Venezuela Fast Facts
Venezuela
Venezuela has a population of 28.5 million, is the world’s largest country by area, and is the 8th most populated country in the world.
It is Latin America’s largest country by population and was founded in 1492 during the Spanish colonial rule. During the period of the Republic, Venezuela experienced many difficulties, as it joined the socialist model known as Soviet Communism. The social and economic crisis of the 1960s and 1970s resulted in more than 500,000 political refugees escaping to the United States as refugees. Some of the countries that were the most affected by the political and economic crisis in Venezuela include: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Peru, the United Kingdom, the United States of America, and Uruguay.
Following the 1979 Venezuelan coup d’etat, which was led by Hugo Chavez, the country was ruled by a communist dictatorship between 1983 and 2019, and it is now trying to recover from the socialist model of communism.
The economy began to decline at the beginning of the 1990s, due to the collapse of the USSR. However, the country’s oil reserves contributed to the increase in GDP, and the country continued to grow throughout the 1990s. However, the country began to decline in 2003 after the US Federal Housing Administration refused to make mortgage payments. Venezuela’s economy has been affected by a shortage of hard currencies due to the country’s economic crisis, along with the country’s lack of investment and its over dependence on oil exports.
Economic crises have been occurring in Venezuela’s economy since the 1960s. In 1965, oil was discovered in the Orinoco region. This discovery is considered to be the richest of the seven oil wells that the country currently has. Some think that the Orinoco region can be considered as an economic and political power region, because that region has an income of over $2 billion dollars a year.
Venezuela is currently one of the poorest countries in Latin America.
