Venezuela States

Venezuela runs from the Andes and Lake Maracaibo in the west, across the plains of the Orinoco, to the Guiana Highlands and the delta in the east. The state is the unit that settles a round there, because it tells you which of those landscapes you are in before it tells you anything else.

The quiz: Name to place, on the map
Grouped by: Administrative region: the nine Venezuela plans by
In the game: 25 states

Start

What you are looking at

The first tier of Venezuela: its states (estados), the Capital District (Distrito Capital) around Caracas and the Federal Dependencies (Dependencias Federales), the Caribbean islands that belong to no state. La Guaira is the coastal state north of Caracas that used to be called Vargas.

The map is lopsided. Bolívar and Amazonas fill the whole south east, a third of the country, while the north coast packs a dozen small states and the capital into a strip a few hundred kilometres long. Nueva Esparta is the island state of Margarita, Coche and Cubagua, and the Federal Dependencies are scattered along the coast out to Los Roques and Los Testigos.

The groups are the nine administrative regions that Venezuela uses for planning. The map is the territory Venezuela administers: the Guayana Esequiba it claims from Guyana is not drawn.

How to place one

Start with Bolívar. It is the big state in the south east, with Amazonas to its west on the Brazilian border.
Find Zulia. It wraps Lake Maracaibo in the north west, next to Colombia.
Read the coast as a line. From Falcón on the Paraguaná peninsula, east through Carabobo, Aragua, La Guaira, the Capital District and Miranda to Sucre on the Paria peninsula.
Read the plains as a block. Apure, Barinas, Guárico and Monagas sit between the Andes and the Orinoco.

Every state, by region

Guayana3 states: Amazonas, Bolívar, Delta Amacuro
Los Andes4 states: Barinas, Mérida, Táchira, Trujillo
Capital3 states: Distrito Capital, La Guaira, Miranda
Zuliana1 state: Zulia
Los Llanos2 states: Apure, Guárico
Nor-Oriental3 states: Anzoátegui, Monagas, Sucre
Centro-Occidental4 states: Falcón, Lara, Portuguesa, Yaracuy
Insular2 states: Dependencias Federales, Nueva Esparta
Central3 states: Aragua, Carabobo, Cojedes

Worked examples

Bolívar

The biggest of them

Bolívar is the largest state by a wide margin, holding the Guiana Highlands, Angel Falls and most of the country's mining and hydropower.

Distrito Capital

The small one that is the capital

The Capital District is a sliver of valley on the coast, holding the city of Caracas proper. The metropolitan area spills across it into Miranda, which is why the two are easily confused.