ry Vanuatu Mobile Force or VMF)

Defense expenditures: $NA, NA% of GDP

________________________________________________________________________

VENEZUELA

@Venezuela:Geography

Location: Northern South America, bordering the Caribbean Sea and the
North Atlantic Ocean, between Colombia and Guyana

Map references: South America

Area:
total area: 912,050 sq km
land area: 882,050 sq km
comparative area: slightly more than twice the size of California

Land boundaries: total 4,993 km, Brazil 2,200 km, Colombia 2,050 km,
Guyana 743 km

Coastline: 2,800 km

Maritime claims:
contiguous zone: 15 nm
continental shelf: 200-m depth or to the depth of exploitation
exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
territorial sea: 12 nm

International disputes: claims all of Guyana west of the Essequibo
River; maritime boundary dispute with Colombia in the Gulf of
Venezuela

Climate: tropical; hot, humid; more moderate in highlands

Terrain: Andes Mountains and Maracaibo Lowlands in northwest; central
plains (llanos); Guiana Highlands in southeast

Natural resources: petroleum, natural gas, iron ore, gold, bauxite,
other minerals, hydropower, diamonds

Land use:
arable land: 3%
permanent crops: 1%
meadows and pastures: 20%
forest and woodland: 39%
other: 37%

Irrigated land: 2,640 sq km (1989 est.)

Environment:
current issues: sewage pollution of Lago de Valencia; oil and urban
pollution of Lago de Maracaibo; deforestation; soil degradation; urban
and industrial pollution, especially along the Caribbean coast
natural hazards: subject to floods, rockslides, mudslides; periodic
droughts
international agreements: party to - Biodiversity, Climate Change,
Endangered Species, Marine Life Conservation, Nuclear Test Ban, Ozone
Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Wetlands, Whaling; signed, but not
ratified - Hazardous Wastes, Marine Dumping

Note: on major sea and air routes linking North and South America

@Venezuela:People

Population: 21,004,773 (July 1995 est.)

Age structure:
0-14 years: 35% (female 3,650,705; male 3,795,032)
15-64 years: 60% (female 6,350,466; male 6,313,887)
65 years and over: 5% (female 486,020; male 408,663) (July 1995 est.)

Population growth rate: 2.1% (1995 est.)

Birth rate: 25.11 births/1,000 population (1995 est.)

Death rate: 4.57 deaths/1,000 population (1995 est.)

Net migration rate: 0.46 migrant(s)/1,000 population (1995 est.)