Venezuela

Venezuela: Travel tips, articles, photos, gallery, cities database, population, pics, flags, statistics, free maps online

Back to Countries, Click to read the whole article: Venezuela

Introduction - Venezuela:
Location - Venezuela:
People - Venezuela:
Government - Venezuela:
Economy - Venezuela:
Communications - Venezuela:
Transportation - Venezuela:
Military - Venezuela:
Military branches	National Armed Forces (Fuerzas Armadas Nacionales or FAN): Ground Forces or Army (Fuerzas Terrestres or Ejercito), Naval Forces (Fuerzas Navales or Armada; includes Marines, Coast Guard), Air Force (Fuerzas Aereas or Aviacion), Armed Forces of Cooperation or National Guard (Fuerzas Armadas de Cooperacion or Guardia Nacional)

Military service age and obligation	18 years of age for compulsory and voluntary military service; conscript service obligation - 30 months; all citizens of military service age (between 18 and 50 years old) are obligated to register for military service (2007)

Manpower available for military service	males age 18-49: 6,236,012 females age 18-49: 6,137,622 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service	males age 18-49: 4,907,947 females age 18-49: 5,151,843 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually	males age 18-49: 252,396 females age 18-49: 237,300 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures percent of gdp	1.2% (2005 est.)

Trafficking in persons	current situation: Venezuela is a source, transit, and destination country for women and children trafficked for the purposes of sexual exploitation and forced labor; women and children from Colombia, China, Peru, Ecuador, and the Dominican Republic are trafficked to and through Venezuela and subjected to commercial sexual exploitation or forced labor; Venezuelans are trafficked internally and to Western Europe, particularly Spain and the Netherlands, and to countries in the Caribbean region for commercial sexual exploitation; Venezuela is a transit country for illegal migrants from other countries in the region and for Asian nationals, some of whom are believed to be trafficking victims tier rating: Tier 3 - Venezuela does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so

Disputes international	claims all of the area west of the Essequibo River in Guyana, preventing any discussion of a maritime boundary; Guyana has expressed its intention to join Barbados in asserting claims before the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) that Trinidad and Tobagos maritime boundary with Venezuela extends into their waters; dispute with Colombia over maritime boundary and Venezuelan-administered Los Monjes islands near the Gulf of Venezuela; Colombian-organized illegal narcotics and paramilitary activities penetrate Venezuelas shared border region; in 2006, an estimated 139,000 Colombians sought protection in 150 communities along the border in Venezuela; US, France, and the Netherlands recognize Venezuelas granting full effect to Aves Island, thereby claiming a Venezuelan EEZ/continental shelf extending over a large portion of the eastern Caribbean Sea; Dominica, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines protest Venezuelas full effect claim