While traveling in-and-out of Venezuela, I use an American based airline. While traveling within Venezuela , I usually use Aeropostal, a Venezuelan airline. The Caracas airport has gates that allow you to walk directly onto the plane but most of the regional airports have you walk across the tarmac.
Though security within the country is a little more relaxed, leaving the country is quite intense. Going to the states for Spring Break, I counted 6 security lines that I had to stand in: A) Venezuelan x-ray of all luggage B) American Airline immigration interview C) American Airline check-in D) Airport Tax and carry-on x-ray E) American Airline carry-on x-ray F) Flight boarding. Now you can see why we try to arrive at the airport 3 hours early and still hope to make it to the plane.