Basic information about the territory
Subchapters:
- System of governance and political tendencies in the country
- Foreign policy of the country
- Population
The system of governance and political tendencies in the country
Official country name : República Bolivariana de Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela)
Since the government of Hugo Chávez, Socialism of the 21st century has been in power in the country, sometimes called Chavismo and, according to Chávez, Bolivarian socialism. The de facto totalitarian regime introduced price controls, nationalized large enterprises, especially the oil company PDVSA, and installed its own “cadre” in nationalized enterprises. A prominent tool of the socialist government first of Chávez and since his death of Nicolás Maduro were frequent currency reforms and money printing, with which the regime responded to the rocket growth of inflation, and bloated but ineffective social packages that discouraged a large part of the population from employment. Above all, access to the production of the oil company PDVS, which the regime used for a long time without thinking about its expansive foreign policy of exporting 21st century Socialism to friendly countries, was especially deadly. but also, for example, by financing the activities of communist parties in Europe and other parts of the world. The restoration of oil facilities and the company’s planned development, improvement of processing and renovation of processing facilities were completely canceled and all proceeds were used by the regime for its own purposes. The country’s relatively well-developed infrastructure and set-up energy system has not even been maintained and certainly not improved in the last 20 years. The Chavistas under Nicolás Maduro’s government further cut down or completely suppressed democratic institutions and introduced several measures that distort the country’s political reality. In 2016, the government of Nicolás Maduro introduced a social program for the distribution of subsidized food packages and, in connection with this program, first a database and then an electronic system of the so-called patriotic card (Carnet de la Patria), which makes it possible to monitor the behavior of its holders using QR codes, who are the only ones entitled to subsidized food, some other concessions and, from March 2021, also to vaccination against Covid-19. However, the card also tracks individuals’ political preferences within voting systems that have been electronic for many years and is built on Chinese technology. However, the electronic voting system has never been audited by independent experts, and the companies that developed it for Venezuela have already distanced themselves from them. There have been repeated attempts to negotiate between the oppressed opposition, supported by the international democratic community, and Nicolás Maduro’s regime, but so far they have been fruitless. If these negotiations achieve at least partial success, the country with one of the richest sources of mineral wealth could slowly begin to function again. Check diseaseslearning to learn more about Venezuela political system.
Composition of the government:
President and Prime Minister: Nicolás Maduro Moros
Vice President: Delcy Eloína Rodríguez Gómez
Vice President for Economic Affairs of Venezuela, Minister of Industry and National Production, Minister of Oil: Tareck El Aissami
Vice President of the Council of Ministers for Planning and Minister for Planning: Ricardo José Menéndez Prieto
Vice President for Communications, Tourism and Culture, Minister of Communications and Information: Freddy Alfred Nazareth Ñáñez Contreras
Vice President for the Development of Social and Territorial Socialism, Minister of Education: Germán Eduardo Piñate Rodríguez
Minister of Defense: Vladimir Padrino López
Minister of Electricity: Néstor Luis Reverol Torres
Minister of the Interior, Justice and Peace: Carmen Teresa Meléndez Rivas
Permanent Secretary of the Council of Ministers: José Adelino Ornelas Ferreira
Attorney General: Reinaldo Muñoz Pedroza
Foreign policy of the country
Relations with the US:
An important aspect of Venezuela’s foreign relations is the long-term relations with the United States, which in recent years have focused on crisis management, the response to the gradual introduction of sanctions by the US and now the effort to get the US to lift them. The administration led by former US President Donald Trump (2017-21) has implemented several rounds of crippling oil sanctions as part of a “maximum pressure” campaign to undermine the regime. Although the aggressive sanctions policy did not produce the intended quick result, it exacerbated the decline of Venezuela’s oil industry. Maduro wants to take advantage of the situation and restore relations with the US under a new president, but this is based on a miscalculation that the new administration will be more sympathetic to the regime. US policy towards Venezuela has bipartisan support in the US and is unlikely to that President Biden would provide significant sanctions relief without major political compromises and commitments to the Maduro regime’s democratic reforms. One tool that could be used to incentivize the regime to be more open to reforms is the recently introduced sanctions on crude oil swaps, which the regime uses mainly for power generation, agriculture, water pumps and public transport. However, the regime often distributes this diesel to its armed forces and partly pays for it to “doctors” from Cuba.
Relations with other countries:
Russia and China used to provide financial support, but in recent years this has been limited to purely declaratory, for which the Venezuelan government must always pay. The Venezuelan regime receives all the more support at the diplomatic level and above all at the military and intelligence level. In the last year, Venezuela has been one of the priorities of Russian and Chinese vaccine diplomacy, although in the case of Russian vaccines only in very limited numbers. Even in the coming years, no increase in financial support from these great powers is expected. The regime of N. Maduro receives a lot of support and, above all, trade favors from Iran, which has become the main international supporter of the regime and sends refined oil to alleviate the country’s severe shortage of gasoline. Iran has also long been interested in the mining of precious metals in the southern parts of the country. Check themotorcyclers for Venezuela defense and foreign policy.
Relations with the EU:
After the introduction of individual sanctions against some representatives of the regime, relations with the EU are limited at best and at times heated. The latest EU sanctions and critical statements against the regime were met with the expulsion of the EU ambassador and the threat of the forced removal of the Delegation and some of the remaining embassies. Spain has an exclusive position among the EU member states, which tries to maintain greater contacts with the regime and with regard to some larger financial interests in the country, mainly on the part of Repsol and some Spanish banks.
Population
Population and population density: Venezuela has a population of 28.5 million, according to World Bank estimates from 2019. An estimated million have emigrated from the country over the past five years, and the migration trend only stopped briefly during the pandemic and is already continuing unabated. 86% of emigrants settle in neighboring Colombia and other South and Central American countries. In 2021 and with the change of the US administration, the numbers of Venezuelans migrating to the US are also increasing.
Demographic composition : The largest group consists of mestizos – 51.6%, the second largest group are whites 43.6%, blacks 3.7%, the indigenous population takes part in the total composition 2.7% and others (mainly Asians and originally Arab population) 1%
Religion: Roman Catholic 71%, Protestant 17%, other 2.7% (Judaism, Buddhism, Islam, Afro-Cuban) and no religion 9%
Official language : Spanish