The Revolt of the Comuneros was a popular uprising in the Viceroyalty of New Granada (now Colombia and parts of Venezuela) against the Spanish authorities from March through October 1781.
[1] The revolt was in reaction to the increase in taxation to raise funds for defense of the region against the British, a rise in the price of tobacco and brandy, which were part of the late eighteenth-century Bourbon reforms.
On March 16, 1781, in Socorro in northeastern Colombia, grocer Manuela Beltrán tore down posted edicts about new tax increases and other changes that would have reduced the profits of the colonists and enlarged the benefits of Spain.
Local residents began to assemble and elect a body of officials known as el común, or a central committee "to lead the movement.
[6] The city of Barinas defeated the Comuneros of the Venezuelan Andes (1781), a fact that led to King Carlos IV granting it in 1790 the coat of arms that today retains the state capital, along with the motto "very noble and very loyal".
Some historians such as Brian Hamnett believe that it was the age-long battle between "absolutism versus the unwritten constitution" of New Granada that spurred on the colonists.