SOCIAL PROBLEMS
Venezuela has undergone a period of economic and political uncertainty that has affected job opportunities. There has also been an increase in crime. Over half of the population is under eighteen years of age. In this uneasy social and economic situation, groups within the military have tried to take power by force at two different times. Both of these attempts failed, and Venezuela has remained a democratic country. But the social ease and confidence of the more economically successful years (of the 1960s and 1970s) have not yet returned.