9781422286494

VENEZUELA D I S C O V E R I N G SOUTH AMER I CA History, Politics, and Culture

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D I S C O V E R I N G SOUTH AMER I CA History, Politics, and Culture VENEZUELA

Charles J. Shields

Mason Crest Philadelphia

Mason Crest 450 Parkway Drive, Suite D Broomall, PA 19008 www.masoncrest.com

©2016 by Mason Crest, an imprint of National Highlights, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechani- cal, including photocopying, recording, taping, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission from the publisher.

Printed and bound in the United States of America. CPSIA Compliance Information: Batch #DSA2015. For further information, contact Mason Crest at 1-866-MCP-Book. First printing 1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data on file at the Library of Congress

ISBN: 978-1-4222-3306-1 (hc) ISBN: 978-1-4222-8649-4 (ebook)

Discovering South America: History, Politics, and Culture series ISBN: 978-1-4222-3293-4

DISCOVERING SOUTH AMERICA: History, Politics, and Culture

Argentina Bolivia Brazil

Chile Colombia Ecuador

Guyana Paraguay Peru

Suriname Uruguay Venezuela

South America: Facts & Figures

Table of Contents Introduction: Discovering Central America............................................6 1. An Exotic Land ....................................................................................9 2. A Late Bloomer in South American History ......................................19 3. Boom and Bust Economy ..................................................................29 4. The People and Culture of Venezuela ..............................................37 5. An Urban Population ........................................................................45 A Calendar of Venezuelan Festivals ....................................................50 Recipes ..................................................................................................52 Series Glossary......................................................................................54 Project and Report Ideas......................................................................56 Chronology ............................................................................................58 Further Reading/Internet Resources ..................................................60 For More Information............................................................................61 Index ......................................................................................................62

SOUTH AMERICA is a cornucopia of natural resources, a treasure house of ecological variety. It is also a continent of striking human diversity and geographic extremes. Yet in spite of that, most South Americans share a set of cultural similarities. Most of the continent’s inhabitants are properly termed “Latin” Americans. This means that they speak a Romance language (one closely related to Latin), particularly Spanish or Portuguese. It means, too, that most practice Roman Catholicism and share the Mediterranean cultural patterns brought by the Spanish and Portuguese who settled the continent over five centuries ago. Still, it is never hard to spot departures from these cultural norms. Bolivia, Peru, and Ecuador, for example, have significant Indian populations who speak their own languages and follow their own customs. In Paraguay the main Indian language, Guaraní, is accepted as official along with Spanish. Nor are all South Americans Catholics. Today Protestantism is making steady gains, while in Brazil many citizens practice African religions right along with Catholicism and Protestantism. South America is a lightly populated continent, having just 6 percent of the world’s people. It is also the world’s most tropical continent, for a larger percentage of its land falls between the tropics of Cancer and Capricorn than is the case with any other continent. The world’s driest desert is there, the Atacama in northern Chile, where no one has ever seen a drop of rain fall. And the world’s wettest place is there too, the Chocó region of Colombia, along that country’s border with Panama. There it rains almost every day. South America also has some of the world’s highest mountains, the Andes, Discovering South America James D. Henderson

Evening in Caracas, Venezuela’s capital and largest city.

and its greatest river, the Amazon. So welcome to South America! Through this colorfully illustrated series of books you will travel through 12 countries, from giant Brazil to small Suriname. On your way you will learn about the geography, the history, the economy, and the people of each one. Geared to the needs of teachers and students, each volume contains book and web sources for further study, a chronology, project and report ideas, and even recipes of tasty and easy-to-prepare dishes popular in the countries studied. Each volume describes the country’s national holidays and the cities and towns where they are held. And each book is indexed. You are embarking on a voyage of discovery that will take you to lands not so far away, but as interesting and exotic as any in the world.

Venezuela has a wide range of geographical regions and climates— tall mountains, sandy beaches, swampy lowlands, and green plateaus. (Opposite) The beach at Península de Paraguaná. (Right) The verdant landscape near Mérida. 1

An Exotic Land

CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS described Venezuela as a paradise. Shaped roughly like an upside-down triangle, the country has a coastline 1,740 miles (2,800 kilometers) long that is bounded on the north by the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. Venezuela’s neighbors are Guyana to the east, Brazil to the south, and Colombia to the west. Venezuela has white sand beaches and clear water, dry and desert-like zones, and beautiful giant plateaus called tepuíes . Naturalists as well as tourists seek out the unusual plants and animals found on the tepuíes , in the dense green of Venezuela’s jungles, and at the foot of the Andes Mountains. Lowlands, Mountains, Plains, Highlands Venezuela has four fairly well defined regions: the Maracaibo Lowlands in the northwest; the northern mountains that arc from the Colombian

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border along the Caribbean Sea; the wide Orinoco River plains in central Venezuela; and the broken-up Guiana Highlands in the southeast. The Maracaibo Lowlands form a large, spoon-shaped oval surrounded by mountains on three sides, but open on the north to the Caribbean Sea. The area is very flat with only a gentle slope toward the cen- ter and away from the mountains. Lago de Maracaibo (Lake Maracaibo) occupies much of the lower-lying territory. Areas around the southern part of Lago de Maracaibo are swampy. Some palafito villages (“villages in the lake”) like Ceuta and San Timoteo are built on piers above the water. Farmers and fishers work along the banks. The northern mountains bordering the Caribbean Sea are an extension of the Andes Mountains. Broken by several gaps, these high mountains have peaks over 14,750 feet (4,500 meters) tall. To the west, an irregular range runs

Words to Understand in This Chapter

alpine— typical of an elevated area, such as high mountains. aquatic— growing or living in water. brackish— having a mixture of fresh and salt water. headwaters— the streams that make up the beginnings of a river. sandbar— a long ridge of sand formed by currents or tides. savanna— a grassy, subtropical plain. semiarid— having only light rainfall. trade winds— winds blowing almost constantly in one direction. tributary— a stream or creek that feeds into a larger river.

An Exotic Land 11

along the Colombian border. Some of Venezuela’s highest peaks rise here, south- east of Lago de Maracaibo. A few are snow- capped year-round, among them Pico Bolívar, the highest peak in the country, which reaches 16,427 feet (5,007 meters). A wide gap separates this mountainous area from another rugged pair of ranges that run parallel to the north-central coast. Between these two ranges are a group of valleys that make up the economic heart- land of Venezuela. This area, where the cap- ital city, Caracas, is located, has the coun- try’s densest population, the most produc- tive agriculture, and the best transportation network. Venezuela’s eastern region is dot- ted with broken hills and uplands, which rise steeply from the Caribbean and stretch eastward almost to the island of Trinidad. The vast lowlands, which were formed over many centuries by the flow of the Orinoco River, run westward from the Caribbean coast to the Colombian border between the northern mountains and the Orinoco River. This region is known as Los

A stream runs through the forest near Jaji, a small town high in the Andes Mountains.

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Quick Facts: The Geography of Venezuela

Location: Northern South America, bordering the Caribbean Sea and the North Atlantic Ocean, between Colombia and Guyana. Area: slightly more than twice the size of California. total: 352,142 square miles (912,050 sq km) land: 340,559 square miles (882,050 sq km) water: 11,583 square miles (30,000 sq km) Borders: Brazil, 1,367 miles (2,200 km); Colombia, 1,274 miles (2,050 km); Guyana, 462 miles (743 km).

Climate: tropical; hot, humid; more moder- ate in highlands. Terrain: Andes Mountains and Maracaibo Lowlands in the northwest; central plains (llanos); Guiana Highlands in the southeast. Elevation extremes: lowest point: Caribbean Sea—0 feet. highest point: Pico Bolívar—16,427 feet (5,007 meters). Natural hazards: floods, rockslides, mud- slides, periodic droughts.

Source: CIA World Factbook 2015.

Llanos (the Plains), although it also contains large stretches of swampland in the Orinoco Delta and the region near the Colombian border. The area slopes gradually away from the highland areas that surround it. Elevations in the llanos never exceed 656 feet (200 meters). North of the Río Apure, a tributary of the Orinoco, rivers flowing out of the northern mountains cut shallow valleys, leaving eroded ridges that give the land a gently rolling appearance. South of the Apure, the terrain is flatter and the elevations are lower. The Guiana Highlands, which cover almost half the country, suddenly

An Exotic Land 13

rise south and east of the Orinoco River. Erosion has created strange forma- tions here. The highlands are mainly plateaus cut into pieces by running trib- utaries of the Orinoco. The most eye-catching plateau is the Gran Sabana, a giant, deeply eroded formation that rises from surrounding areas as a collec- tion of steep cliffs. Above the rolling surface of the Gran Sabana, massive, flat-topped tepuíes emerge. The world’s highest waterfall, Angel Falls, tum- bles over one of these tepuíes . The Water System of Venezuela The Orinoco is by far the most important of the more than 1,000 rivers in Venezuela. It flows more than 1,554 miles (2,500 km) to the Atlantic from its source in the Guiana Highlands at the Brazilian border. The Orinoco is the world’s eighth-largest river and the second-largest in South America (after the Amazon). Its depth and the speed of its current change with the seasons. In August, for example, the Orinoco is 40 feet (12 meters) higher than it is in March and April. Downstream from its headwaters , the Orinoco splits into two. One-third of its flow passes through the Brazo Casiquiare (Casiquiare Channel) into a tributary of the Amazon, and the rest passes into the main Orinoco channel. Most of the rivers rising in the northern mountains flow southeastward to the Río Apure. From its headwaters, the Apure crosses the llanos in a generally eastward direction. Few rivers flow into it from the poorly drained region south of the river. Much of the region near the Colombian border is swampland. The other major Venezuelan river is the fast-flowing Caroní, which starts

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in the Guiana Highlands and flows northward into the Orinoco at a spot upstream from Ciudad Guayana. The Caroní is capable of producing as much hydroelectric power as any river in Latin America and has contributed significantly to the nation’s electric power production. Lago de Maracaibo, the largest lake in Latin America, occupies the central 5,212 square miles (13,500 sq km) of the Maracaibo Lowlands. Beneath its shore and the lake floor lie most of Venezuela’s rich petroleum deposits. The lake is shallow, with an average depth of 30 feet (9 meters), and it is separated from the Caribbean by a series of islands and sandbars . A channel cuts through the sandbars to allow shipping between the lake and the Caribbean. Unfortunately, the channel also allows saltwater to mix with the yellowish freshwater of the lake, making the northern end of it brackish and unsuitable for drinking or irrigation. Temperature Depends on Elevation and Winds Although Venezuela lies wholly within the Tropics, its climate varies from tropical humid to alpine , depending on the elevation and the direction of the winds. In contrast to the United States and many other countries, Venezuela has only two seasons, and they are marked by changes in rainfall instead of temperature. Most of the country has a rainy season (May through November), which is winter. The period between December and April is summer. Differences in elevation create four temperature zones in Venezuela. In the tropical zone, which is below 2,620 feet (800 meters), temperatures are hot, with yearly averages ranging between 79°F and 82°F (26°C to 28°C). The