Venezuela (IPA: ; Spanish: Venezuela, IPA: or ) is a country on the northern tropical Caribbean coast of South America. Venezuela borders Brazil to the south, Guyana to the east, and Colombia to the west. North of the Venezuelan coast lie the islands of Aruba, the Netherlands Antilles, and Trinidad and Tobago.

A former Spanish colony, Venezuela is a federal republic. Historically, Venezuela has had territorial disputes with Guyana, largely concerning the Essequibo area, and with Colombia concerning the Gulf of Venezuela (Gulf of Coquibacoa according to Colombia). This issue is not yet resolved. Today, Venezuela is known widely for its petroleum industry, the environmental diversity of its territory, and its sheer natural beauty. Some have claimed that Christopher Columbus was so enthralled by Venezuela's landscape, when arriving to its coast in 1498, that he referred to the land as Tierra de Gracia (Land of Grace), which has become the country’s nickname.

Origin of name

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The name Venezuela is believed to have originated from the cartographer Amerigo Vespucci who, together with Alonso de Ojeda, led a 1499 naval expedition along the northwestern coast (known today as the Gulf of Venezuela). On reaching the Guajira Peninsula, the crew observed the distinctive stilt villages (palafitos) that the indigenous Añu people had built over the water. This reminded Vespucci of the city of Venice ("Venezia" in Italian) and as a result the region was named Veneziela; some argue this meant Little Venice and later evolved to "Venezuela". Other historians (notably Francisco Herrera Luque), noted that the suffix -zuela usually has a pejorative meaning in the Spanish language (mujerzuela, cazuela, etc.) and sustain the thesis that the name implied more the notion of a second rate Venice.

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L.A. Times - Latin America

Hurricane Norbert nears Mexico's Baja California
Fri, 10 Oct 2008 11:39:00 -0700
Fishermen pulled in their boats and hotels warned tourists away from beaches today as Hurricane Norbert strengthened to a Category 2 storm and bore down on Mexico's southern Baja California Peninsula.
U.S. net work tunes out Cuba, 6-1
Sun, 12 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700
The Americans sweep into the final round of qualifying for the 2010 World Cup with a dominating victory at RFK Stadium in Washington, D.C. The U.S. national soccer team swept into the final round of qualifying for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa on Saturday with a 6-1 demolition of Cuba at RFK Stadium in Washington, D.C.
Richard Stephen Heyser dies at 81; spy plane pilot took first photos of Cuban missile launch sites in 1962
Sun, 12 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700
Richard Stephen Heyser, a U-2 spy plane pilot who took the first photos of ballistic missile launch sites during the 1962 Cuban missile crisis, died Monday at a nursing home in Port St. Joe, Fla. He was 81.
Hundreds flee Baja as Norbert barrels through
Sun, 12 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700
It hits Mexico as a Category 2 hurricane, uprooting trees, taking off roofs and bringing knee-high water. Hurricane Norbert swept across Mexico's southern Baja California peninsula on Saturday, tearing off roofs and forcing hundreds of people to flee flooded homes.
'Here at the End of the World We Learn to Dance' by Lloyd Jones
Sat, 11 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700
A cross-cultural tango pulses with life between the shores of New Zealand and Argentina. ACENTURY ago, Katherine Mansfield was beginning a distinguished literary career that would lead to her becoming New Zealand's best-known literary figure. By the time she died in her mid-30s in 1923, her stories had captured her nation's life in luminous, evocative prose. But Mansfield wrote these stories in Europe, for she had left her native land as a young woman, eager to escape what she saw as a parochial backwater. It took distance and homesickness for a place she was never to see again to so artfully bring alive the particular texture of that antipodean world.
Peru's Cabinet resigns amid bribery scandal
Sat, 11 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700
Prime Minister Jorge del Castillo and 14 others quit over allegations that bribes were solicited from a European firm in exchange for energy contracts. Peruvian President Alan Garcia accepted the resignation of his entire Cabinet on Friday amid a sweeping bribery scandal that has rocked the government of a major U.S. ally.

UN News Centre - Americas

Haiti in desperate need of socio-economic development, stresses UN envoy
Fri, 10 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0500
The recovery and humanitarian relief efforts in Haiti - an impoverished country devastated recently by four successive storms in as many weeks - will not succeed unless the international community addresses the nation's social and economic crisis, a senior United Nations official stressed today.
World Bank donates $25 million to help rebuild beleaguered Haiti
Thu, 09 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0500
The World Bank today announced $25 million in additional emergency grants for Haiti to support recovery and rebuilding efforts, and strengthen its capacity to cope with natural disasters, in the wake of a devastating series of storms that hit the Caribbean country.
Drug-related crime biggest threat to public safety in the Americas, warns UN
Thu, 09 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0500
Drug trafficking and the violence committed by its associated organized crime is the biggest threat to public safety in the Americas, according to the Executive Director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

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