Caracas, officially Santiago de León de Caracas, abbreviated as CCS, is the capital and largest city of Venezuela, and the center of the Metropolitan Region of Caracas. Caracas is located along the Guaire River in the northern part of the country, within the Caracas Valley of the Venezuelan coastal mountain range. The valley is close to the Caribbean Sea, separated from the coast by a steep 2,200-meter-high (7,200 ft) mountain range, Cerro El Ávila; to the south there are more hills and mountains. The Metropolitan Region of Caracas has an estimated population of almost 5 million inhabitants.
Valencia is the capital city of Carabobo State and the third-largest city in Venezuela.
Miranda State is one of the 23 states of Venezuela and the second most populous after Zulia State. As of the 2011 census, it had a population of 2,675,165 residents. It also has the greatest Human Development Index in Venezuela, according to the Venezuelan National Institute of Statistics. The most recent population estimate was 3,194,390 in mid-2016.
Chacao is one of the five political and administrative subdivisions of the city of Caracas, Venezuela. The other four are Baruta, El Hatillo, Libertador and Sucre. This legal entity is known as the Caracas Metropolitan District. Chacao is also one of the 21 municipalities that make up the State of Miranda, Venezuela.
Altamira is a neighborhood located in the Chacao municipality of Caracas, Venezuela. It has its own Metro Station, many hotels and restaurants, and it is an important business and residential center of the city. It is also an important tourist destination and cultural center in Caracas. The Francisco de Miranda avenue and the Distibuidor Altamira are both located in Altamira. This neighborhood borders El Ávila National Park to the north, La Castellana neighborhood to the west, Los Palos Grandes to the east, and Bello Campo neighborhood to the south. It has an estimated area of 161 hectares or approximately 1.61 square kilometers.
Municipalities of Venezuela are subdivisions of the States of Venezuela. There are 335 municipalities dividing the 23 states and the Capital District.
El Hatillo Municipality is an administrative division of the State of Miranda, Venezuela; along with Baruta, Chacao, Libertador and Sucre, it is one of the five municipalities of Caracas, the capital of Venezuela. It is located in the southeastern area of Caracas, and in the northwestern part of the State of Miranda.
The Libertador Bolivarian Municipality is the only administrative division of the Capital District of Venezuela and along with the municipalities of Baruta, Chacao, El Hatillo and Sucre forms the Metropolitan District of Caracas. It is landlocked by Vargas State and also borders Miranda State on the east and south. The municipality is one of a number in Venezuela named "Libertador Municipality", in honour of Venezuelan independence hero Simón Bolívar.
The Francisco Fajardo Highway is the most important freeway of Caracas, connecting the west and east sides of the city. The national freeways and many of the avenues of Caracas are not designated with a system of codification or numbering; instead they are designated with the names of historical personages. This highway is named for the conquistador Francisco Fajardo. Also in Caracas, the connections between freeways are also given peculiar names - the octopus, the spider and the centipede are examples.
Mérida, officially known as Santiago de los Caballeros de Mérida, is the capital of the municipality of Libertador and the state of Mérida, and is one of the main cities of the Venezuelan Andes. It was founded in 1558 by Captain Juan Rodríguez Suárez, forming part of Nueva Granada, but later became part of the Captaincy General of Venezuela and played an active role in the War of Independence.
Centro San Ignacio is a Venezuelan shopping mall and office complex which opened in September 1998. It won recognition for Latin American contemporary architecture with the Mies van der Rohe Award that year. The mall is in La Castellana in the Chacao area of Caracas. It was built on athletic fields next to San Ignacio Jesuit College from early 1993 to late 1998, and is managed by the Fondo de Valores Inmobiliarios.
El Rosal is a neighbourhood of Caracas, Venezuela, in the Chacao municipality. It is located at East Caracas, near the geographic center of Caracas and is one of its financial centres. It has an estimated area of 50.9 hectares
La Castellana is a district in Caracas, Venezuela, located in the northeast part of the city, La Castellana is bordered on the south by Chacao, on the east by Altamira (Caracas) neighbourhood, on the west by Caracas Country Club and Campo Alegre neighbourhood and on the north by El Ávila National Park. It has an approximate surface of 98 hectares.
Los Palos Grandes is a residential, tourist and financial district located in the Chacao Municipality in east Caracas, served by the Caracas Metro through the Miranda station of line 1. It has an estimated area of 117 hectares.
Tourism in Venezuela has been developed considerably for decades, particularly because of its geographical position, the variety of landscapes, the richness of plants and wildlife, the artistic expressions and the privileged tropical climate of the country, which affords each region throughout the year. Since 2013 the country is having a very severe economic and political crisis affecting tourism all over the country.
East Caracas generally refers to the eastern portions of Caracas, and may refer specifically to the municipalities from the Metropolitan District of Caracas located in Miranda State: Chacao, Baruta, Sucre, and El Hatillo. It concentrates the 34.8% population of the Metropolitan District of Caracas, and the 21.7% population of the Greater Caracas Area. Caracas Country Club, the richest neighborhood of the city, is located between El Recreo and Chacao districts.
Municipal elections were held in Venezuela on 10 December 2017, to elect 335 mayors throughout Venezuela, as well as the governor of the state of Zulia. This was the first municipal election held since 2013, when elections were delayed from 2012 following the death of Hugo Chávez. The election resulted in many members of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela being elected as heads of municipal governments throughout Venezuela.
The Sabana Grande district is divided into several middle class neighborhoods located in the Parroquia El Recreo of the Libertador Municipality, in the geographical center of the Metropolitan District of Caracas and owes its name to the old town of Sabana Grande.
On 30 April, during the Venezuelan presidential crisis, a group of several dozen military personnel and civilians joined Juan Guaidó in his call for the removal of Nicolás Maduro as part of what he labeled "Operation Freedom". Reuters reported an "uneasy peace" by the afternoon of 30 April. During the unrest, opposition leader Leopoldo López was freed from house arrest after being imprisoned for five years. Manuel Cristopher Figuera, the head of the Bolivarian Intelligence Service, denounced the Maduro government and was dismissed from his position before going into hiding. At least 25 military men who opposed Maduro sought asylum at the Brazilian embassy in Caracas.
