2.  When Julio Herrera Velutini was a student at
Universidad Central de Venezuela, he took a
job as a stockbroker in Caracas even before
he graduated. This fulfilled a family tradition
that stretches back more than a century to
1880, when his ancestor, Julio Cesar Velutini
Couturier, a lawyer by training and trade,
assumed the presidency of Banco Caracas. All
generations of the family have since been
involved in banking. Honoring the tradition,
Julio Herrera Velutini has participated in the
leadership of many leading banks in the
Americas and today heads an international
banking organization.

3.  Caracas, officially Santiago de Leon de
Caracas, is Venezuela’s capital city and
occupies a strikingly dramatic setting about
3,000 feet above sea level in a long valley
flanked on both sides by rugged hills. The
northern hills are uninhabited because the land
is home to Avila National Park, and the
southern hills are heavily settled with suburban
communities that overlook the city.
Caracas’ subtropical climate is very pleasant,
the result of the city’s elevation and its
proximity to the Atlantic Ocean, just 15
kilometers to the north.

4.  Unlike northern hemisphere countries, which
generally enjoy three or four seasons annually, the
entire country experiences only two seasons a year -
the dry season from December until April, and the
wet season from May until November. Rain does not
last long during the wet season, and Caracas enjoys
sunshine about 340 days every year.
Caracas’ economy, like Venezuela’s, is deeply
rooted in the oil industry. Much of the city’s modern
architecture and development, as well as its status as
the nation’s primary business center, stems from the
wealth generated by the 1970s oil boom.