Venezuela is the land of the mythical freedom fighter Simon Bolívar who in the 19th century not only liberated Venezuela from the Spanish colonizer. He also did so in Panama, Colombia, Peru, Ecuador and Bolivia.
Dictators ruled Venezuela until the end of the 50s of the last century. Afterwards it had some democratically elected leaders such as Betancourt, Leoni, Caldera and Pérez, who had a lot of influence and respect on the whole of the Latin American continent.
From an economic point of view Venezuela has been living of the oil production for many years. That made the country very rich in the 60s and 70s of the last century. The extreme dependence on oil (up to more than 90% of national GDP) led to major corruption and eventually to economic and political decline. The Bolivarian revolution, initiated by President Hugo Chávez, could not change that. Formal ties with Flanders are non-existent.