2.  Official Name: Bolivarian
Republic of Venezuela
Capital: Caracas
Government Type: Federal
republic
Chief of State: Hugo Chavez,
president
Population: 26.02 million
Area: 352,143 square miles;
slightly more than twice the size
of California
Languages: Spanish (official),
numerous indigenous dialects
Literacy: Total Population:
[93%] Male: [93%]; Female:
[93%]
GDP Per Capita: $7,200
Year of Independence: 1811

3.  Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez has
taken over from Fidel Castro the mantle
of Latin America's leading opponent of
the United States, which remains the
largest customer for Venezuela's oil.
 Mr. Chavez, a former colonel first elected
in 1998 on a populist platform, has
carried out a series of steps that he says
are reshaping his country's economy to
match his vision of "21st century
socialism.“
 The country's economy is dominated by
the oil industry
 Chavez has sought to counter American
influence in the region, seizing control of
the oil assets of American and European
energy companies, and in other ways
consolidating state control over the
economy and nationalizing telephone
and electricity companies.
 Venezuela also refuses to cooperate with
the United States to combat narcotics
trafficking
 Hugo Chavez and
Barack Obama

4.  Venezuela is governed under
the constitution of 1999 and is a
Federal republic
 The president, who is both the
head of state and the head of
government, is popularly
elected for a six-year term and
may be elected to a second term
 Members of the 167-seat
unicameral National Assembly
are elected for five-year terms.
 Venezuela consists of 23 states,
a federal district, of which
Caracas is a part, and a federal
dependency, which includes 11
island groups

5.  Barinas stretches over vast cattle
estates at the foothills of the Andes,
Barinas is known for two things: as
the bastion of the family of
President Hugo Chávez and as the
setting for a terrifying surge in
abductions, making it a contender
for Latin America’s most likely place
to get kidnapped.
 An intensifying nationwide crime
wave over the past decade has
pushed the kidnapping rate in
Venezuela past Colombia’s and
Mexico’s.
 nowhere in Venezuela comes close
in abductions to Barinas, with 7.2
kidnappings per 100,000
inhabitants, as armed gangs thrive
off the disarray here while Mr.
Chávez’s family tightens its grip on
the state

6.  World Countries and Territories
 http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countr
iesandterritories/venezuela/index.html
 State Ruled by Crime and Chavez family
 http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/21/world/americas/2
1venez.html?_r=1
 Venezuela
 http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0108140.html
Pictures
 http://www.bc.edu/church21/meta-
elements/email/venezuela.jpg
 http://vivirlatino.com/i/2007/04/hchavez.jpg
 http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/americas/venezuela_rel
93.jpg