Colombia vs Venezuela

Why people mix them up

Colombia and Venezuela share a long border and almost the same flag: yellow, blue and red horizontal stripes inherited from Gran Colombia, the republic that united them (with Ecuador) in the 1820s. Both are Spanish-speaking, both have Caribbean coastlines, both have the Andes in the west and the Orinoco and Amazon basins in the east. In a flag round the two are regularly confused with each other and with Ecuador, which uses the same colours too.

How to tell them apart

• Colombia's flag has a yellow stripe that takes up the top half; Venezuela's three stripes are equal and the blue carries an arc of eight white stars.
• Venezuela is east of Colombia and touches Guyana and Brazil; Colombia touches Panama, Ecuador and Peru.
• Colombia has two coasts, Caribbean and Pacific; Venezuela has only a Caribbean coast.
• Colombia is bigger and more populous: about 1.14 million km² and 52 million people, against roughly 916,000 km² and 28 million.
• The capitals are Bogotá (Colombia), high in the Andes, and Caracas (Venezuela), just inland from the Caribbean.
• Colombia uses the peso; Venezuela uses the bolívar.

Memory hook

Colombia connects to Central America through Panama, so it is on the left. Venezuela comes later in the alphabet and sits further right, towards Guyana. Stars on the flag mean Venezuela.

On the map

For Colombia, start from Panama at the narrow neck between the Americas and tap the first country of South America below it, the one with coast on both the Caribbean and the Pacific. For Venezuela, tap the country immediately east of Colombia along the Caribbean coast, with the Orinoco delta on its eastern side and Guyana beyond it. If the country touches the Pacific, it is Colombia.