Short answers, pulled from the story.
Amerigo Vespucci named the region Veneziola or Little Venice in 1499 after observing stilt houses built by the Timoto-Cuica people over Lake Maracaibo that reminded him of Venice, Italy. The name evolved from the native word Veneciuela mentioned by Martín Fernández de Enciso to the modern state of Venezuela.
Venezuela gained full sovereignty after the Battle of Lake Maracaibo on the 24th of July 1823 and remained part of Gran Colombia until the 22nd of September 1830 when a rebellion led by José Antonio Páez proclaimed a newly independent Venezuela.
The collapse of oil prices during the 1980s crippled the economy after the government nationalized oil industries in 1976 and began devaluing the currency in 1983 to face financial obligations. This led to dramatically falling standards of living and the Caracazo riots of 1989 which killed hundreds of people.
More than 7.9 million people have fled the country creating one of the largest refugee crises in modern history as the crisis contributed to a rapidly deteriorating human rights situation. This exodus occurred alongside high levels of crime corruption hyperinflation and chronic scarcity of basic goods.
Venezuela is located in the north of South America between latitudes 0° and 16°N and longitudes 59° and 74°W with four main topographical regions including the Maracaibo lowlands northern mountains wide plains and the Guiana Highlands. The northern mountains are the extreme northeastern extensions of South America's Andes mountain range and the Guiana Highlands contain the northern fringes of the Amazon Basin and Angel Falls.