委内瑞拉Venezuela介绍（英文版）.docx

Venezuela, officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( \o Spanish language Spanish: República Bolivariana de Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of \o South America South America. Venezuelas territory covers around 916,445 square kilometres (353,841?sq?mi) with an estimated population of 29,105,632. Venezuela is considered a state with \o Megadiverse countries extremely high biodiversity, with habitats ranging from the \o Andes Andes mountains in the west to the \o Amazon Basin Amazon Basin rainforest in the south, via extensive \o Los Llanos, Venezuela llanos plains and Caribbean coast in the center and the \o Orinoco Delta Orinoco River Delta in the east. Venezuela was \o Spanish colonization of the Americas colonized by Spain in 1522 despite resistance from \o Indigenous peoples in Venezuela indigenous peoples. It became the first Spanish American colony to declare independence ( \o First Republic of Venezuela in 1811), but did not securely establish independence until 1821 (as a department of the federal republic of \o Gran Colombia Gran Colombia, gaining full independence in 1830). During the 19th century Venezuela suffered political turmoil and dictatorship, and it was dominated by regional \o Caudillo caudillos (military strongmen) well into the 20th century. The country has intermittently had democratic governments between 1945 and the present day; like most countries of Latin America, it has suffered some coups and \o Military dictatorship military dictatorships. Economic shocks in the 1980s and 1990s led to a political crisis causing up to 3,000 deaths in the \o Caracazo Caracazo riots of 1989, \o 1992 Venezuelan coup détat attempts two attempted coups in 1992, and the impeachment of President \o Carlos Andrés Pérez Carlos Andrés Pérez for embezzlement of public funds in 1993. A collapse in confidence in the existing parties saw the \o Venezuelan presidential election, 1998 1998 election of former car