On 2 June 1962, units led by navy Captains Manuel Ponte Rodríguez, Pedro Medina Silva and Víctor Hugo Morales went into rebellion.

[1] A photograph of chaplain Luis María Padilla holding a wounded soldier during the rebellion won the 1963 Pulitzer Prize for Photography and 1962 World Press Photo of the Year for Héctor Rondón of La República.

Alí Brett[7] wrote, according to his investigation: After 6am on Sunday the masonry of Solano Castle began receiving the impact of bombs.

When the bombing began, we were in the neighbourhood "Las Tejerías" a few metres from the old fortress, which, for the first time in several centuries was a victim of an attack of this nature.The fort was an enigma of the uprising and much was speculated about its power.

People knowledgeable of this weapon know that if it was fired, even only once, Puerto Cabello would disappear.Barely keeping up during the insurgency, the marines raised the Naval Base to guard the fort, whose inhabitants, by this day, Monday the 4th of June, were already dead.