Australia and Venezuela have cordial relations with modest commercial cooperation. Australia’s first Ambassador to Venezuela, F.T. Homer presented credentials in July 1973. The two countries celebrated 40 years of diplomatic relations in 2013.
The Australian Embassy in Santiago is responsible for Venezuela. Venezuela has an Embassy in Canberra, which it opened in July 1978.
The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela is a country on the north coast of South America, sharing land borders with Colombia to the west, Brazil to the south and Guyana to the west. Venezuela is slightly smaller than South Australia and lies entirely within the tropics. In its west, Venezuela contains the northern stretches of the Andes mountain range, to the south and east the Guiana Highlands and in the centre the plains surrounding the main river in the country, the Orinoco. The world’s tallest waterfall, Angel Falls, is located in the south west of the country. The most widely accepted origin of the name Venezuela is the name given to the region following explorer Amerigo Vespucci seeing indigenous people living in a similar way to the people in Venice, Italy, therefore naming the region ‘Venezuela’ or little Venice. The name could also be a centuries old indigenous term for the region.
Venezuela’s population is approximately 30 million (2013 est). Venezuela’s population is made up of a range of ethnicities and mixed-ethnicities, including Indigenous peoples, Europeans and Africans, as well as more recent immigrants from Asia. Roman Catholicism is the main religion.
The Spanish expedition led by Alonso de Ojeda in 1499, which sailed along the northern coast of South America, gave the name Venezuela (“little Venice” in Spanish) to the Gulf of Venezuela because of its similarity to the bay of Venice.
Spain colonised the north-east coast of Venezuela from 1521. Caracas was established as the capital of the province in 1577, which came under the jurisdiction of the Viceroyalty of New Granada (modern Colombia).
Independence from Spain was declared on 5 July 1811, when the area was included in the Republic of Gran Colombia, with Ecuador, Panama and New Granada. Venezuela seceded from Gran Colombia in 1830.
System of government
Venezuela is a federal republic, made up of 23 states, one Capital District (Caracas) and the Federal Dependencies (Venezuela's islands in the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Venezuela).
Under the 1999 Constitution, the Venezuelan government consists of a democratically elected representative system with a strong executive. The president, who is head of state and head of government, is elected for a period of six years (previously five).
Venezuela has a unicameral parliament known as the National Assembly and is comprised of 165 seats, with members elected for five-year terms. In 2009, the Venezuelan constitution was amended by national referendum to remove term limits on all elected officials, including the presidency.
Hugo Chávez was elected President of Venezuela for a third six-year term in October 2012. After winning 55 per cent of the vote and defeating the main opposition contender, Henrique Capriles, President Chávez was subsequently hospitalised in Cuba for cancer treatment, and was not able to attend the formal inauguration scheduled to take place in Caracas on 10 January. He passed away on 5 March 2013. New presidential elections took place on 14 April 2013. President Chávez’s preferred successor, Nicolás Maduro, ran as the candidate for the ruling Partido Socialista Unido de Venezuela (PSUV) against Capriles, and won by a narrow margin (50.7 per cent to Capriles’ 49.1 per cent). Maduro was inaugurated on 19 April 2013, amidst calls for a recount by the opposition Mesa de la Unidad Democrática party. However, the result has been verified by Venezuela’s electoral authority (Consejo Nacional Electoral) and accepted by the international community.
Large anti-government protests occurred between February and June in 2014 over grievances surrounding President Maduro’s government, record high inflation, shortages of basic goods, s