Maracaibo

Maracaibo is the capital city of Zulia State, located in northwestern Venezuela. It was founded in 1529 as New Nuremberg (Hispanicization of Neu Nürnberg, in German). It is the most important economic center in western Venezuela, due to the oil industry that develops on the shores of Lake Maracaibo, specifically in its northwestern sector. Historically qualified as The First City of Venezuela, for its strength and economic development; also for being the first city in the country to be a pioneer in using various types of public services such as electricity and for being geographically located adjacent to the shores of Lake Maracaibo, the place where the name of the country (Venezuela) originated.

In the 2011 census, a population was estimated for the state of Zulia, according to the National Institute of Statistics, of 3,938,152 inhabitants and in its urban nucleus, Maracaibo in a population of 2,026,486 inhabitants, which includes the municipalities Maracaibo and San Francisco. However, the city extends over a vast plain that includes its entire metropolitan area with a population of 2,356,959 inhabitants. The municipality of Maracaibo has a total population of 1,551,539 people, according to the 2011 census, which represents 52.6 percent of the population of Zulia and makes it the second most populous city in Venezuela after Caracas.

In economic terms, it is also the second most important city in the country, with a nominal GDP in its suburban area of 91.937 million US dollars; as a consequence, a nominal per capita of US$12,393 and a purchasing power parity (PPP per capita) of $PPP21,460. Its geographical location and its economic importance, due to the discovery of oil in the State, especially on the Eastern Coast of Lake Maracaibo and on the Paraguaná peninsula, led it to become the most important economic center in western Venezuela.^{[citation required]}

Toponymy

The origin of the name Maracaibo is controversial. Despite the fact that these facts are duly documented in historical records, the details are scarce and ambiguous, and have generated different interpretations, to the point that the same historical source is cited in a contradictory way in more recent texts.

Some historians limit themselves to mentioning that, at the time the city was first founded, the German conquistador Ambrosio Alfinger chose the name of Maracaibo or Maracaybo in homage to an "indigenous chief" or cacique from the area at the mouth of the river lake. Other sources attribute great leadership and emblematic importance to this character in the region, although data on the extent of his domains are ambiguous.

An alternative version of the etymology maintains that the name of the city originated from the death in battle of the cacique Mara, a young and brave leader who from one of the islands of the lake (Isla de Providencia) offered resistance to the European troops of Ambrosio Alfinger. According to this story, after finishing off Mara, the Spaniards shouted "Mara fell", a phrase with which they referred to the place where the aforementioned cacique would have been defeated. Several historians claim that this story is a myth, that the name of Cacique Mara or Indio Mara does not appear in any historical record, and that none of these facts is documented in original and reliable sources. Most likely, the stories about Mara, Maracaibo or Maracaybo correspond to the same historical character, of which there are few documented details and much speculation.

Despite the contradictions, the myth of the Cacique Mara has been widely disseminated in popular media, to the point of having become official as an emblem of indigenous resistance in the region. This character is evoked in various spiritist rites (associated with the cult of María Lionza and the heavenly courts), but allegorical monuments have also been erected such as a statue and a square in the commemorative events are dedicated to him, such as the Indigenous Resistance Day (October 12, formerly Día de la Raza), and his name is used in various awards and award. Even one of the municipalities of the Zulia state bears his name (Mara municipality).

The few references that exist on the meaning of the word Maracaibo associate it with a place denomination, instead of the name of an indigenous person. In fact, there are references to the existence of an indigenous ranch near the place where Alfinger would settle, and it is even possible that he usurped this land for the foundation of the town of Maracaibo. Despite the fact that there are no linguistic studies of the original settlers, various authors have ventured interpretations of the possible meaning of the word Maracaibo in indigenous languages (probably deriving them from the languages currently used in the area, or by historical references). Some suggested interpretations are Maara-iwo, which would mean "place where snakes abound", or Maare kaye, which would mean "place in front of to the sea", Tiger claw or parrot rivers have also been mentioned. (These are the most popular interpretations).

History

Pre-Hispanic period

Alonso de Ojeda one of the first Spanish settlers to explore the current land of the city.

Archaeological investigations confirm the aboriginal presence in Marabino territory fifteen thousand years before Christ. Archaeological revelations by Cruxent and Rouse show fossils of ceramic objects, artifacts of stone origin, shell manufactures, funerary urns and metal ornamentation demonstrating the millenary presence of the Maracaibero aboriginal ancestors. It is known that they inhabited about 20 indigenous groups that lived in the Maracaibo lake basin, among which were included: wayú, baríes, añúes, yukpas and japrerías. However, little is known about the first inhabitants of Marabino soils; there are no indications that allow us to know how they were, it is only known of a few settlers who were evicted by the aborigines that the Spaniards found when they arrived to conquer America. It is believed that there was a presence of numerous groups in the lake basin and its surroundings, part of the great Caribe, Chibcha and Arahuaca families, who came from various regions of what is now America, a time in which stilt houses were characteristic of the indigenous population of Maracaibo, and Zulia in general. They were divided into two large groups, the Arawaks or Aruacos, a race that was initially agricultural, with a culture ahead of that of the rest of the indigenous people of Venezuela, and the Caribs, a ferocious race, with numerous warriors and navigators.

At the time of European contact there was a great heterogeneity of indigenous ethnic groups in the Venezuelan territory, which were later enslaved. They were the societies that the European conquerors found at the time of their arrival in Venezuela, which could vary from egalitarian tribal groups, nomadic societies, to evolved cacicazgos.

In the territory of the current state of Zulia, there were two well-differentiated ethnic groups of the Arawaks; the Añú ethnic group; and the Wayúu ethnic group, differentiated by their subsistence modality. The wayúu were dedicated to trade, planting and grazing, while the añú spread throughout the shores of Lake Maracaibo, differentiating themselves linguistically and named with a word that for some researchers it means people, and for others, men of water. The oldest written reference to this town dates from the chroniclers' accounts according to which they were settled on the western shore of Lake Maracaibo.

There they settled, making their homes, in the network of stilt houses that provided them with a safe harbor and housing, thus Santa Rosa de Agua was born, north of Maracaibo.

Foundation

Plano de la ciudad de Maracaibo by Fray Julián de Esquivel in 1639, deposited in the General Archive of Indias, section of the Audience of Santo Domingo.

First version of the shield with the real attributes, according to Discrezione de la lagoon de la ciudad de Maracaibo of the Archive of Indias.

The history of the founding of Maracaibo has been subject to historical divergences originating from the fact that there were several characters and moments in which an attempt was made to build a true settlement. The first European approach to this area was made by Alonso de Ojeda, on August 24, 1499, who discovered Lake Maracaibo together with Juan de la Cosa and Américo Vespucio.

The name of Venezuela is attributed to them when they evoked Venice when they saw that the inhabitants lived in stilt houses on the lake and that people moved from one place to another by means of small wooden bridges and canoes. The city of Maracaibo was founded three times. The first, on September 8, 1529 by the German Ambrosio Ehinger (Spanishized as Alfinger), conqueror of the Welser family of Augsburg and first governor of the Province of Venezuela with the name of Neu Nürenberg (New Nuremberg in German) who set out on an expedition from Coro, capital at that time of the province.

The settlement was given the name Villa de Maracaibo because at the time of its foundation a council was not constituted that would give it the character of a city. The name Neu-Nürnberg appears in German Welser documents. It is likely that Alfinger's foundation was made in the vicinity of or on the remains of an indigenous settlement (or ranchería). The first foundation had a population of just 30 residents and almost no activity, which is why the German conquistador Nicolás Federmann ordered the transfer of its population in 1535 to Cabo de la Vela (which today is part of Colombia) on the Guajira peninsula.

In 1569, after having subjugated the indigenous people of the lake area in the last two years (1569-1571), the Spanish conquistador Alonso Pacheco founded the town of 'Ciudad Rodrigo' on the shores of Lake Maracaibo (finally known as Maracaibo). After a couple of years, however, the indigenous population rose again and the Spanish settlement had to be briefly abandoned, thus causing a subsequent foundation in 1574. By 1573 Governor Diego de Mazariegos had decided to reestablish the population. entrusting Captain Pedro Maldonado with said task. And so in the year 1574 the city was refounded with the name of Nueva Zamora de la Laguna de Maracaibo (for the third and last time), in honor of Governor Mazariegos, a native of the city of Zamora, Spain..

The Pirates Cycle

Between 1614 and 1678 there were various pirate attacks on Maracaibo and other Spanish settlements on Lake Maracaibo. These constant harassment slowed down the economic development of the area, which was not only looted repeatedly, but also invested numerous resources to build defensive elements such as barracks, a castle and towers that did not fully achieve their mission. Among the defensive elements are the Castle of San Carlos de la Barra, the Fort of Nuestra Señora del Carmen and the Torreón Santa Rosa de Zapara.

The Dutch privateer Enrique de Gerard would arrive in 1614, then in 1642 the English pirate William Jackson. The period between 1665 and 1669 is known as the five-year period of the pirates. In 1665 the Frenchman Jean David Nau, alias El Olonés, attacked Maracaibo and between 1666 and 1669 Miguel El Vascongado, the Dutchman Albert van Eyck and the Welshman Henry Morgan would arrive. Finally, in 1678, the Frenchman Michel de Grandmont assaulted the city and the towns to the south of the lake, penetrating the mainland as far as Trujillo.

Viceregal period

Plaza Mayor de Maracaibo in the centuryXIX

During the first years of its existence, Maracaibo served as a very important link port between the productive areas of the south of the Lake and the Venezuelan Andes (including Pamplona in present-day Colombia) and the commercial routes in the Caribbean Sea.

Administratively, Maracaibo first depended on Coro, and then on Mérida. In 1777, Maracaibo became dependent on the governmental and military aspects of the Captaincy General of Venezuela, with headquarters in Caracas, and on the judicial level of the Royal Court of Santo Domingo.

Independence and republic

The Legislative Palace of the State Zulia is the seat of the regional parliament since 1890.

In 1810, the province of Maracaibo decided to remain faithful to the crown and did not join the First Republic of Venezuela in 1811. For this reason, the Spanish authorities gave it the motto of "Very Noble and Loyal" to the shield of Maracaibo. The Spanish governors, since Caracas was under patriot control, transferred the government of the Captaincy General of Venezuela to Maracaibo. In contrast to the monarchical position of the province, General Rafael Urdaneta was one of the main leaders of the patriot side. In 1821, there was an uprising in favor of independence in the Maracaibo barracks, which broke the armistice and restarted hostilities in the war that would end up leading to the second battle of Carabobo. In Maracaibo, the royalists fought to regain control of the province and Francisco Tomás Morales re-imposed the authority of Spain in 1822, until he was finally defeated by Admiral José Prudencio Padilla in the Naval Battle of Lake Maracaibo, fought on the 24th of July 1823 in front of the Tablazo bay and which was the last of the Venezuelan war of independence. Morales, the last Spanish ruler, capitulated in the Casa de Morales, a house that is still preserved in Maracaibo and that constitutes an emblematic museum of the city.

Commercial and cultural flourishing

The Mac Gregor House, first store by departments of Venezuela. Photograph of 1893.

Due to its location, Maracaibo was the port of departure for goods from the Andes and western Venezuela to Europe and America. There was a lot of activity in Maracaibo with German and English commercial houses such as Boulton, Blohm, Beckman, Breuer-Möller & Co., Zingg and Steinvorth. They financed the coffee and cocoa crops, bought the harvest and took it to Europe. Coffee companies, mainly German such as Brewer Möller & Co., ground the coffee beans in Maracaibo before shipping them to the port of Hamburg. Trade brought prosperity to the city, which enjoyed modern services such as telephone (1879), tram (1883) and electricity (1888) before other cities in Venezuela and Latin America. Within this avant-garde environment, the first department store in the country was also born, Casa Mac Gregor, founded by the Zulian businessman Emilio Mac Gregor Novoa in 1892. Maracaibo also manifested a cultural flowering, being in those times that the Baralt Theater (1883), the magazine El Zulia Ilustrado (1888) was published and the University of Zulia was opened (1891), in addition to being the birthplace of great writers such as Udón Pérez and Jesús Enrique Lossada.

Oil era

Baralt Square in 1930.

Maracaibo around 1953.

Pozos petroleros en el Lago de Maracaibo en los años 40.

In 1906 Antonio Aranguren obtained a concession to search for oil in the Maracaibo and Bolívar districts, oil was discovered in 1914 with the Zumaque I well in Mene Grande. From that moment on, US investments did not stop for years, turning Maracaibo during the first half of the XX century into a the world's major oil trading center and Venezuela as the world's leading oil exporting country, a position it held for almost 50 years. Maracaibo then became the headquarters of the large oil companies that established themselves in Zulia, and oil displaced coffee as the main export product. The 1918 flu epidemic wreaked havoc on the population. In 1923 the first seaplane landed in Maracaibo and in 1929 the Grano de Oro airport was inaugurated. Part of the city's new image was due to the contribution of the architect León Hoet, who built the new municipal market (now the Lía Bermúdez museum), he remodeled the Baralt theater and built the old jail, among other art deco-style buildings, in the late 20s and early 30s. After the death of the dictator Juan Vicente Gómez on February 14, 1936, the National Democratic Bloc, founded in Maracaibo, published its first Manifesto and Program. Among its members are: Isidro Valles, Valmore Rodríguez, Rafael Echeverría, Felipe Hernández, Elio Montiel, Espartaco González, Olga Luzardo, Aníbal Mestre Fuenmayor, etc. In 1942 the church of San Juan de Dios was elevated to a minor Basilica, it adopted its current form and the Virgin of Chiquinquirá was crowned patron saint of Zulia. New neighborhoods and developments were built, such as the Ziruma neighborhood (Wayuú neighborhood) and Las Delicias (Shell oil field), as well as other infrastructures such as the Olympic stadium in 1945 (today Alejandro Borges) and the La Limpia racetrack (where the finds Galleries Mall). The University of Zulia, closed in 1902 by the government of Cipriano Castro, was reopened in 1946 with Jesús Enrique Lossada being the first rector after the reopening. The construction of the General Rafael Urdaneta bridge by a German-Venezuelan consortium breaks with the isolation of Maracaibo with the eastern shore of the lake and the rest of the country. After three years of work, the bridge is inaugurated on August 24, 1962 by President Rómulo Betancourt. With a length of 8.67 km, it was for several years the longest bridge of its kind in the world and remains one of the largest reinforced concrete structures on the planet.

Contemporary period

Throughout its history in the 21st century the city has presented a series of incidents, of which the most important have been the following:

• On September 5, 2017, the National Telecommunications Commission (Conatel) ordered the transmission stop of the station Radio Fe y Alegría 88.1FM Maracaibo.
• On Friday, August 10, 2018 there was an electrical failure that left much of the city without energy for more than 144 hours.

Between March and April 2019, there were several nationwide blackouts that affected the city, several attempts were made to loot supermarkets and shopping centers, demonstrations arose in different parts of Maracaibo due to the lack of electricity and water, while the collective calls threatened the communities.

Panoramic view of the city.

Geography

Location of Maracaibo

Maracaibo is located on the so-called Maracaibo plain, a flat and flat territory with alluvial formation. It has low fertility, very dry and tropical forest. It presents good drainage of the soils, pipes and gorges. The city dominates the entrance to Lake Maracaibo, which is linked to the Gulf of Venezuela through the largest navigation channel in South America.^{[citation required]}

The relief of the city is almost flat, its varied vegetation ranges from savannah vegetation around Lake Maracaibo, going through xerophytic in almost the entire territory.

Maracaibo is located at the outlet of Lake Maracaibo, where the mouth of the Gulf of Venezuela begins and where the communication routes of the western part of Venezuela converge, which has allowed it to occupy the second place as the most important city of Venezuela and being the third port of the country.

Climate

The climate of Maracaibo can be considered in transition between the Warm Semiarid (BSh) and Tropical Savannah Climate (Aw), tending more to the former; This being one of the cities in Venezuela where the highest temperatures are recorded: it has a very hot climate, only attenuated by the moderating influence of the lake, from where the trade winds enter. The average temperature of historical records is 29.7 °C. The Maracaibo area has one of the highest levels of per capita consumption of electricity in Latin America, due to the fact that the architecture that has prevailed in the city for the last 40 years does not adapt to the climatic characteristics of a tropical city. coastal, which leads to the use of large centralized air conditioning systems to make closed environments pleasant, all this at a huge economic and environmental cost that is not sustainable over time.

In the past, the climate of the city, as well as the entire coast of Lake Maracaibo, was unhealthy due to the combination of high temperatures with high humidity, making the area an important breeding ground for mosquitoes. At present, the effects of urbanization and pest control have almost eradicated this evil.

Average climate parameters Maracaibo
Month	Ene.	Feb.	Mar.	Open up.	May.	Jun.	Jul.	Ago.	Sep.	Oct.	Nov.	Dec.	Annual
Temp. max. abs. (°C)	39.4	39.4	39.9	39.6	44.8	41.0	39.8	38.1	37.0	36.6	36.3	36.8	43.8
Average temperature (°C)	32.5	32.8	33.1	33.1	33.1	33.6	36.1	35.2	33.6	32.5	32.4	32.5	35.1
Average temperature (°C)	27.7	28.0	28.6	29.0	29.1	29.3	29.5	29.6	29.1	28.3	28.3	27.9	28.7
Temp. medium (°C)	22.8	23.2	24.1	24.8	25.0	24.9	24.9	24.9	24.6	24.1	24.1	23.9	24.2
Temp. min. abs. (°C)	19.2	18.8	20.4	20.7	20.5	20.2	21.0	20.2	20.2	20.0	20.6	18.9	18.8
Rains (mm)	5.1	2.7	5.9	52.1	66.8	55.4	26.5	60.0	104.0	114.4	70.6	16.9	580.4
Rainy days (≥ 1.0 mm)	0.6	0.3	0.6	3.6	6.1	6.7	3.6	5.8	8.1	9.2	5.3	1.7	51.6
Hours of sun	300.0	279.0	286.0	257.0	243.0	253.0	301.0	279.0	272.5	282.9	258.0	272.7	3284.1
Relative humidity (%)	69.0	68.5	68.0	71.5	73.5	71.0	69.0	69.5	72.0	75.0	73.0	72.0	71.0
Source: Stations Airport / La Cañada / Los Pozos; by INAMEH. Data collected in a period of 79 years between 1927 and 2006.

Fauna and flora

The city of Maracaibo is located in the biogeographic province of the same name, which is characterized by several species of native trees such as the Curarire and the Vera. at least 133 species of ornamental trees, among which the Apamate and the cuji yaque stand out as native species, and the neem among the exotic species.

Nem has been cultivated since 1997 with the aim of reducing the high temperatures present almost throughout the year. This tree has the main characteristic of withstanding high temperatures and growing without much water, in addition to producing a large amount of shade, rapid growth in relation to native species. But this tree has been attributed the disappearance of bird species, because it is a toxic tree for the species of the region, leaving them sterile. Cases of human deaths have even been attributed to it due to the consumption of this plant with a high level of toxicity.^{[citation needed]}

Within the city's protective zone, at least 11 species of amphibians, 24 reptiles and more than 50 species of butterflies have been recorded.

Contamination of Lake Maracaibo

Waters from Lake Maracaibo contaminated by various human wastes.

The development of the Zulian region also brought with it an unscrupulous overexploitation of Lake Maracaibo to such an extent that today it is almost entirely contaminated. The oil exploitation with the innumerable spills that have occurred inside the lake due to mechanical damages that have run aground to large caliber ships, have covered the bottom of the lake with a blackish tint that is very visible especially on the coasts where it can be seen. appreciate rocks completely covered by this sticky substance, oil.

Around the lake there are a large number of crops of diverse agricultural products that extend to areas of hundreds of thousands of hectares that are completely visible from space; A large part of these areas for its production use pesticides and fertilizers that are later discharged into Lake Maracaibo, leaving an enormous sequel and influenced the appearance of the duckweed Lemna obscura that uses these residual fertilizers to its growth uncontrollably. Since its appearance, the problem of lemna each year in dry months, which is when it arrives, has been increasing progressively, being able to measure in the last observations 1870 km², 15% of the surface of the lake.

Lemna in the vicinity of Rafael Urdaneta Bridge

By preventing the passage of light, the lemna also prevents the life cycle of the species within the lake, dramatically modifying the ecosystem and killing all the algae and plants located at the bottom of the lake that are prevented from carrying out their process of photosynthesis due to lack of light. At the end of this process, the lemna itself dies, leaving with it toxic emissions that contaminate lung and skin diseases caused as an allergic reaction by the dead matter in large quantities of duckweed.

Studies carried out by marine biologists have found that the problem is not eliminating the lemna itself, since what it does is consume the excess fertilizers spilled in the lake, but rather that the root problem must be attacked, achieving non-polluting alternatives that can be used by the region's agricultural industry.

Another polluting factor is that the lake is used as a garbage dump and sewage drain from the city by the inhabitants of Maracaibo, Cabimas and the surrounding towns around Lake Maracaibo. A solution to this problem would be the creation of treatment plants to filter the sewage before discharging it into the Lake in order to provide a less polluted water quality. Another solution would be to treat the lake by reverse osmosis, however, this treatment is quite expensive.

Demographics

Maracaibo was founded by around 30 families, and during a visit by Bishop Mariano Martí in 1774, 10,312 inhabitants were counted, in 1,283 houses. The municipality has 1,459,448 inhabitants according to the latest Population and Housing Census of the National Statistics Institute for 2011.

Figure of Maracaibo demographic evolution between 1774 and 2011

Population according to the "Regional Geographical Direction Zulia".Population according to the work "Studies on the population of the city of Maracaibo".Population according to the 1936 census.Population according to the encyclopedic collection GeoVenezuela by Pedro Cunill Grau, Chapter 24, metropolitan areas.Population according to the 2011 population census of the National Institute of Statistics of Venezuela.

Metropolitan Area

Due to its great growth decades ago to become an important point of the national economy, Maracaibo has taken precedence over several of its surrounding municipalities due to its extension towards them due to the amount of population that currently lives in it, The city as such is located in the Maracaibo Municipality, but with its extension it has taken a geographical part of municipalities such as San Francisco, in which different areas of the city extend and also takes an important area of influence in Municipalities such as; Mara, Jesús Enrique Lossada, La Cañada de Urdaneta among the closest, while it also maintains a certain hierarchy over Municipalities such as; Cabimas, Lagunillas, Miranda, Santa Rita and Simón Bolívar.

The population of the urban area of the city is 2 million people, while counting its neighboring municipalities and the members of its agglomeration, it exceeds 2.3 million inhabitants, making it the 2nd most populous city in Venezuela and one of the main agglomerations in Latin America.

Panorama de Maracaibo

Ethnic composition

At the beginning of the oil era that arose in this region, the population was made up mainly of Spanish settlers and their descendants, with a high incidence of mestizo people (a mix between Europeans and indigenous peoples) that occurred as a result of the arrival of the Europeans to Venezuelan lands, linking these to the native settlers of the different regions of the country, who were divided into different groups and ethnic groups, but all were indigenous colonies.

After a few decades and the events of the First World War and the Second World War, immigrants from different parts of Europe and the world arrived in the city and its geographical space. The main groups came from countries such as: Spain, Italy, Portugal and, to a lesser extent, but still important, from: Lebanon, Germany, Poland, Switzerland and Hungary, among others.

Asian and regional migration was also important in the population of the city, and there were important groups of populations coming from: Colombia, Argentina, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Peru, China, Japan, India and Syria, among others.

Currently,^{[citation needed]} with a totally diversified population and mixed and diverse heritage, the population has different particular characteristics (traditions, cultures, religions, beliefs) that give a different tone to each of the groups that arrived in the nation from times before the present, also dividing into different ethnic groups, among which each one was commonly identified by the following groups:

• White: 55.0%
• Mestizos: 35.5%
• Black/afrodescendants: 2.0%
• Amerindians: 1.2%
• Other (Eastern, Asian, Arab, Gypsies): 6.3%

Government and politics

The Municipality of Maracaibo is currently made up of 18 parishes, which are:

Idelfonso Vásquez Venancio Pulgar Antonio Borjas Romero San Isidro Francisco Eugenio Bustamante Luis Hurtado Higuera Manuel Dagnino Christ of Aranza Cecilio Acosta Cacique Mara Raúl Leoni Caracciolo Parra Pérez Chiquinquirá Juana de Ávila Coquivacoa Olegario Villalobos Bolívar SantaLucía

Political Division of Maracaibo Parish Antonio Borjas Romero Bolívar Cacique Mara Caracciolo Parra Pérez Cecilio Acosta Chiquinquirá Coquivacoa Christ of Aranza Francisco Eugenio Bustamante Idelfonso Vásquez Juana de Ávila Luis Hurtado Higuera Manuel Dagnino Olegario Villalobos Raúl Leoni San Isidro Venancio Pulgar

The municipality of Maracaibo constitutes a local entity that enjoys autonomy; It is the most populated and important municipality of the Zulia state, of which it constitutes its capital. Since the reforms made to the Organic Law of Municipal Regime between 1988 and 1989, it was allowed to directly elect the mayor (local executive power), in addition to the Municipal Council, which constitutes the local legislative power.

Municipal executive branch

With the reforms initiated between 1988 and 1989, the direct election of the mayors of the municipality of Maracaibo was allowed by the vote of the citizens: It is represented by 3 levels at the territorial level. municipal, state, and national. executes the decisions of the public power, governs and administers the state, complies with and enforces the laws, in addition to proposing laws

Economy

Growth

Maracaibo was established more than four centuries ago, however, its growth was slow due to the fact that the city offered little to satisfy foreigners, and due to the constant harassment of the aborigines to all those who populated the city, not counting the numerous attacks received by pirates. All these factors influenced so that the population of Maracaibo grew late in relation to the rest of the Venezuelan towns. Even in the year 1531, during the first foundation of the city, its activity was almost nil, for which Nicolás Federmann ordered the transfer of its population in 1535 to present-day Colombia.

However, the insistence on the foundation of a town where Maracaibo is located today denotes the prospects of creating a port center in this place. The marabina topography is not favorable or attractive for the population, but its strategic geographical situation helped it as a point of population development, managing to prosper until it assumed control of western Venezuela and creating a country dependency on its hinterland, Zulia State.

Today, Maracaibo is the headquarters of many companies at a regional, national and international level, as well as the founding place of the first Private Bank of Venezuela, Banco de Maracaibo, which disappeared and its position in the region is occupied by Banco Occidental. de Descuento (BOD), which is headquartered in Maracaibo.

Main headquarters of the Ministry of People's Power of Oil and Mining.

Coffee and oil

Former Mene Grande Oil Company building.

The city did not acquire importance until 1876, when the port of Maracaibo became the export center for coffee from the Colombian-Venezuelan Andean region, an activity that continued until 1917, the date on which coffee was discovered. Oil on the Eastern Shore of Lake Maracaibo. The blowout of the Barroso 2 well in 1922 revealed the great hydrocarbon potential in the Lake Maracaibo basin, and in particular the Costanero Bolívar field, one of the largest internationally. Maracaibo became one of the world oil capitals and a massive migration of families of both Venezuelan and foreign origin began, who settled both in Maracaibo and in other smaller towns in Zulia State.

Large transnational corporations had their offices in Maracaibo including Royal Dutch Shell, Standard Oil of New Jersey (Creole Petroleum Corporation), Standard Oil Company of New York (Socony), Gulf Oil, Standard Oil of California (Chevron), Mobil Oil, Pan American Petroleum, Texaco, Sinclair and Occidental as well as national companies such as CVP, Petrolera Mito Juan, Talon Petroleum among others. On January 1, 1976, the national government nationalized the oil industry and when PDVSA was created as the parent company, the majority subsidiaries Maraven, S.A., Lagoven, S.A. and Corpoven, S.A. they kept their operational offices in Maracaibo. In 1997, PDVSA decided to make a change in its functional structure, eliminating the figure of the operating subsidiaries and integrating the activities that all of them carried out separately in the areas of exploration, production, marketing, services and gas production. In its place, a new operating structure based on business units was established. As a consequence, the subsidiaries ceased operations on December 31, 1997 and all of their assets became directly controlled by their parent company PDVSA, renaming the combined entity as PDVSA Petróleo y Gas, S.A.

Present

Dawn in the City.

In the city there are examples of colonial architecture and museums. In the center of the city is the Basilica of Our Lady of Chiquinquirá, patron saint of Zulia, affectionately called La Chinita. To this image of the Virgin every November 18 all her faithful worship massively, who deposit their offerings for wishes fulfilled or for promises made, offerings that are generally gold jewelry and precious stones.

The stilt houses became houses, and the houses became buildings. Urban and commercial growth was massive after the discovery of oil in Zulia. Currently, the urban area reaches 176 km² and the rural area 217 km². The unusual development of the city, from the discovery, extraction and industrialization of oil, brought as a consequence the problem of the contamination of Lake Maracaibo.

Transportation

Although the public transport system in the city is usually deficient in terms of service quality and availability, there are urban routes that cover almost the entirety of the city. There is what is known as the "carritos por posto", which are a modality in disuse in almost the entire country, but which persevere given the demand of the population. These are vehicles for six passengers (including the driver), which cover specific routes and in which tickets are canceled in the style of a bus unit. Each route has two fares: a short one and a long one depending on the route to be traveled by each passenger. There are also numerous bus transport routes that run through the city and that converge at stops located mostly in the vicinity of the central area. For tourist routes there is a chain of trams that visit the points of interest in the city.

Airports and ports

Facade of La Chinita International Airport.

Maracaibo Metro arriving at Sabaneta Station

Maracaibo has the La Chinita International Airport, located very close to the city and with destinations to the rest of the country and other countries in America. The Rafael Urdaneta Air Base of the Venezuelan Air Force also operates at the airport facilities, where the Special Operations Air Group No. 15 is located, equipped with OV-10 (Broncos) aircraft to guard the nation's border.. The city has the third most important port in the country in terms of cargo volume, the port of Maracaibo.

International airports connected to La Chinita International Airport

City	Airport
Panama	International Airport of Tocumen
Santo Domingo	International Airport of the Americas

Subway

The Maracaibo Metro was inaugurated in a pre-operational manner (the first two stations, Altos de la Vanega and El Varillal) on November 25, 2006.

In August 2007, station El Guayabal was put into service, and in May 2008 station number 4 (Sabaneta) was put into operation; by 2009, 6 stations were inaugurated, which allows the economical and safe transfer of people from the Altos de la Vanega sector to the center of the city.

Culture

Baralt Theatre.

Basilica of Our Lady of Chiquinquirá

Monument to the Chinita.

Their music, the Zulian bagpipe, which is traditionally heard during the Christmas season, which begins very early, with the lighting of Bella Vista avenue and the lighting of the angel of protection, a few days before La Chinita Festival. The Zulian bagpipe transcends what is strictly Zulian and has become Christmas music in Venezuela. The Baralt theater was the first stage where a motion picture was shown in the country, on July 11, 1896. Maracaibo was culturally separated from the rest of the country for geographical and historical reasons. The people of Maracaibo received Andalusian influence from the conquistadors and apply the voseo —instead of usted, or tú— for everyday speech. Thus, the voseo, the fast speaking and the strong tone, produced a particular style of communication that today is a "brand of origin" for who speaks it. "What was it, how are you?", is heard on the streets of the city.

Later, other cultures such as Italian and German arrived at the end of the XIX century. In 1962 the General Rafael Urdaneta bridge was inaugurated and land communication with the rest of the country ceased to depend on the Machiques-Colón highway and the limited ferries that passed vehicles from one coast to the other. There are also very important non-Catholic religious communities that have taken root in the city, for example, Protestant groups such as Presbyterians, Baptists and Pentecostals, as well as Jews and Muslims, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, among others. Evangelical temples such as the Iglesia Evangélica del Salvador, the Iglesia Cristiana Evangélica Pentecostal de la Cruz and Christ Church, the San Pablo temple, are already part of the historical and architectural heritage of the city.

This, together with the oil boom that began in 1914, came to shape a new Maracaibo, with migrations of Venezuelans coming mainly from Margarita, Los Andes and Falcón, who sought better living conditions with the Petroleum.

Maracaibo is the city with the highest rate of automobile accidents per capita in Latin America ^{[citation required]}. Attempts have been made to solve this by placing traffic lights, speed bumps (popularly called policemen lying down) and then ground transit personnel (the institution in charge of safeguarding public roads in Venezuela) to create a culture of good management.

Among other things that are traditionally important in Zulian culture, there is the Chinita Fair, a celebration that lasts from November 17 to 19, in honor of the apparition of the Virgin of Chiquinquirá.

Gastronomy

Duck.

The traditional gastronomy of Maracaibo is included within Venezuelan cuisine in general and Zulia gastronomy in particular. It is characterized by having a cultural mix inherited from the indigenous, African and European people who occupied and still occupy these lands, in the same way this mix is also observed in the different native dishes of the region such as goat in coconut, seafood casserole, mojito in coconut, escabeche costeño, rice with popcorn, bald buns, lake plantain, the Creole pavilion, cakes, arepas, cachapas, fried fish, paledonian sweets and patacón, the latter the most emblematic of the area.

The main typical desserts of the city are the sweet from Paledonia, popularly called catalina; mandoca, made of cornmeal, paper and cheese, hicacos, lemon juice, large lemon dessert in syrup, chimbo eggs, sour milk, guava shell, sweets in syrup such as milky, among others.

Cultural and historical heritage

Catatumbo lightning.

Calle Carabobo in Saladillo, Maracaibo

The Institute of Cultural Heritage of Venezuela and the Rafael Urdaneta Center attached to the State Government have identified several heritage assets in the city of Maracaibo.

In the Manzanillo sector there is a lithic deposit considered one of the oldest megafauna hunting sites in the Lake Maracaibo basin.

Several museums and collections have been declared national cultural heritage sites, including the Balmiro León museum and the Acervo Histórico, both in the Maracaibo City Hall building.

Among the monumental sculptures were sculptures from the Plaza Bolívar in the center of the city, and some of the works that were previously in the Paseo Ciencias, and among the urban sites there is the Calle de la Tradición or Calle Carabobo, the Barrio Santa Lucía or El Empedrao and Colonia Las Delicias.

Among the religious buildings are the temples of Santa Ana, San Francisco, Santa Bárbara and San Felipe Neri, the Cathedral of San Pedro and San Pablo, the Chapel of Santo Cristo de Aranza and the Basilica of Our Lady of Chiquinquirá and San Juan de Dios; and among the civilians are the Zulia State Legislative Assembly, the Morales House, the Antiguo Mercado de Maracaibo, the Baralt Theater, the Government Palace and Banco Mara.

The Centro de Bellas Artes is the headquarters of the Maracaibo Symphony Orchestra, one of the most important musical institutions in Latin America, declared Artistic Heritage of the Nation in 1983.

As part of the celebration of the 492 years of the founding of the city, the funeral remains and cenotaphs of Ambrosio Alfinger were transferred, which were located in the municipality of Chinácota, department of northern Santander de la República of Colombia and were transferred to be buried at El Cuadrado Grafen von Luxburg Cemetery Fursten zu Carolath-Beuthen und Prinzen von Schoenaich-Carolath, the short name El Cuadrado Luxburg-Carolath in the City of Maracaibo Zulia State of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela The act of transfer that was carried out under the name of "OUR DEPARTED LIVE-AMBROCIO ALFINGER". This project was carried out jointly between the Colombian Catholic Churches and the Grafen von Luxburg Fursten zu Carolath-Beuthen und Prinzen von Schoenaich-Carolath Foundation.

During the celebration of the Ecclesiastical Act in memory of the souls of those who died during the conquest and colonization of the American continent as a reconciliation act between the original natives and the Europeans, the mass was held for the first time in history in the Basilica of Our Lady of Chiquinquirá, and later they took the ecclesiastical relics. Funeral and cenotaphic relics of Ambrosio Alfinger were taken to the resting place in El Cuadrado Luxburg-Carolath Cemetery. The corresponding funeral protocols were carried out according to the regulations in the Bolívar prefecture of the city of Maracaibo.

Ambrosio Alfinger, governor and captain general of the province of Venezuela and as such would found the first Maracaibo with the name of Neu-Nürnberg on September 8, 1529.

Sister cities

Maracaibo is twinned with the following cities:

Sports

Maracaibo has a baseball stadium with a capacity of 25,000 spectators^{[citation required]}, which is home to one of the most traditional baseball teams Venezuelan professional, the Águilas del Zulia, which are based in the Luis Aparicio "El Grande" stadium, which owes its name to one of the most remembered Venezuelan baseball players of all time, Luis Aparicio Ortega, father of the world-renowned Luis Aparicio "El Junior", the only Venezuelan member of the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame, also born in Maracaibo. Likewise, it has two national soccer clubs, the Zulia Fútbol Club and Deportivo JBL del Zulia that play in the José Encarnación Romero Stadium, a stadium that also housed the extinct Unión Atlético Maracaibo. In basketball there is the Zulia Pipers team whose home is the Pedro Elías Belisario Aponte Gymnasium. The city has the rugby clubs Maracaibo Rugby Football Club and Zulianos Rugby Football Club. Also with a softball team called the Toros del Zulia that participates in the special softball league.

View of the José Encarnación Romero stadium during a match of the Copa América Venezuela 2007.

Predecessor: Quito and Guayaquil	Bolivarian Republic 1970	Successor: Panama City
Predecessor: Ambato, Cuenca and Portoviejo	Bolivarian Republic 1989	Successor: Santa Cruz de la Sierra y Cochabamba
Predecessor: Ponce	Central American and Caribbean City 1998	Successor: San Salvador

Media

The city of Maracaibo is home to one of the newspapers with the largest circulation in Venezuela and the second most read (Panorama), it has the largest number of active radio stations in both bands and numerous magazine publications. It also has almost a dozen television channels, among which Canal 11 del Zulia and Televiza stand out.