This refers, in effect, to the teaching load, but it is expressed in credits rather than hours, and these may or may not be the same thing depending on the university.

The value of an academic credit in terms of hours varies from country to country and even from university to university. In Venezuela, an "unidad crédito" basically means one hour of teaching per week for a semester (16 weeks) or a term (14 weeks). This course, we are told, lasts for a semester. So the number of credits is the number of hours' teaching per week.

At least, this seems to be true everywhere for "theoretical" classes. For practical or laboratory classes, however, it varies, and often one credit corresponds to two or even three hours of this sort of teaching.

Universidad Nacional Abierta:
"una (1) hora de teoría a la semana, durante un semestre, equivale a una unidad de crédito, y dos (2) horas prácticas a la semana, durante un semestre, equivalen a un crédito"
http://equivalencias.una.edu.ve/index.php?page=Definiciones

At Universidad Simón Bolivar it seems to vary:
"Es un curso teórico, de 3 unidades créditos, 3 horas de clases semanales, que se dicta en el 1° trimestre del 2° año de la carrera."
http://www.arq.coord.usb.ve/teoria.html
"Es un curso práctico, de 3 unidades créditos, 3 horas de clases semanales. [...]
Es un curso práctico, de 3 unidades créditos, 4 horas de clases semanales."
http://www.arq.coord.usb.ve/electivas/dep_diseno.html

Universidad Nacional Experimental Politécnica de la Fuerza Armada Nacional:
"ARTÍCULO 13. La unidad de crédito equivale a una (1) hora de clase teórica semanal o clase regular de aula, a dos (2) horas semanales de práctica o a tres (3) horas semanales de laboratorio en cualquier curso con duración de un término académico."
http://www.unefa.edu.ve/portal/doc/rece_unefa.pdf

This one's useful; it's from the Colegio de Odontólogos, and is designed to cover recognition of university study at a range of institutions, so it shows the variables:
"Los periodos académicos regulares se desarrollarán en lapsos no menores de catorce (14) semanas ni mayores de dieciséis (16), y los periodos intensivos durarán entre siete (7) y ocho (8) semanas.
Créditos Académicos: De los periodos regulares un (1) crédito equivale a una de las siguientes actividades: Semanales:
a) Una (1) hora teórica.
b) Una (1) a tres (3) horas de clase práctica.
c) Dos (2) a tres (3) horas de trabajo de laboratorio.
d) Una (1) a dos (2) horas de seminario o taller. "
http://www.elcov.org/ley6.htm

So then this seems to be expressing the amount of teaching per week in terms of credits. Three of the five credits are accounted for by theoretical classes, which certainly means three hours per week. The other two are accounted for by practical classes, which may be two hours per week but will quite probably be more, depending on the specific requirements of this particular course and the system of this particular university. It doesn't mean hours per week; it means credits per week, which is a strange concept but is apparently how they think of it.

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Note added at 4 hrs (2014-10-07 11:09:23 GMT)
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But note that everywhere you look in Venezuela credits are defined in terms of hours per week, not total teaching hours. So it's understandable that they are in the habit of translating credits into hours per week, and referring (in effect) to "credits per week".