There isn't so much raw sewage from Maracaibo these days as (I believe) those issues were largely solved in the late 90's. However, most of the inland areas and the Merida state communities still discharge into tributaries that end up in Lake Maracaibo. It's still a big problem at the south end of the lake. Getting ANY public works done there without endless graft is a real challenge.

Zulia has always been the red-headed stepchild of the country anyway. It's sort of like Texas in that it generates massive income of which a large amount ends up in parts of the country where people either barely work or don't work "smart." This breeds both resentment and exceptionalism among the Zulianos, who are not coincidentally the people in the country most likely to be sympathetic to the USA.

The green weed in Lake Maracaibo was much worse a few years ago. When I visited this past April, it was as clear as I had seen in a long time. However, when I lived there in the mid/late 1990's, I didn't see any of the weed. Nonetheless, it was common knowledge not to swim in the lake or to eat certain kinds of fish that might come from there. That said, I saw fishermen there every day without any obvious health issues.

Industrial pollution doesn't seem to be the worst issue, but one problem is waste water that contains elemente with enough BOD that large amounts of oxygen are consumed in breaking down otherwise benign elements. This then leads to localized dead zones as the fish can't extract enough oxygen from the water to survive.

Another problem with the lake is that it was at one time the world's largest fresh water reservoir. The country eventually dredged the entrance to allow passage of large freighters rather than take the step of moving shipping access (and eventually the cities) to more northern locales. This would have paid off in spades as they could really do some irrigation if they still had the lake as a fresh water source. As it is, water isn't too terribly scarce in runoff from the Colombian Andes. But the area due west of Maracaibo is sandy and desert-like. My father-in-law has to hustle to keep it productive for cattle, and he's aware that he's vastly outproduced by Texan ranchers who operate with a similar climate.

The recent gains by the oppostion, despite many of the most popular being banned from seeking office in a dubious decision, certainly speaks of some dissatisfaction with Chavez. I don't think Venezuelans are as down on socialism as they are on Chavez himself and his sometimes arbitrary decisions. People in Zulia tend to be a bit embarrassed by him. In my opinion, if he really believes in his movement, and if he wants it to continue, he MUST get off the stage in 2012 and let some other generation move forward. Venezuela suffers right now from overly rigid political correctness and a dearth of new ideas. Anyone too contrary to the president just gets shouted down. It's many times worse than what we experienced here under Bush in 2003-2006 or so, even in not all of Chavez's social programs are failures.

Chavez's emasculation of the business class has clearly hurt job creation. To make up for that (and through nationalization) he's largely controlled this by soaking up workers in federal jobs. This creates a huge class of people that is totally dependent on the government, and it politicizes every issue. Should oil prices stay low for the next two years or so, it will be interesting to see what shakes out. Right now, Venezuela is essentially buying influence in Bolivia, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Cuba, Dominica, and Honduras. Again, many Venezuelans resent this as they feel they've just missed out on what should have been one of the best five year booms they ever had. At least the government should have put more into infrastructure; Caracas is a shell of its former self.

Maracaibo had the unique circumstance of having a Chavista mayor and non-Chavista govnernor for the last several years. Their competition for influence and resources actually led to a number of obvious infrastructure improvements that should have been a model for everywhere else. Maybe Manuel Rosales really does have ties to organized crime; I don't know. What is obvious is that he could get things done. It will be interesting to see what happens now as Zulia/Maracaibo essentially reverts to one-party rule.

One of the more bizarre things I see is, for example, the company I work with frequently. They've added so many workers in an engineering capacity that it's sometimes not clear where each person's responsibility starts and finishes. As a result, they actually get fewer things done, and the bureacracy to make a change or an investment is fearsome. The bottom line is that they've fallen from mid-level to bottom quartile in the North/South American market for efficiency making their chemicals. Meanwhile, a similar private company in Brazil is going great guns, investing like crazy and reaping the benefits (and environmental improvements) of those changes. They are now approaching Top 3 status in the same markets. Doesn't take a genius to figure out why.