Military expenditures - dollar figure:
$934 million (FY99)
Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
0.9% (FY99)
Transnational Issues Venezuela
Disputes - international:
claims all of Guyana west of the Essequibo River; maritime boundary
dispute with Colombia in the Gulf of Venezuela and the Caribbean
Sea; US, France and the Netherlands recognize Venezuela's claim to
give full effect to Aves Island, which creates a Venezuelan
EEZ/continental shelf extending over a large portion of the
Caribbean Sea; Dominica, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, and
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines protest the claim and other states'
recognition of it
Illicit drugs:
small-scale illicit producer of opium and coca for the processing
of opiates and coca derivatives; however, large quantities of
cocaine, heroin, and marijuana transit the country from Colombia
bound for US and Europe; significant narcotics-related
money-laundering activity, especially along the border with Colombia
and on Margarita Island; active eradication program primarily
targeting opium; increasing signs of drug-related activities by
Colombian insurgents on border
This page was last updated on 18 December, 2003
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@Vietnam
Introduction Vietnam
Background:
France occupied all of Vietnam by 1884. Independence was declared
after World War II, but the French continued to rule until 1954 when
they were defeated by Communist forces under Ho Chi MINH, who took
control of the North. US economic and military aid to South Vietnam
grew through the 1960s in an attempt to bolster the government, but
US armed forces were withdrawn following a cease-fire agreement in
1973. Two years later, North Vietnamese forces overran the South.
Economic reconstruction of the reunited country has proven difficult
as aging Communist Party leaders have only grudgingly initiated
reforms necessary for a free market.