Venezuela

Carib and Arawak peoples lived along the coast and the Orinoco when Columbus reached the Paria peninsula in 1498; the stilt villages of Lake Maracaibo gave the land its name, 'little Venice'. Under Spain it was a poor province of cacao plantations worked by enslaved Africans, run from Caracas after 1777 as a captaincy general.

Caracas-born Simón Bolívar led the independence wars from 1811, winning at Carabobo in 1821 and liberating much of the continent. Gran Colombia broke up in 1830; the century that followed was one of caudillos and civil wars. Oil changed everything after the Zumaque well came in near Lake Maracaibo in 1914: by the 1920s Venezuela was one of the world's largest exporters, and the dictator Juan Vicente Gómez grew rich on concessions.

Democracy arrived in 1958 with the Punto Fijo pact between parties, and oil nationalisation in 1976 financed a boom ('Saudi Venezuela'). Falling prices and austerity brought the 1989 Caracazo riots, two failed coups in 1992 — one led by Lieutenant Colonel Hugo Chávez — and his election in 1998.

Chávez rewrote the constitution, used oil revenue for social missions and built a state-led economy. After his death in 2013 Nicolás Maduro presided over hyperinflation, sanctions and repression; elections in 2018 and 2024 were widely rejected as fraudulent. On 3 January 2026 US forces captured Maduro in Caracas and flew him to New York to face trafficking charges. Vice President Delcy Rodríguez became acting president, restored relations with the US, released hundreds of political prisoners and opened the oil sector; the timetable for new elections remains unclear (check).

Most Venezuelans describe themselves as mixed (pardo), with Spanish, African and Indigenous ancestry; Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Lebanese and Colombian immigrants arrived during the oil boom. Afro-Venezuelan traditions are strongest along the central coast (the drums of San Juan) and in Barlovento.

More than 50 Indigenous peoples live mainly in the south and west: the Wayuu of the Guajira, the Warao of the Orinoco delta, the Pemón of the Gran Sabana around the tepuis, and the Yanomami in Amazonas. Mining and armed groups have pushed deep into their territories.

Catholicism shapes the calendar, with the Divina Pastora procession in Barquisimeto and the Dancing Devils of Yare at Corpus Christi, both widely followed; evangelical churches have grown fast. The folk cult of María Lionza on Sorte mountain mixes Indigenous, African and Catholic elements.

Since 2015 nearly 8 million people — about a quarter of the population — have left, the largest displacement in the Americas' recent history (check the latest UN figure). Remittances from the diaspora now keep many families going.

Venezuela has three UNESCO World Heritage sites: the colonial port of Coro, the 20th-century campus of the Central University in Caracas with works by Calder, Léger and Vasarely, and Canaima National Park, whose flat-topped tepuis inspired Conan Doyle's 'The Lost World'.

Angel Falls, dropping 979 m from Auyán-tepui, is the highest uninterrupted waterfall on Earth; it was named after the American pilot Jimmie Angel, who landed on the tepui in 1937. Canaima sits in Bolívar state, where official advice warns against the mining areas nearby.

The Andes reach 4,978 m at Pico Bolívar above Mérida, whose glacier has now effectively disappeared. The llanos, vast seasonal plains, are cattle country and home of joropo music; the Orinoco delta is a labyrinth of channels; and offshore, the Los Roques atoll is a marine national park.

The arepa, a maize patty split and stuffed with cheese, black beans, shredded beef or chicken-avocado salad, is the daily bread; pabellón criollo — rice, black beans, shredded beef and fried plantain — is the national dish, and the hallaca, a tamal wrapped in banana leaf, defines Christmas. Baseball is the national sport, with players in the US major leagues followed closely.

Hyperinflation after 2016 wiped out the bolívar's value; the government stopped enforcing controls in 2019, and the US dollar in cash became the everyday currency alongside the bolívar. Wages, pensions and public services collapsed, while an import-driven 'bodegón' economy served those with dollars.

Power cuts, fuel queues and water rationing have been routine outside Caracas for years. The M7.2 and M7.5 earthquakes of 24 June 2026, the strongest in more than a century, killed thousands, devastated La Guaira and toppled towers in eastern Caracas. The political opening since January 2026 has brought releases of political prisoners, returning exiles and new foreign investment, but also uncertainty about who will govern next.