Coquivacoa

Coquivacoa or Coquibacoa is an indigenous name for an area in north-west Venezuela - either the Gulf of Venezuela (as used by Colombian President Alfonso López Michelsen in 1974) or Lake Maracaibo (as others argue[1][2]) or possibly the wider region.

It may also be the name of an indigenous people itself, in particular the people fought by Ambrosius Ehinger before his 1529 establishment of Maracaibo; the name "Maracaibo" may derive from a Coquivacoa chieftain killed by Ehinger.

The Spanish conquistador Alonso de Ojeda had been appointed Governor of Coquibacoa in 1501 (june, 10th), a position that only lasted a few months.

He had applied the term Coquibacoa to the Guajira Peninsula, which Ojeda erroneously thought was an island.

There is a city named Chivacoa in Yaracuy state, founded by Caquetio people.

The diagonal Guajira Peninsula on the left of the rectangular Gulf of Venezuela and above the tear-drop-shaped Lake Maracaibo . Each of these has been labelled Coquivacoa .