The Republic of Colombia is situated largely in the north-west of South America, with some territories falling within the boundaries of Central America. It is bordered to the north-west by Panama; to the east by Brazil and Venezuela; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; and it shares maritime limits with Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, Jamaica, the Dominican Republic, and Haiti.
The Orinoco is one of the longest rivers in South America at 2,250 kilometres (1,400 mi).
Vichada Department is a department of the Republic of Colombia in South America. Vichada is located in the eastern plains of Colombia, in the Orinoquía Region within the Orinoco river basin bordering the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela to the north and east. To the north the department also borders with Arauca Department, to the northwest with Casanare Department, to the west with Meta Department, to the southwest narrowly bordering with Guaviare Department and to the south with Guainía Department. The department is the second largest in Colombia and scarcely populated in comparison to other departments.
Apure State is one of the 23 states of Venezuela. Its territory formed part of the provinces of Mérida, Maracaibo, and Barinas, in accordance with successive territorial ordinations pronounced by the colonial authorities. In 1824 the Department of Apure was created, under jurisdiction of Barinas, which laid the foundations for the current entity. In 1856 it separated from Barinas and for the first time Apure appeared as an independent province, which in 1864 acquired the status of state. In 1881, however, a new territorial division combined Apure and Guayana to form a single state named Bolívar. In 1899 it reestablished its autonomy and finally, by means of the Constitution of 1909, gained its current borders.
The Pemon or Pemón (Pemong) are indigenous people living in areas of Venezuela, Brazil, and Guyana. The Pemon people are divided into many dialects and traditions, which are Arekuna, Kamarakoto, and Taurepang.
A blackwater river is a type of river with a slow-moving channel flowing through forested swamps or wetlands. Most major blackwater rivers are in the Amazon Basin and the Southern United States. The term is used in fluvial studies, geology, geography, ecology, and biology. Not all dark rivers are blackwater in that technical sense. Some rivers in temperate regions, which drain or flow through areas of dark black loam, are simply black due to the color of the soil; these rivers are black mud rivers. There are also black mud estuaries.
The Cetopsidae are a small family of catfishes, commonly called the whale catfishes.
The Meta River is a major left tributary of the Orinoco River in eastern Colombia and southern Venezuela, South America. The Meta originates in the Eastern Ranges of the Andes and flows through the Meta Department, Colombia as the confluence of the Humea, Guatiquía and Guayuriba rivers. It flows east-northeastward across the Llanos Orientales of Colombia following the direction of the Meta Fault. The Meta forms the northern boundary of Vichada Department, first with Casanare Department, then with Arauca Department, and finally with Venezuela, down to Puerto Carreño where it flows into the Orinoco.
The Cordillera Oriental is the widest of the three branches of the Colombian Andes. The range extends from south to north dividing from the Colombian Massif in Huila Department to Norte de Santander Department where it splits into the Serranía del Perijá and the Cordillera de Mérida in Venezuelan Andes. The highest peak is Ritacuba Blanco at 5,410 m (17,750 ft) in the Sierra Nevada del Cocuy.
Cetopsidium is a genus of catfishes of the family Cetopsidae.
The yellow-crowned elaenia is a species of bird in the family Tyrannidae, the tyrant flycatchers. It is found in eastern Orinoco Basin Venezuela, the Guianas, and along the Amazon River corridor; also Colombia, Brazil, Guyana, Suriname, French Guiana, Ecuador and Peru.
The gilded barbet is a species of bird in the family Capitonidae, the New World barbets, and are close relatives of the toucans.
Theodor Koch-Grünberg was a German ethnologist and explorer who made a valuable contribution to the study of the Indigenous peoples in South America, in particular the Pemon of Venezuela and other indigenous peoples in the Amazon region extending South-Western Brazil and a large part of the Vaupés region in Colombia. The 2015 film El abrazo de la serpiente fictionalizes his illness and final days based on his journals. He was played by actor Jan Bijvoet.
The Caura, is a tributary of the Orinoco River, located in Bolívar State in Venezuela. Its flow is the second after the Caroni River among the affluents of the Orinoco River, with almost 3,544 cubic metres per second (125,200 cu ft/s). The river is inhabited by both the Ye'kuana and Sanema indigenous groups.
Cetopsidium morenoi is a species of whale catfish that is found in the central and western portions of the Orinoco River basin in Venezuela and Colombia.
Apteronotus is a genus of weakly electric knifefish in the family Apteronotidae, distinguished by the presence of a tiny tail fin. This genus is restricted to tropical and subtropical South America and Panama where found in a wide range of freshwater habitats. They feed on small animals.
Indigenous people in Venezuela, Amerindians or Native Venezuelans, form about 2% of the population of Venezuela, although many Venezuelans are mixed with Indigenous ancestry. Indigenous people are concentrated in the Southern Amazon rainforest state of Amazonas, where they make up nearly 50% of the population and in the Andes of the western state of Zulia. The most numerous indigenous people, at about 200,000, is the Venezuelan part of the Wayuu people who primarily live in Zulia between Lake Maracaibo and the Colombian border. Another 100,000 or so indigenous people live in the sparsely populated southeastern states of Amazonas, Bolívar and Delta Amacuro.
Because of its natural structure, Venezuela can be divided into eight very distinct natural regions. In the evaluation of a natural region, the human element is not present. The natural region groups of Venezuela formed as a consequence of the association of geo-physical elements such as: geological constitution, relief, climate, hydrography, vegetation, soils, among others.
The Orinoco Basin is the part of South America drained by the Orinoco river and its tributaries. The Orinoco watershed covers an area of about 990000 km2, making it the third largest in South America, covering most of Venezuela and eastern part of Colombia.
The Pemon conflict is an ongoing conflict which is a part of the wider Crisis in Venezuela. The conflict is centered around mining disputes between the Maduro government, the Pemon nation and armed irregular groups. The Pemon nation is divided by the border between Venezuela and Brazil, resulting in Pemon refugees regularly crossing the border into Brazil for safety and medical care. The conflict is centred on disputes over mining in the Orinoco Mining Arc, a 112,000 km2 area of the Amazon Rainforest rich in gold, diamonds, coltan, and uranium, which are also home to the Pemon people.
