Venezuela travel guide

Venezuela’s indigenous populations declined rapidly during colonisation, mostly due to diseases that arrived with their Spanish oppressors. Those that survived were often put to work as farmers by the colonialists, where they were joined by enslaved Africans, who were shipped in by the Spanish to labour in cocoa plantations strung along the coast.

An early attempt at independence came when Francisco de Miranda sailed from New York City to the Venezuelan coast with a group of mercenaries. Their mission was a failure, though a similar tactic would meet with more success 150 years later and 2,000km north, when Fidel Castro launched his own bid to liberate Cuba). De Miranda is credited with designing the original Venezuelan flag. It has three horizontal stripes, the yellow representing land wealth, the blue representing the sea that separates Venezuela from Spain, and the red representing the blood shed by the heroes of independence.

The Spanish American wars of independence began in the early 1800s, sparked by the Napoleonic invasion of Spain’s Iberian Peninsula and the subsequent abdication of the Bourbon monarchs (which may sound like biscuits of exceptional quality but were actually nothing of the sort). Spearheading the revolutionary forces was Simon Bolivar, a Venezuelan Creole landowner, and still a national hero to this day.

Following its hard-fought independence from Spain, Venezuela was ruled for most of the 19th century by a series of strongman leaders known as caudillos. Although these were military dictatorships, the period was largely marked by stability and economic development.

Then, during World War I, came a discovery that would prove both a blessing and a curse for Venezuela: vast oil deposits. The black stuff sparked an economic boom that made Venezuela one of the wealthiest countries in Latin America, and also one of the most corrupt. However, oil wealth doesn’t necessarily translate to good management of the national finances, and in 1999, after several economic crises and two failed coup d’etat attempts, Hugo Chavez swept into power the generally preferred way – by democratic election.

Chavez and his leftist policies enjoyed immense popularity among Venezuela’s working classes, though his economic reforms also led to protests and strikes, and, in 2002, a failed coup. The Chavez government relied on oil revenues and did little to effectively combat corruption, and by the time that Chavez died in 2013, Venezuela had gone from one of the richest countries in South America to one of the poorest.

Nicolas Maduro, Chavez’s former Vice President, has ruled Venezuela in dictatorial fashion since. His presidency has been beset by economic tribulations, allegations of forced disappearances and narcotrafficking, food and medicine shortages, and a migration crisis. However, perhaps the clearest evidence that marks Maduro as a wrong ‘un is that he once dined at Salt Bae’s hideous restaurant in Turkey.