The origin of the name Maracaibo is controversial. Although these facts are duly documented in historical records, ​ ​ details are scarce and ambiguous, and have generated various interpretations, to such an extent that the same historical source is cited contradictively in more recent texts ​

Some historians simply mention that, at the time of the city's first founding, the German conqueror Ambrosio Alfinger chose the name Maracaibo or Maracaybo in honor of a "main indigenous" or chief of the area of the mouth of the lake. ​ other sources give this character a great leadership and an emblematic importance in the region, even though the data on the extent of his domains are ambiguous. ​

An alternative version of the etymology claims that the city's name originated when Chief Mara died in battle, a young, sharp leader who from one of the islands of the lake (island of Providence) offered resistance to European troops from Ambrosio Alfinger. According to this story, after Mara's death, the Spanish shouted "Mara cayo", a phrase referring to the place where the aforementioned cacique would have been defeated. ​Several historians claim that this story is a myth, that the name Cacique Mara or Indio Mara does not appear on any historical record, and that none of these facts are documented in original and reliable sources. ​ Mara and Maracaibo's stories are more likely to correspond to the same historical character, of which there are few documented details and many speculations.

Despite the contradictions, the myth of Cacique Mara has been widely shared on popular media, to the extent that it has become official as an emblem of indigenous resistance in the region. This character is evoked in various spiritual rites (associated with María Lionza's cult and the heavenly courts), but allegorical monuments such as a statue and a square in the city have also been erected, and commemorative events such as Day of Indigenous Resistance (October 12, formerly RazaDay) are dedicated ) and is used in various awards and awards. Even one of the municipalities of Zulia state is named after him (Mara Township).

The few references to the meaning of the word Maracaibo associate it with a place name, rather than a person's name. In fact, there are references about the existence of an indigenous ranchery close to the site where Alfínger would be based, and there is even the possibility that Alfínger could usurp this land for the founding of the village of Maracaibo. ​ Despite the absence of linguistic studies of the original inhabitants, several authors have ventured interpretations of the possible meaning of the word Maracaibo in indigenous languages (probably) derived from languages currently used in the zone, or by historical references). Suggested interpretations include Maara-iwo, meaning "place where snakes abound", or Maare kaye, meaning "place facing the sea", ​ also mentioned Garra de la tigre or rivers of parrots​ (these are the most popular ones).

Pre-Hispanic times

Archeological research confirms the aboriginal presence in barbecue soils fifteen thousand years before Christ. Archeological revelations by Cruxent and Rouse reveal fossils of ceramic objects, stony artifacts, shell manufactures, funeral boxes and metal ornamentations demonstrating the presence of the millenarian Aboriginal Maracaiberber ancestors. It is known that some 20 indigenous partialities who lived in the basin of Lake Maracaibo inhabited, among which were: wayúus, baris, añúes, yukpas and japries. However, little is known of the first inhabitants of marabino soils; there were no indications that would allow us to know how they were, only a few villagers who were evicted by the aboriginal people who found the spanish in their conquest to America. ​ it is believed that there were numerous groups in and around the lake basin, part of the great Caribe, Chibcha and Arahuaca families, which came from various regions of what is now America, ​ time when the palafitos were characteristic of the indigenous population of Maracaibo, and the Zulia in general. They were divided into two major groups, the Arawaks or Arauacos, a race that was initially a farmer, with a culture that was ahead of that of the rest of Venezuela's indigenous people, and the Caribs, a ferocious race, with numerous warriors and sailors.

At the time of the European contact there was a great heterogeneity of indigenous ethnicities in Venezuelan territory, which were subsequently enslaved. It was the societies that European conquerors found when they arrived in Venezuela, which could range from egalitarian tribal groups, nomadic societies, to evolved cacicists.

In the territory of the current state of Zulia two ethnic groups from the Arawaks were present and well differentiated; Andean ethnicity; and the Wayúu ethnicity, differentiated by their way of subsistence. The Wayúu engaged in trade, sowing and grazing, while the Years spread across the entire bank of Maracaibo, differentiating linguistically and naming themselves with a word that for some means people, and, for others, water men. The oldest written reference of this town dates back to the chroniclers' accounts that they were settled on the western coast of Lake Maracaibo.

There they established themselves, constituting their homes, in the network of palpites that provided them with safe harbor and housing, so Santa Rosa de Agua was born, north of Maracaibo. ​

Foundation

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

First version of the shield with the real attributes, according to Discrezión de la Lagoon de la Ciudad de Maracaibo from the Archive of Indias.

The history of the founding of Maracaibo has been subject to historical divergences stemming from the fact that there were several characters and times when an actual settlement was attempted. The first European approach to this area was carried out by Alonso de Ojeda, on August 24, 1499, who discovered Lake Maracaibo together with Juan de la Cosa and Amerian Vespucio.

They are credited with the name of Venezuela when they evoked Venice when they saw that the inhabitants lived in palpites on the lake and that people moved from one place to another through small wooden bridges and canoes. The city of Maracaibo was founded three times. The first, on September 8, 1529, by the German Ambrosio Ehinger (Castellanized as Alfinger), conqueror of the Welser family of Augsburg and first governor of the Province of Venezuela under the name Neu Nürenberg ​ (New Nuremberg in German) ​ who left on expedition from Coro, capital at that time of the province.

The settlement was given the name of village of Maracaibo since at the time of its founding, it was not a village that bestowed upon it the character of a city. The German Welser documents bear the name Neu-Nürnberg. ​ Alfínger's foundation is likely to be in the vicinity or on the remains of an indigenous settlement (or ranchery). ​ This first foundation had a population of just 30 neighbors and almost no activity, and the German conquistador Nicolás Federmann ordered to move his population into the country. 1535 at the end of la Vela (now part of Colombia) in the Guajira Peninsula.

In 1569, after having subdued the indigenous people of the lake zone in the last two years (1569-1571), the Spanish conquistador Alonso Pacheco founded the town of 'Ciudad Rodrigo' on the shores of Lake Maracaibo (eventually known as Maracaibo). After a couple of years, however, the indigenous population rebuilt and the Spanish settlement had to be briefly abandoned, resulting in a subsequent foundation in 1574. By 1573 Governor Diego de Mazariegos had decided to restore the population by entrusting Captain Pedro Maldonado with that task. And so in 1574 the city was refounded under the name of Nueva Zamora de la Laguna de Maracaibo (for the third and last time), in honor of Governor Mazariegos, from the city of Zamora, Spain. ​

The Pirate Cycle

Between 1614 and 1678, pirates attacked Maracaibo and other Spanish settlements in Lake Maracaibo. These constant harassment has slowed the economic development of the area, which has not only been repeatedly looted, but has also invested numerous resources in building defensive elements such as barracks, a castle and towers that have not achieved their task ​ 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.

Dutch corsair 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 term for pirates. In 1665, Jean David Nau, a.k.a. the Olonés, attacked Maracaibo and between 1666 and 1669 Miguel El Vascongado, Albert van Eyck and Henry Morgan, a Welsh. Finally, in 1678, the French Michel de Grandmont storms the city and the villages of the south of the lake, entering mainland to Trujillo.

Virreinal period

Maracaibo Main Square in the 19th Century

During the first years of its existence, Maracaibo served as a very important gateway 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 depended first on Coro, and then on Merida. In 1777, Maracaibo became a governmental and military officer of the General Capitania of Venezuela, based in Caracas, and a judicial officer of the Royal Audience of Santo Domingo.

Independence and the Republic

The Zulia State Legislative Palace has been 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 the slogan "Very Noble and Leal" to the shield of Maracaibo. The Spanish governors, who are under patriotic control, moved the government of the General Capitania of Venezuela to Maracaibo. In contrast to the monarchical position of the province, General Rafael Urdaneta was one of the main leaders of the patriotic camp. In 1821, there was an uprising for independence in the Maracaibo barracks, which broke the armistice and restarted hostilities in the war that would lead to the second battle in Carabobo. In Maracaibo, the realists 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, which was fought on July 24, 1823 in front of the Bay of Tablazo and was the same last of Venezuela's war of independence. Morales, the last Spanish ruler, capitulated in the Casa de Morales, a house that is still preserved in Maracaibo and that is an emblematic museum of the city.

Commercial and cultural flourishing

Casa Mac Gregor, Venezuela's first department store. Photo from 1893.

By its location Maracaibo was the port of exit of goods from the Andes and the western Venezuelan 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 coffee and cocoa crops, bought the harvest, and brought it to Europe. The coffee companies, mainly German, like the Brewer Möller & Co., grinded coffee grain in Maracaibo before boarding it to the port of Hamburg. Trade brought prosperity to the city that enjoyed modern services such as telephone (1879), ​ tram (1883) and electricity (1888) before other cities in Venezuela and Latin America. The first department store in the country, Casa Mac Gregor, founded by the Lithuanian businessman Emilio Mac Gregor Novoa in 1892, was also born in this avant-garde environment. ​ Maracaibo also showed a cultural flourishing, when the Baralt Theater (1883) was inaugurated, the magazine El Zulia Ilulia was edited strado (1888) and the Universidad del Zulia (1891) was opened, in addition to being the cradle of great literati such as Udón Pérez and Jesús Enrique Lossada.

Oil season

Baralt Square in 1930.

Rafael Urdaneta General Bridge inaugurated August 24, 1962.

In 1906 Antonio Aranguren got 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 continued unabated for years, making Maracaibo in the first half of the 20th century an important center of world oil marketing, and Venezuela the world's first oil-exporting country, a position that it held for almost 50 years. Maracaibo then became the headquarters of the big oil companies that settled in the Zulia, and oil displaced coffee as the main export product. The Spanish flu epidemic in 1918 caused great damage to the population. In 1923 the first seaplane landed in Maracaibo and in 1929 the airport of Grano de Oro was inaugurated. Part of the new image of the city was due to the contribution of architect León Hoet, who built the new municipal market (now Lía Bermúdez museum), refurbished the Baralt theater, and built the old prison among other Art Deco-style buildings, in the late 20s and early 1930s. After the death of dictator Juan Vicente Gómez on February 14, 1936, El Bloque Nacional Democrático, founded in Maracaibo, published its first Manifesto and Program. Among its members: Isidro Valles, Valmore Rodríguez, Rafael Echeverría, Felipe Hernández, Elio Montiel, Spartaco González, Olga Luzardo, Aníbal Mestre Fuenmayor, etc. In 1942 the church San Juan de Dios was elevated to the lesser basilica, adopted its current form and the virgin of Chiquinquira was crowned patrona of the church Zulia. New neighborhoods and urbanizations were built, such as the Ziruma neighborhood (Wayuú colony) and Las Delicias (Shell oil field), as well as other infrastructure such as the Olympic stadium in 1945 (now Alejandro Borges) and the Clean Racecourse (where Galerías Mall is currently located). The University of Zulia, closed in 1902 by the government of Cipriano Castro, was re-opened in 1946 with Jesus 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 was inaugurated on August 24, 1962 by President Romulus Betancourt. With a length of 8.67 km, it was for several years the longest bridge in the world of its kind and remains one of the largest armed concrete structures on the planet.

Contemporary era

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

• On September 5, 2017, the National Telecommunications Commission (Conatel) ordered the stop broadcasting of Radio Fe and Alegría 88.1FM in Maracaibo. ​
• On Friday, August 10, 2018, there was a power failure that left much of the city without power for more than 144 hours. ​

Between March and April 2019, several nationwide blackouts that affected the city, several attempted looting of supermarkets and ​ shopping centers, demonstrations erupted in different parts of Maracaibo over the lack of ​ power and water, while the so-called collectives threatened the communities. ​

Location of Maracaibo

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

The relief of the city is almost flat, its varied vegetation goes from savannah vegetation in the surroundings of Lake Maracaibo, passing by xerophyll in almost all the territory.

Maracaibo is located on the outskirts 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 square as the most important city in Venezuela and be the third port of the country.

Maracaibo Area View

Climate

Maracaibo, widely known as La Tierra Del Sol Amada in reference to the poem by the famous marabino author Rafael María Baralt, (Work: Farewell to the Motherland; 1843) title that has been disseminated as it is associated with its sunny climate almost the whole year. It is one of the cities in Venezuela that has the highest temperatures: it has a warm climate, only tempered by the moderating influence of the lake, from which trade winds enter. The average temperature of historical records is 28.7 °C. ​

Average climatic parameters of Maracaibo
Month	Jan.	Feb.	Sea.	Apr.	May.	Jun.	July.	Aug.	Sep.	Oct.	Nov.	Dec.	Annual
Temp. max. Aps. (°C)	38	40	40	39	40	39	39	39	39	38	37	38	45.4
Temp. max. mean (°C)	33.1	33.3	33.7	33.5	33.5	34.0	34.6	34.7	34.0	32.8	32.9	32.9	33.6
Temp. mean (°C)	27.0	27.5	28.1	28.3	28.5	28.7	29.0	29.1	28.6	27.7	27.8	27.3	28.7
Temp. min. mean (°C)	22.0	22.5	23.5	24.2	24.2	24.1	24.1	24.0	23.9	23.4	23.3	22.4	23.5
Temp. min. Aps. (°C)	17	19	18	18	18	20	19	17	19	18	20	19	17
Total precipitation (mm)	3.6	1.2	8.4	26.2	70.3	50.0	39.5	53.6	63.0	123.0	75.7	15.3	529.8
Rainy days (≥ 1 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
Sun Hours	300	279	286	257	243	253	301	279	272	283	258	273	3,284
Relative humidity (%)	83	82	83	89	92	93	86	86	94	94	92	89	88.6
Source: Airport Stations / La Cañada / The Wells; by INAMEH. Data collected over a period of 79 years from 1927 to 2006. ​

The area of Maracaibo has one of the highest levels of per capita electricity consumption in Latin America, because the architecture that has dominated the city since the last 40 years does not adapt to the climatic characteristics of a tropical-coastal city, which leads to the use of large centralized air conditioning systems to make the environments closed, all at a huge economic and environmental cost unsustainable over time.

In the past, the city's climate, as well as along the entire coast of Lake Maracaibo, was unhealthy due to the combination of high temperatures and high humidity, with the area being a major breeding site for mosquito pests. Today, the effects of urbanization and pest control have almost eradicated this disease.

Fauna and flora

The city of Maracaibo is located in the biogegraphic province of the same name, which is characterized by several species of native trees such as Curarire and la Vera. ​ ​ Within the city, at least 133 species of ornamental trees have been recorded, among them the Apamate and the Cuji yaque as native species, and the nim among the exotic species Ethics. ​

Nim has been cultivated since 1997 with the aim of reducing the high temperatures present almost all year round. This tree has the main characteristic of sustaining high temperatures and growing without much water, as well as producing a large amount of shade, rapid growth relative to native species. But this tree has been blamed for the disappearance of bird species, because it's a toxic tree for species in the region, leaving them sterile. He has even been attributed to human deaths due to consumption of this plant with a high level of toxicity.^{[citation required]}

At least 11 amphibian species, 24 reptiles and more than 50 butterfly species have been recorded within the protective zone of the city. ​ ​ ​ ​

Pollution of Maracaibo Lake

Lake Maracaibo waters contaminated by various human wastes.

The development of the Zulian region also brought with it an over-exploitation of the lake of Maracaibo unscrupulously to such an extent that it is now almost completely contaminated. Oil exploitation with countless oil spills that have occurred inside the lake due to mechanical damage that has engulfed large-caliber ships, has covered the bottom of the lake in a black dye that is very visible especially on the shores where you can see rocks completely covered by this sticky substance, oil.

Around the lake there are many crops of diverse agricultural products that stretch into areas of hundreds of thousands of hectares that are completely visible from space; most of these areas for production use pesticides and fertilizers that are then dumped into Lake Maracaibo, leaving a huge sequel and influenced the emergence of Lemna obscure aquatic lentil ​ which uses these residual fertilizers for its growth in an uncontrolled way. Since its emergence, the problem of lemna every year in months of drought that is when it comes has been increasing progressively, measuring in the last observations 1870 km², 15 % of the lake surface. ​

Lemna near Rafael Urdaneta Bridge

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

Studies by marine biologists have pointed out that the problem is not to eliminate the lemna itself, as it is to consume the excess fertilizers spilled into the lake, but that the root problem must be tackled by obtaining clean alternatives that can be used by the agricultural industry in the region.

Another polluting factor is that the lake is used as a dustbin and sewage drain from the city by the inhabitants of Maracaibo, Cabimas and the surrounding villages around the lake of Maracaibo. One solution to this problem would be to create treatment plants to filter black water before it is poured over 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.

Maracaibo was founded by about 30 families, and on a visit by the Mariano Bishop Martí, in 1774, 10,312 inhabitants were counted, in 1,283 houses. ​ In 1810, Maracaibo had about 43,000 inhabitants, essentially Spanish, ​ and amounted to 11 0,000 inhabitants in 1936, ​ 218,682 in 1949, ​ 1,372,724 in 2000, ​ 1,835,494 in 2007, and a population of 2,835,494 212,040 inhabitants in 2012. ​

Metropolitan Area

Due to its great growth decades ago for becoming an important point of the national economy, Maracaibo has taken precedence over several of its neighboring municipalities because of its extension to them by the number of population that currently inhabits it, the city as such is located in the Municipality of Maracaibo, but with its extension it has taken geographical part of municipalities like San Francisco, in which different parts of the city are spread and also takes an area of important influence in such municipalities; Mara, Jesús Enrique Lossada, La Cañada de Urdaneta among the closest, while also maintaining a certain hierarchy about municipalities such as; Cabimas, Lagunillas, Miranda, Santa Rita and Simón Bolívar.

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

Panorama of Maracaibo

Ethnic composition

At the beginning of the oil season that was born in this region, the population consisted mainly of Spanish settlers and their descendants, with a high incidence of mixed-race people (a mixture between Europeans and indigenous people) who came after Europeans arrived on Venezuelan lands, linking them to native inhabitants of the different regions of the country, who were divided into different groups and ethnicities, but all were indigenous colonies.

After a few decades and the events of World War I and World War II, immigrants from different parts of Europe and the world arrived in the city and its geographical space. The major groups came from countries such as: Spain, Italy, Portugal and, to a lesser extent, but also importantly, of: 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 from: Colombia, Argentina, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Peru, China, Japan, India and Syria, among others.

Currently,^{[citation required]} with a fully diversified population and mixed and diverse heritages, the population has different particular characteristics (traditions, cultures, religions, beliefs) that give a different tone in each of the groups that have come to the nation since pre-current times, also dividing into different ethnic groups, each of which was commonly identified by the following groups:

• White: 55.0%
• Mestizos: 35.5%
• Black/Afro-descendants: 2.0%
• Amerindians: 1.2%
• Others (East, Asian, Arab, Gypsy): 6.3%

The Municipality of Maracaibo currently consists of 18 parishes, which are:

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

Political Division of Maracaibo Parish Antonio Borjas Romero Bolívar Cacique Mara Caracciolo Parra Pérez Cecilio Acosta Chiquinquirá Coquivaca Christ of Arance 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 is a local entity that enjoys autonomy; it is the most populous and important municipality in the state of Zulia, of which it is the capital. Since the reforms made to the Organic Law of Municipal Regime between 1988 and 1989, he was allowed to directly choose the mayor (local executive), in addition to the Municipal Council that constitutes the local legislative branch.

Municipal Executive

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

Growth

Maracaibo was established more than four centuries ago, but its growth was slow because the city offered little to the satisfaction of foreigners, and because of the aboriginal's constant harassment of everyone who populated the city, not to mention the numerous attacks received by pirates. All these factors influenced the population of Maracaibo to grow late relative to the rest of the Venezuelan localities. Even in 1531, during the city's first founding, its activity was almost nil, so Nicolás Federmann ordered the transfer of its population in 1535 to present-day Colombia.

However, the insistence of the founding of a village where Maracaibo is currently located denotes the prospects of creating a port center in this place. Marabine topography is neither favorable nor attractive to the population, but its strategic geographic location helped it as a point of population development, succeeding until it takes control of the Venezuelan West and creating a dependency of the country on its hinterland, the Zulia State.

Today, Maracaibo is home to many companies at the regional, national, and international levels, as well as the founding site of Venezuela's first private bank, Banco de Maracaibo, which has disappeared and its seat in the region is the West Bank of Discount (BOD), which is headquartered in Maracaibo.

Headquarters of the Ministry of the People's Power of Oil and Mining.

Coffee and Oil

Former Mene Grande Oil Company building.

The city only became important in 1876, when the port of Maracaibo became the export center for coffee from the Colombian-Venezuelan Andean region, an activity that was maintained until 1917, when oil was discovered on the Eastern Coast of Lake Maracaibo. The Barroso 2 well adventure in 1922 revealed the great potential of hydrocarbons in the Maracaibo lake basin and in particular the Bolivar Costanero field, one of the largest at the international level. Maracaibo became one of the world's oil capitals and a massive migration of families of both Venezuelan and foreign origin, who settled in both Maracaibo and other smaller populations of Zulia State.

The large transnational corporations had 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 Petroleum among others. On January 1, 1976, the national government statized the oil industry, and when PDVSA was established as the parent company, the majority-owned film companies Maraven, S.A., Lagoven, S.A. and Corpoven, S.A. maintained their operational offices in Maracaibo. In 1997, PDVSA decided to make a change in its functional structure, eliminating the figure of operating subsidiaries and integrating the activities that they all carried separately in the areas of exploration, production, marketing, services and gas production. Instead, a new business unit-based operating structure was established. As a result, the subsidiaries ceased operations on 31 December 1997 and all their assets became directly controlled by their parent company PDVSA, renaming the combined entity PDVSA Petroleum and Gas, S.A.

Present

Sunset in the City.

Examples of colonial architecture and museums can be found in the city. The Basilica of Our Lady of Chiquinquira, patron of Zulia, affectionately called La Chinita, is located in the center. This image of the Virgin every November 18 is worshiped by a mass cult by all faithful, who deposit their offerings by fulfilled wishes or promises made, offerings that are usually golden jewelry and precious stones.

The palpites became houses, and the houses became buildings. Urban and commercial growth was massive after the discovery of oil in Zulia. Today, the urban area reaches 176 km² and the rural area 217 km². The unusual development of the city, based on the discovery, extraction and industrialization of oil, has resulted in the problem of the pollution of Lake Maracaibo.

Although the public transport system in the city is often poor in terms of quality and availability of service, there are urban routes that cover almost the entire city's hull. There is what is known as the "trolleys per post", which are a disused modality in almost the entire country, but one that perseveres given the population's demand. These are vehicles for six passengers (including the driver), which cover specific routes and in which tickets like a bus unit are canceled. Each route has two fares: one short and one long depending on the journey to be traveled by each passenger. There are also numerous bus routes that run through the city and converge in stops mostly located near the central center. You can consult the different routes of the city at https://web.archive.org/web/20190904060559/http://rutasmaracaibo.com/. For tourist trips, there is a tram chain that visits the attractions in the city.

Airports and ports

Facade of La Chinita International Airport.

Maracaibo Metro arriving at Sabaneta Station

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

International Airports Connected to La Chinita International Airport

Metro

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

The El Guayabal station was commissioned by August 2007, and station number 4 (Sabaneta) was launched in May 2008; in 2009, the 6 stations opened were reached, allowing the economic and safe movement of people from the sector of Altos de la Vanega to the city center.

Baralt Theater.

Basilica of Our Lady of Chiquinquirá

Chinita monument.

His music, the Zulian bagpipe, which is traditionally heard in the Christmas season, which starts very early, with the lighting of Bella Vista Avenue and the lighting of the angel of amparo, a few days before La Fiesta de La Chinita. The Zulian bagpipe transcends strictly Lithuanian and has become the Christmas music in Venezuela. Baralt Theater was the first stage where a film was screened 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 conquistadores and apply the voseo - rather than you, or yourself - to everyday speech. So, the voice, the fast talk and the strong tone, produced a particular style of communication that today is a "brand of origin" for the speaker. "What was it, how are you?" you hear it on the streets of the city.

Other cultures, such as Italian and German, came later in the late nineteenth 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 passing from one coast to the other. There are also very important non-Catholic religious communities that have rooted 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 that of the Evangelical Church of the Salvador, the Pentecostal Christian Church of the Cruz and Christ Church, the Saint Paul temple, are already part of the city's historical and architectural heritage.

This, together with the oil boom that started in 1914, comes to form a new Maracaibo, with migrations from Venezuelans mainly from Margarita, Los Andes and Falcón, who sought better living conditions with oil.

Maracaibo is the city with the highest rate of car accidents per capita in Ibero-America ^{[required appointment]}. This has been attempted to solve by placing traffic lights, speed-reducing agents (popularly called police-bed), and then ground traffic personnel (the institution charged with guarding public roads in Venezuela) to create a culture of good management.

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

Gastronomy

Patacón.

The traditional gastronomy of Maracaibo is part of Venezuelan cuisine in general, and especially of the Lithuanian gastronomy. It is characterized by a cultural mix inherited from the indigenous, African and European people who occupied and occupy these lands. The same mixture is also observed in the different local dishes such as chivo en coco, casserole, mojito en coco, escabeche costeño, rice with popcorn, pelons, banana lacustre, the Creole pavilion, cakes arepas, cachapas, paledonian candy and patacón, the latter the most emblematic of the area.

The main typical desserts of the city are the sweet of Paledonia, popularly called Catalina; mandoca, made of corn flour, papelon and cheese, hicacos, candy of lemon, large lemon dessert in syrup, sparkling eggs, cut milk, guava hull, candy in syrup, such as suckling pig, among others.

Cultural and historical heritage

Catatumbo Lightning.

Carabobo Street in Saladillo, Maracaibo

The Institute of Cultural Heritage of Venezuela and the Rafael Urdaneta Center attached to the state government have identified several patrimonial properties in the city of Maracaibo. ​

In the Manzanillo sector is a lithic deposit considered one of the oldest mega-fauna hunting sites in the Maracaibo lake basin.

Several museums and collections have been declared cultural heritage of the nation, including the Balmiro León museum and the Historical Acquis, both in the Maracaibo City Hall building.

Among the monumental sculptures were sculptures of the civar in the center of the city, and some of the works that were previously at the Paseo Ciencias, and between the Calle of Tradition or Calle Carobo or Calle Carobo, the Barcia Santa Lucía or and the Bollicias.

Among the religious buildings are the temples of Santa Ana, San Francisco, Santa Bárbara and San Felipe NeriPedro, the Cathedral of San Pablo, the Chapel of the Holy Christ of Arance and the Basilica of Our Lady of Chiquinquirá and Saint John of God; and among the civilians are the Zulia State Legislative Assembly, the Morales House, the Ancient Maracaibo Market, the Teatroalt alt・d la Gobierno, Banco Maracaibo and Banco Maraïa.

The Center of Fine Arts is the headquarters of the Maracaibo Symphony Orchestra, one of the most important music institutions in Latin America, declared a National Artistic Heritage in 1983. ​

Maracaibo features a baseball stadium with a capacity of 25,000 viewers^{[quote required]}, which hosts one of the most traditional teams in Venezuelan professional baseball, Aguilas del Zulia, based in Luis Aparicio "El Grande" Stadium, which owes its name to one of the most remembered players in the world Venezuelan baseball of all time, Luis Aparicio Ortega, father of the world-famous Luis Aparicio "El Junior", the only Venezuelan member of the Hall of Fame of the Great League Baseball, also born in Maracaibo. Likewise, it has one of the best national football clubs, the Zulia Futbol Club and the JBL Sports of Zulia that play in the José Encarnación Romero Stadium, which also came to host the late Maracaibo Athletic Union. In basketball is the Zulia Gaiteros team whose home is the Pedro Elías Belisario Aponte Gym. The city features the Maracaibo Rugby Football Club rugby club and Zulianos Rugby Football Club. Also with a softball team called the Bulls of Zulia participating in the special League of softball.

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

Predecessor:   Ponce

Central American and Caribbean City 1,998

Successor:   San Salvador

The city of Maracaibo is home to one of the most widely circulated newspapers in Venezuela and the second most read (Panorama), has the highest number of radio stations active in both bands and numerous magazine publications. It also has almost a dozen TV channels including Zulia's Channel 11 and Televiza.

• Annex: Metropolitan areas of America.
• Annex: Cities of Venezuela.
• List of municipalities in Venezuela.
• Flag of Maracaibo (Venezuela)
• Marabino Spanish
• Territorial organization of Venezuela
• Parishes of Maracaibo
• San Francisco de Assisi Convent (Maracaibo)