The Guayana Region, Venezuela: A Study in Industrial and Urban Development

Abstract

Elbert E. Miller* Western Washington State College The Guayana Region, A Study in Industrial and Urban Development Venezuela is a country where natural obstacles to farming, ranching, and communications are formidable. Had it not been for the discovery of vast quantities of oil, the country would have remained as poverty stricken as other parts of Latin America. The discovery of petroleum and the wise decision to spend some of the royalties from petroleum to develop other aspects of the economy of Venezuela have led to rapid progress within the country. To aid in planning the best uses of these royalties, Venezuela organized a separate branch of the federal government known as Cordiplan.1 This central planning agency is divided into units, each of which plans for a separate part of the country or sector of the economy. In the Lower Orinoco River Valley the Corporación Venozolana Guayana (CVG)2 is the federal planning agency. CVG has the legal right actually to engage in industry if it is deemed advisable to do so in order to develop the region. CVG has central offices in the capital , Caracas, and branch offices in the Lower Orinoco Basin. • The author was engaged in field research in the Guayana Region during the summer of 1964. 1 Sid Mittra, "Planning Through Democracy: India and Venezuela," The Simulatics Corporation, New York, mimeographed, n.d., pp. 20-21. Also, Sid Mittra, "Some Aspects of Planning: India and Venezuela," The Simulatics Corporation, New York, mimeographed, n.d., pp. 27-32. * Corporación Venezolana de Guayana. "A Portfolio of Investment Opportunities," July 1963, pp. 21-24. 77 78association of pacific coast geographers Venezuela, one of the ten republics of South America, stretches 2,000 miles along the northern or Caribbean coast of that continent. With an area of approximately 350,000 square miles, Venezuela is roughly 50 percent larger than our state of Texas. The country can be divided into four geographic regions. The backbone of the country not only in terms of surface configuration but also in terms of population is formed by the Venezuelan Highlands, a branch of the Andes Mountains. To the northwest the sparsely populated Maracaibo Lowlands form the border with Colombia, and to the south of the Venezuelan Highlands lies the broad plain of the Orinoco, commonly called the Llanos. Across the Orinoco River is the hilly upland known as the Guiana Highlands, which makes up about onehalf of the total area of Venezuela. South and east of Venezuela lie British Guiana and Brazil. For four hundred years the population of Venezuela increased very slowly. In 1500 the area was occupied by scattered tribes of Carib and Arawak Indians, whose total number probably did not exceed 100,000. As elsewhere in the new world, the number declined rapidly with European immigration. Alexander von Humboldt, at the beginning of the nineteenth century, estimated the total number of people living in Venezuela to be approximately a million. One hundred and twenty years later, in 1920, another estimate based on careful knowledge of the country placed the total population at less than two and one-half million.3 With the advent of improved medical and sanitary conditions since 1930, population has exploded at a rate of over 3 percent per year, well above the world average.* Venezuela 's present population of approximately 8 million is expected to double in the next twenty years. Not only does the country have a rapid growth of population, but as elsewhere in Latin America there have been tremendous internal movements from the rural areas to Caracas, which has over a million people, and to other large cities. Slighdy more tìian half of the Venezuelan population now resides in towns and cities.5 Even if there were no increase of population within the nation of Venezuela, this rural-to-urban movement would cause severe economic strain on the nation, since food production * Preston E. James. Introduction to Latin America (Odyssey Press, 1964). pp. 127-128. * Christopher Tietze. "Human Fertility in Latin America," AnnaL· of the Academy of Political and Social Science, March 1958, pp. 84-94. ' Corporación Venezolana de Guayana. "Guayana: Cornerstone of the Development of Venezuela," August 1963, p...