Country profile: Venezuela

The flag of Venezuela descends from the yellow, blue and red flag designed by Francisco de Miranda. Having first raised it at sea, Miranda unfurled it on Venezuelan soil on 3 August 1806, at La Vela de Coro, during an expedition against Spanish rule.

These colours were taken up by independent Venezuela from 1811, then by Gran Colombia. The seven stars arranged in an arc represent the seven provinces that signed the declaration of independence of 5 July 1811.

On 7 March 2006, a new law on national symbols added an eighth star, for the province of Guayana, in accordance with a decree issued by Simón Bolívar in 1817.

The elements of the Venezuelan flag are generally interpreted as follows:

• Yellow: the country's wealth.
• Blue: the Caribbean Sea, which borders the Venezuelan coast.
• Red: the blood shed for independence.
• Stars: the founding provinces; the eighth pays tribute to Guayana, which joined the cause of independence.

Since 2006, Flag Day has been celebrated on 3 August, in memory of Miranda's landing at La Vela de Coro, rather than on 12 March, the date the flag was first raised at sea in 1806.

The flags of Colombia and Ecuador, the other heirs of Gran Colombia, use the same colours, but with a yellow band twice as wide.

The state flag bears the country's coat of arms in the upper canton at the hoist; the civil flag has only the bands and the stars.