Venezuela
Home to the Liberator whose name still marks currencies and capitals across the hemisphere.
On July 5, 1811, a congress in Caracas signed Venezuela's declaration of independence, one of the first in South America, with a young officer named Simón Bolívar among the delegates pressing hardest for the break from Spain. Bolívar would go on to lead the liberation of six nations across the continent, earning the title "El Libertador," a name still carried by currencies, streets, and cities across the hemisphere today.
Venezuela's national anthem, adopted in 1881, opens with the line "Gloria al Bravo Pueblo," Glory to the Brave People, a tribute to the ordinary Venezuelans who stood behind that 1811 declaration. It is a reminder that independence, in Venezuela as everywhere else in the Americas, was never one person's work alone, the same common ground this whole project stands on.
Get to Know Venezuela
Capital: St. John's. Official language: English. Currency: East Caribbean dollar. A twin island nation, Antigua and Barbuda, joined by dozens of smaller islands in between.
Fun Facts
- Antigua is said to have 365 beaches, one for every day of the year. Barbuda's
- Codrington Lagoon shelters one of the largest frigate bird colonies anywhere in the world.
- Christopher Columbus named Antigua in 1493 after a church in Sevilla, Spain.
Why Visit
Angel Falls, reached by boat and small plane through Canaima National Park, ranks among the most spectacular natural sights in the hemisphere. The table top mountains of the Gran Sabana rise straight out of the savanna, some of the oldest geological formations on earth. Los Roques, an archipelago of coral islands off the coast, offers some of the clearest water in the Caribbean.
Made in Venezuela
Venezuela is known for cacao long prized by chocolatiers worldwide, oil, and a coffee tradition rooted in its Andean highlands.
This space is reserved for a future Local Marketplace Spotlight, featuring Trust Standard certified businesses once that pillar of the Americas Ecosystem exists. Soon.