Maracaibo in the context of "Klein-Venedig"

Caribbean South America is a subregion of South America that borders the Caribbean Sea, consisting of the Caribbean region of Colombia and the Venezuelan Caribbean.

Significant cities and metropolitan areas with populations over 250,000 on South America's Caribbean coast include, from west to east: Cartagena (914,552), Barranquilla (2,370,753 metropolitan area), Santa Marta (499,192 district), Maracaibo (5,278,448 metropolitan area), Caracas (8,956,813 metropolitan area), Barcelona (815,141), Puerto La Cruz (454,312), and Cumaná (405,626).

Zulia State (Spanish: Estado Zulia, IPA: [esˈtaðo ˈsulja]; Wayuu: Mma’ipakat Suuria) is one of the 23 states of Venezuela. The state capital is Maracaibo. As of the 2011 census, it had a population of 3,704,404, making it the most populous state in the country. Zulia is also notable for being one of the few states in Venezuela where voseo—the use of vos as the second-person singular pronoun—is widespread. The state is coterminous with the eponymous region of Zulia.

Zulia is located in northwestern Venezuela, bordering Lake Maracaibo, the largest body of its kind in Latin America. The lake's basin holds some of the largest oil and gas reserves in the Western Hemisphere.

Klein-Venedig (German for 'Little Venice') or Welserland (German pronunciation: [ˈvɛlzɐlant]) was the most significant territory of the German colonization of the Americas, from 1528 to 1546, in which the Welser banking and patrician family of the Free Imperial Cities of Augsburg and Nuremberg obtained colonial rights in the Province of Venezuela in return for debts owed by the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, who was also King of Spain. In 1528, Charles V issued a charter by which the House of Welser possessed the rights to explore, rule and colonize the area, also with the motivation of searching for the legendary golden city of El Dorado. The venture was led at first by Ambrosius Ehinger, who founded Maracaibo in 1529. After the deaths of Ehinger (1533) and then his successor Georg von Speyer (1540), Philipp von Hutten continued exploration in the interior, and in his absence from the capital of the province, the crown of Spain claimed the right to appoint the governor. On Hutten's return to the capital, Santa Ana de Coro, in 1546, the Spanish governor Juan de Carvajal had von Hutten and Bartholomeus VI. Welser executed. King Charles V revoked Welser's charter.

Welser transported to the colony German miners, and 4,000 African slaves as labor to work sugar cane plantations. Many of the German colonists died of tropical diseases or were attacked and killed during frequent journeys deep into native territory in search of gold.

Bolivarian propaganda (also known as chavista propaganda and Venezuelan propaganda) is a form of nationalist propaganda, especially in Venezuela and associated with chavismo, Venezuelan socialism. This type of propaganda has been associated with Hugo Chávez's Bolivarian Revolution, which used emotional arguments to gain attention, exploit the fears of the population, create external enemies for scapegoat purposes, and produce nationalism within the population, causing feelings of betrayal for support of the opposition.

The World Politics Review stated in 2007 that, as Chávez began "transforming Venezuela into a socialist state", propaganda was "an important role in maintaining and mobilizing government supporters". The image of Chávez was seen on sides of buildings, on T-shirts, on ambulances, on official Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) billboards, and as action figures throughout Venezuela. A 2011 article by The New York Times said Venezuela has an "expanding state propaganda complex" while The Boston Globe described Chávez as "a media savvy, forward-thinking propagandist" that had "the oil wealth to influence public opinion".