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Monday, 5 January
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Battle of Carabobo Day
In Venezuela each 24th June is celebrated as "Battle of Carabobo Day" It is also called "Army Day". It celebrates the victory over Spain in 1821 in one of the decisive battles for full independence. The final battle for Venezuela's independence was the Battle of Lake Maracaibo.
After a series of unsuccessful uprisings, Venezuela – under the leadership of Francisco de Miranda, a Venezuelan marshal involved in the French Revolution – declared independence on 5th July, 1811. Full sovereignty was only attained after Simón Bolívar, known as El Libertador ("The Liberator"), aided by José Antonio Páez and Antonio José de Sucre, routed the Spanish at Carababo.
The Battle of Carabobo is remarkable even by modernday standards for its one-sidedness - for every Patriot/Rebel dead, there were about 15 Spanish/Royalists dead. This is even more remarkable when one takes into account that it was fought in the age of muskets, where frequently the victors would sustain casualties almost as high, or even more than the defeated.
The battle was fought between South American independence fighters, led by Bolívar, and Royalist forces seeking to preserve the Spanish American empire.
Over 4,000 Royalists occupied the road leading from Valencia to Puerto Cabello, under the command of Miguel de La Torre. As Bolívar’s force of 6,500 approached the Royalist position, he divided them, sending half on a flanking manoeuvre through rough terrain and dense foliage. De la Torre likewise split his force and sent half to deal with this flank attack. Hitting the patriots with artillery fire, the attack was held back for a while.
Bolívar had a truly international force, made up of mercenaries and "settlers". The Irish, Welsh, English and Venezuelans of the "British Legion" fought hard and sustained about 50% of his casualties. The patriots eventually broke through the Royalist lines on the flank and marched towards the rear of de la Torre's force. All Royalist fronts gave way and fled, leaving behind several artillery pieces. The rout was so bad that only 400 of the original Royalist force reached safety at Puerto Cabello.
Realistically, this was the beginning of the end of the Spanish in Venezuela, and the country gained unfettered independence in 1823, although it later became part of Simon Bolívar’s Gran Colombia (Colombia, Venezuela, Panama and Ecuador) before becoming a nation state again.
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