ABSTRACT

This chapter provides a brief historical background and a description of major events in Venezuela. It also provides basic political, economic, and social data arranged in the following categories: polity, economy, population, purchasing power parities, life expectancy, ethnic groups, capital, political rights, civil liberties, and status. The chapter discusses the progress and decline of political rights and civil liberties in Venezuela. The Republic of Venezuela was established in 1830, nine years after independence from Spain. Long periods of instability and military rule ended with the establishment in 1961 of civilian rule. Chavez promptly dismantled Venezuela's political system of checks and balances, ostensibly to destroy a discredited two-party system that for four decades had presided over several oil booms but had left four out of five Venezuelans impoverished. In 2001, Chavez appointed the first civilian defense minister in Venezuela's history—a move hailed by the president's supporters as ensuring the continued ideological suasion by the chavistas over the armed forces.