinoco east. Venezuela is home to a wide variety of landscapes, such as the north-easternmost extensions of the Andes mountains in the northwest and along the northern Caribbean coast, of which the highest point is the Pico Bolívar at 5,007 m.

The country is also divided into ten administrative regions (regiones administrativas), the administrative regions were established by presidential decrees. Venezuela is subdivided into 23 states (estados), a Capital District (Distrito Capital) correspondent to the city of Caracas, and the Federal Dependencies (Dependencias Federales). government, via institutions such as the National Endowment for Democracy and the United States Agency for International Development, has provided opposition groups with monetary support. - - The Chávez administration has so far presented no evidence supporting these accusations, however, although it has been documented that the U.S.

of being involved in plots to kill him and to destabilize his government with terrorist actions. - President Chávez and members of his government have repeatedly accused the U.S. A day earlier, officials discovered 24 kilos of C-4 and various weapons and grenades in Zulia state, in western Venezuela. Authorities later explained that the explosion was caused by C-4 plastic explosive.

The night before the election, an explosion destroyed a part of the oil pipeline that supplies Venezuela’s Paraguaná oil refining complex, one of the largest in the world. - - The explosion of two small devices known in Venezuela as "niple," a few days before the election, and the sabotage of a major oil pipeline on election eve were part of the plan, said the lawmakers. It is worth noting that this announcement was not made by any of the State's judicial bodies, but by the aforementioned group of congresspeople, who presented the alleged physical evidence to the media. The recordings allegedly included the voices of various retired officers who were involved in the April 2002 events and are currently being sought by the police.

According to the lawmakers, the CIA supported this plan. They presented recordings allegedly involving active and retired dissident military officers talking about causing 15,000 deaths, chaos, and attacks on government institutions. - - On December 9, 2005, National Assembly President Nicolas Maduro, MVR party leader Cilia Flores, and National Assembly Vice President Pedro Carreño claimed that Venezuelan state intelligence forces thwarted a plot to destabilize Venezuela during last Sunday’s parliamentary election. Re-elected MVR congressman, and current Assembly president Nicolás Maduro, has proposed to make voting mandatory in response to December's abstention.

If we compare the voter turnout with the most recent election, which included the opposition (the August 2005 municipal elections), the abstention campaign accounted for only a 6 per cent increase in citizens who chose not to vote (69 per cent to 75 per cent). The argument that the level of turnout calls into question the legitimacy of the elections would, if applied to any US "off-year" election, de-legitimize many congressional, municipal and gubernatorial elections. His critics argue that the election is illegitimate, since a parliament majority of 65% elected by 25% of eligible voters cannot truly represent the electorate. Chávez condemned the boycott as an attempt, largely backed by the United States, to destabilize both his government and its reforms as well as the election.

This gives Chavez extremely broad latitude to enact his social and economic policies, and his overwhelming majority in the legislature allows him to easily draft amendments to Venezuela's constitution. Venezuela now no longer has a coherent, elected political opposition to Chavez's Bolivarian Revolution. Chávez’s party, the Movement for the Fifth Republic (MVR), won 114 or 68% of the 167 seats in the new National Assembly, with the rest going to allied parties. In the elections on December 4th 2005, the six parties in the Chávez alliance received 21% support of the electoral universe of 13.9 million voters or approximately 2.9 million votes (official results have not been released, but it is estimated that 25% of voters participated, with the opposition parties effectively having less than 1% of the votes).

In the 2000 elections, the Chavez Fifth Republic Movement won control of the National Assembly with 17% or 1.98 million votes of the electoral universe of 11.7 million voters (56.50% of registered voters participated). This party received 1.24 million votes. Historical figures of voter support for the winners of the parliamentary elections: in 1998, the Democratic Action Party won control of the then Congress with 11.24% of voter support (or 24.09% of cast ballots, with the remaining opposition parties taking 51.15% of the vote) from an electoral universe of approximately 10.9 million voters (52.70% of voters participated). As a result of the partial boycott and the opinion polls, these parliamentary elections were marked by a low voter turnout of 25% (estimated 3 out of 14 million registered voters), compared to an historical turnout figure of around 45% in such elections, parliamentary elections being held separately from presidential elections.

The last opinion polls prior to the elections had indicated that the Chávez alliance would have won around 150 of the 167 seats in the National Assembly, an indication that the opposition may have tried to avoid an historical defeat. - - On December 4, 2005, five of Venezuela's major opposition parties boycotted the elections (half of the candidates of these five parties actually withdrew from the elections, representing 10% of the total number of candidates), charging that they were not being administered fairly; a random verification of 45% of the electronic votes (verified open source software was used) with paper ballots proved that the results of these elections were accurate. - - ===Parlimentary elections of 2005=== -. Although the Organization of American States and the Carter Center certified the referendum, disillusioned protests continued.

Leaders and supporters of the opposition refused to accept the results of the election claiming fraud, despite international observers that endorsed the election as free and fair. Nonetheless, a recall election was held on 15 August 2004, and Chávez won (that is, he was permitted to stay in office) with approximately 60% of the vote. - - The following two years were marked by massive protests by the opposition, who managed in 2004 to obtain more than 3 million signatures to call for a referendum on Chávez, who in turn accused many of the signatures of being fraudulent. -.

-. - - ===Mass protests and recall referendum=== -. Diosdado Cabello, Vice President of Venezuela, exerted his constitutional rights and temporarily assumed the position of president, until Chávez was restored to the Presidency. Though initially supported by the high-ranking military that had rebelled against Chávez, he lost support after he proceeded to dissolve all democratic institutions formed under the Chávez regime - and part of the military that remained loyal to Chávez brought him back.

During the confusion that followed the power void, Fedecámaras President Pedro Carmona Estanga was placed in power. During the chaos that ensued, high-ranking military officials reported that Chávez had resigned (though, later on, Chávez said he had been taken hostage by the military and forced to sign a letter of resignation). To this day, the responsibility for these deaths has not been established. Television broadcasts at the time showed people firing guns into the general direction of the demonstrators, but footage allegedly shot from another camera-angle disputes this.

- - Although the exact circumstances are unknown, many unarmed protesters were shot, resulting in 18 deaths. In April 11th 2002, during massive opposition demonstrations that unexpectedly began to march towards the Presidential Palace, high-ranking members within the Armed Forces refused Chávez's order to carry out the Plan Avila. It was a first in the history of labour relations; owners, executives, managers and a few rank-and-file workers joined together to protest Chávez's economic policies. - In December 2001, the umbrella group of the nation's largest business organizations, Fedecamaras, several workers' groups, the Confederación de Trabajadores de Venezuela and the petroleum workers' union, PDVSA, called the country to a general strike.

- - ===Coup and worker strike=== -. (see Transparency International). The government has often had to create new grassroots public services in the form of "missions." The government's claim is that this is necessary to avoid going through a "corrupt bureaucracy," but after six years in power, and with an almost absolute control of the several governmental branches, it has begun to raise questions as to its indifference - or powerlessness - to eradicate corruption. Although political parties supporting Chávez have consistently won a majority of seats in parliament, Chávez has slowly made party policy to garner control of most branches of the government.

- - Chávez has enacted a number of socialist reforms in Venezuela, fostering close ties with Cuban President Fidel Castro, including expropriation of plantations that owner-occupants claim are private property. In November 2000, the National Assembly granted Chávez the right to rule by decree for one year, and in November 2001, Chávez made a set of 49 decrees, including large reforms in oil and agrarian policy which made him even more popular with the poor. Chávez was re-elected in 2000 under the new constitution with 59% of the vote. His platform, (Bolivarian revolution), called for the signing of a new constitution written by a Constituent Assembly and approved by referendum in 1999.

- - Chávez was elected president in 1998 with 56% of the vote as part of a new political party, the Movement for the Fifth Republic. - ===Presidential elections and new constitution=== -. Chávez's role in the coup made him popular amongst the lower classes leading him to run for president in 1998. President Pérez was eventually impeached and convicted of corruption and his successor Rafael Caldera released the coup leaders from jail in 1994.

The coup, which resulted in the deaths of 80 civilians and 17 members of the armed forces, failed and its supporters were jailed for treason. - Members of the Venezuelan military, including Hugo Chávez, attempted a coup d'état in 1992 to remove the democratically elected president, Carlos Andrés Pérez from power. - ===Chávez and the 1992 coup attempt=== -. -.

-. - ==Current political events==. The National Electoral Council (CNE) is in charge of electoral processes; it is formed by five main directors elected by the National Assembly. The highest judicial body is the Supreme Tribunal of Justice or Tribunal Supremo de Justicia, whose magistrates are elected by parliament for a single 12-year term.

They are elected by popular vote through a combination of party lists and single member constituencies. Its 165 deputies, of which three are reserved for indigenous peoples, serve five-year terms and may be re-elected for a maximum of two additional terms. The unicameral Venezuelan parliament is the National Assembly or Asamblea Nacional. The president can ask the legislature to reconsider portions of laws he finds objectionable, but a simple parliamentary majority can override these objections.

The president appoints the vice-president and decides the size and composition of the cabinet and makes appointments to it with the involvement of the legislature. The term of office is six years, and a president may be re-elected to a single consecutive term. The Venezuelan president is elected by a popular vote, with direct and universal suffrage, and functions as both head of state and head of government. See also: Discoverer of the Americas, List of Presidents of Venezuela.

(more). Venezuela is member of the South American Community of Nations (SACN). Since that year, Venezuela has enjoyed an unbroken tradition of democratic civilian rule, though not without conflict. Much of Venezuela's 19th and early 20th century history was characterized by political instability, political struggle, and dictatorial rule.^[1] Following the death of Juan Vicente Gómez in 1935 and the demise of caudillismo (authoritarian oligarchical rule), democratic struggles eventually forced the military to withdraw from direct involvement in national politics in 1958.

Páez became the first president of Venezuela. Venezuela became, after the war of independence, along with Colombia and Ecuador part of the Republic of Gran Colombia (República de Gran Colombia) until 1830, when the country separated through a rebellion led by the aforementioned Jose Antonio Páez and declared itself as a sovereign republic. Antonio José de Sucre, who won many battles for Bolivar, was to become his natural successor until he was murdered. He then led the army towards the south liberating Peru, and Bolivia (whose name comes after the Libertador) from the Spaniards.

New Granada's congress gave Bolívar control of the Granadian army who then led several countries to freedom and created a new republic called Colombia (also known as Great Colombia to differentiate it to the actual Republic of Colombia) conformed by what are now Colombia, Panama, Ecuador and Venezuela. Nevertheless, the full control over Venezuelan territory was achieved after Bolivar, with the help of General José Antonio Páez and especially the then General Grand Marshall Antonio José de Sucre, whose battle plan Bolívar chose to follow, won the Battle of Carabobo in June 24th 1821, and after José Prudencio Padilla won the Naval Battle of Lake Maracaibo on July 24th 1823. After several unsuccessful uprisings, the country declared independence from Spain on July 5th 1811 under the leadership of its most famous son, Simón Bolívar. Parts of what is now eastern Venezuela became New Andalusia.

Venezuela was the site of one of the first permanent Spanish settlements in South America in 1522, and most of the territory eventually became part of the viceroyalty of New Granada. . It has been claimed that Christopher Columbus was so enthralled by Venezuela's landscape, when arriving to its coast in 1498, that he referred to the land as Tierra de Gracia (Land of Grace), which has become the country’s nickname. To this day, Venezuela is known for its petroleum industry, the environmental diversity of its territory, and its sheer natural beauty.

This issue is not yet resolved. Historically, Venezuela has had territorial disputes with Guyana, largely concerning the Essequibo area. A former Spanish colony, Venezuela is a Federal Republic. North of the Venezuelan coast lie the islands of Aruba, the Netherlands Antilles, and Trinidad and Tobago.

Venezuela borders Brazil to the south, Guyana to the east, and Colombia to the west. IPA [re'puβlika boliβaɾiana de benesu'ela]) is a country on the northern tropical Caribbean coast of South America. The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela (IPA: [ˌvɛnəˈzwelə]; Spanish: República Bolivariana de Venezuela, pron. Note 2: The flag and coat of arms were recently modified; the old versions are depicted.
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The turpial (Icterus icterus). The araguaney (Tabebuia chrysantha). The orchid (Cattleya mossiae). List of players from Venezuela in Major League Baseball.

List of Venezuelans. Venezuelan Spanish. Cuisine of Venezuela. Music of Venezuela.