🇻🇪Venezuela

Venezuela is a nation on the northern coast of South America, blessed with extraordinary natural wealth, from the world's largest proven oil reserves to the planet's highest waterfall. Its landscapes span Caribbean beaches, Andean peaks, vast plains and the otherworldly tabletop mountains of the Guiana Highlands. In recent years it has endured a severe economic and humanitarian crisis.

Venezuela ranges from a long Caribbean coastline and the Maracaibo lowlands to the Andes in the west, the vast Llanos grasslands in the interior, and the ancient tepui plateaus of the southeast, where Angel Falls plunges from Auyan-tepui. The Orinoco is its great river. The climate is tropical, varying with altitude.

Venezuelan culture blends Indigenous, African and Spanish roots, expressed in joropo music with its harp and maracas, a deep love of baseball, and beauty pageants that are a national obsession. Arepas are a culinary staple, and warmth and sociability define everyday life.

The birthplace of independence leader Simon Bolivar, Venezuela broke from Spanish rule in the early 19th century. The 20th century brought oil wealth that transformed the nation, but political turmoil and economic mismanagement in recent decades have driven hyperinflation and the emigration of millions.