Geographical:

Venezuela is located in the northern section of the South American continent. Caracas is the capital and has an international airport that is a 1/2 hour drive away from downtown. The main cities that have direct flights from Caracas (among others) are (including approximate flight durations):

• Miami, Florida, USA - 4 1/4 hours
• Atlanta, Georgia, USA - 4 1/2 hours
• Dallas, Texas, USA - 5 hours
• Bogota, Colombia - 1 hour
• Buenos Aires, Argentina - 6 hours
• Sao Paulo, Brazil - 5 hours
• Frankfurt am Main, Germany - 12 hours
• Amsterdam, Netherlands - 12 hours

The cities that are listed are for explanatory purposes only. For detailed information, contact your favorite airline.

Political:

Venezuela has a democratic government that allows the election of its president every six years. Others (representatives, state governers, mayors, etc.) are elected differently. All elections are governed by the National Elections Council.

Economical:

For information on investments in Venezuela, contact the Venezuelan-American Chamber of Commerce. Public company shares are traded in the Caracas Stock Exchange and the monetary policy is governed by the Venezuelan Central Bank. Several public Venezuelan companies like Mavesa, CANTV and Electricidad de Caracas list their American Depositary Receipts in the New York Stock Exchange. Taxes are collected by the National Tax Service. Industrial and Commercial policy is dictated by the Industrial and Commercial Department. They do a good job of explaining investment opportunities in the country. For extensive reports, we suggest looking up "Venezuela" in the Financial Times newspaper.

Weather:

Weather in Caracas (Venezuelan capital) oscillates between 50 and 86 degrees Farenheit throughout the year. Sometimes it rains, sometimes it doesn't. Check an updated weather report if you wish. Most other cities (except those in the Andes mountains), are warmer than Caracas, specially Maracaibo (hot and humid).

News on Venezuela:

Freedom of speech is widespread in Venezuela. The following newspapers are in the spanish language: El Nacional, El Universal (includes a section in English), Tal Cual (political news), 2001, Union Radio general news with audio content and El Mundo. For news (not on a daily basis) in English, we recommend the following sources: CNN, New York Times and/or whichever international news source of your preference. El Universal also contains a section of news in English. However, knowledge of spanish is highly recommended for access to more detailed information.

Software in Venezuela

The main association for software in Venezuela is Cavedatos or the Venezuelan Chamber of IT companies and there is a new institute for Software Certification called CEIsoft which is the Center of Excellence in Software Engineering. As of 02/2003, our country exports $30 MM in software and an increase of up to $500 MM is projected for the next 5 years. A good directory of Venezuelan software companies can be found at INVESOFT which is the Venezuelan Software Industry home page. Some of the companies that are listed are affiliates of multinationals located elsewhere.

Disclaimer: All the links that are shown above are presented for informational (i.e. non-commercial) purposes only. If any of the companies involved would like to see their link removed from this page, please write a note to webmaster@scamecanica.com. SCA Mecanica, S.A. is not affiliated with the Venezuelan American Chamber of Commerce (at least not yet) or with any of the institutions mentioned in this page. Thanks.