Venezuela in 1940

Abstract

THE Republic of Venezuela, bordering on the Caribbean Sea, has come into special prominence in this century, thanks to the discovery of vast resources of petroleum, a commodity more vital to us in this war even than in the last. The country is of particular interest to us to-day because what one may call its modern development dates from the discovery of oil. Approaching Venezuela from the sea, whether from the east, as did Columbus, or from the north at Cumana, like Humboldt and Bonpland, or landing from a liner at La Guiara to-day, one is confronted by formidable mountains. These, the Andes and the Maritime Ranges, together divide the country into two regions. To the north of these mountains lie the Caribbean Sea, the desert ranges of Falcon, the desiccated peninsula of Paraguana and the basin of the Lake of Maracaibo. South of this range lie the Llanos with their Mesa plateaux, the great river basins of the Orinoco and the Apure, and rising to the south-east, the Guiana highlands. The capital of Venezuela, Caracas, centrally situated in the Distrito Federal, is the political, financial, and social centre of the country. But the natural resources which have brought Venezuela to the forefront among South American Republics are derived primarily from the regions of the Lake of Maracaibo, and secondarily from the Llanos plains of Eastern Venezuela, the States of Anzoategui and Monagas. The Maracaibo Lake Basin includes most of the State of Zulia, economically the most important physiographical province in the country. It occupies a shallow topographical and structural depression formed by the north-east divergence of the Venezuelan Andes from the Eastern Cordillera, lying between the Sierra de Perija to the west, the Sierra del Norte to the south, and the hills of the State of Falcon to the west. Intermittently since Eocene times it has received the sediments from the surrounding hills, and the ancient seas, rich in life, have been the origin of the vast reservoirs of petroleum we are tapping to-day. These seas have always been shallow. To-day, the lake in the centre is about 90 feet deep; 5 miles from shore the depth averages 30 feet. Much of the margin stands at lake level, much is swampy, even tidal, though tides are slight. The flat deltaic regions of the south-western rivers (the Rio Catatumbo and Escalante) come second in size to the Amacuro Delta of the Orinoco, and appear from the air an immense flat of partly forested swamp, lagoon-studded and cut by meandering river channels. The entrance into the Lake of Maracaibo, cut through the dry, sandy, scrub-country of North Zulia, is shallower even than the lake itself. An uplift outside the entrance, bringing to the surface older rocks which form the Island of Toas, has all but closed it. A submerged bar of shifting sand has left a narrow channel navigable to vessels of 14-foot draught which can pass at high tide. Oil companies working in the Lake of Maracaibo have fleets of