While Venezuela has never rated highly on Australia's geographical radar it is not a country we can ignore.
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The Spanish-speaking, and culturally and racially diverse, nation is, thanks to a succession of major oil strikes in the first decade of this century, the holder of the largest proven oil reserves on the planet.
It is also a pawn in a power play involving America, Russia and China which has the potential to erupt into a "proxy" civil war.
Once a relatively small player in the global energy market, Venezuela is now afloat on an ocean of oil believed to exceed 300 billion barrels.
Thanks to decades of corruption, political mismanagement, "stolen" elections and administrative incompetence, oil production is actually lower now than 30 years ago.
Venezuela's 31.5 million people, who should be among the most prosperous in South America, battle daily with hyper-inflation said to exceed one million per cent, extreme poverty, chronic unemployment and a repressive government, led by Nicolas Maduro, accused of bashing, imprisoning and killing political opponents. The murder rate is one of the highest in the world.
Maduro stands accused of rigging the 2018 election which he claimed to have won with 67.8 per cent of the vote.
Australia, America, Canada, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia and Chile are just some of the countries that denounced the poll, recognising the opposition leader, Juan Guaido, as the legitimate president.
Amid reports up to 15 per cent of the population are surviving by eating food scraps thrown out by restaurants and cafes, Guaido is calling on the citizens to take to the streets in a "people's power" revolution.
This is easier said than done given Maduro has retained the support of the army and the police. The regime is also supported by Cuba, Russia, China and Iran.
America, which has a keen interest in what is happening in its near neighbour due to both its geographical proximity and the massive oil reserves, has shown rare and decisive leadership.
Donald Trump has been praised for his response with one commentator writing: "In this one instance the Trump administration has chosen a worthy foreign policy goal, assembled a multilateral coalition and adopted an actual strategy".
That is to bring about regime change by supporting Guaido, who has promised an amnesty for military leaders and free elections, through sanctions and, possibly, more direct action.
While America has not ruled out the possibility of a military intervention it would be understandably reluctant to do so given backlashes against the invasion of Grenada in 1983 and the deployment of troops to Panama in 1989.
That said, ever since the adoption of the Monroe Doctrine almost 200 years ago America has stood firm against any attempts by foreign governments to interfere in South American affairs.
The willingness by both Russia and China to use the Venezuelan crisis to destabilise the western hemisphere and create a massive headache for the US in its own backyard has created a new flashpoint in a world that already has too many.
Anything the West, including Australia, can do to restore stability to this troubled nation and to bring hope to its long-suffering people should be done immediately.
There is more at stake than most people think.