Cabruta is a Venezuelan fishing town on the Orinoco river in Las Mercedes Municipality, Guárico State, site of a Jesuit mission, and the site of a proposed bridge across the Orinoco to Caicara, Bolívar State.

The 17th century saw a number of plans to fortify Cabruta, and in 1643 Juan de Ochoa Gresala y Aguirre was authorized to establish a Spanish port and found a city to be called 'Triunfo de la Cruz y Nueva Cantabria'.

It wasn't until 1720 that two capuchine missionaries, formerly with the gold-seeking expedition of Marcos de Castro, settled there and their mission was approved in 1722, but then abandoned to be taken up by the Jesuit Bernardo Rotella in 1733.

This was one of the reasons that proposals were made for constructing a planned city as a new capital for Venezuela near Cabruta.

These are In 2006, a railway to Cabruta was commenced,[1] but the project is on hold, as is Puente Mercosur, the associated bridge across the Orinoco for road and rail, which has been planned as the third crossing of this river.