Venezuelan civil wars
After independence and the subsequent dissolution of Gran Colombia in Venezuela, there was no strong government with sufficient authority and power to guarantee order, nor an idea of a nation, or civic experience.
[1] This led to a phenomenon of caudillismo and militarism in which local political-military chiefs were able to confront and defeat the central government together with popular masses that supported them, following their particular ideological interests.
[4] During the first half of the century, the only character who managed to become a factor of relative stability was José Antonio Páez, a military leader with great power whose political career would only end with his defeat on the battlefields.
[11] The period of instability ended with the dictatorship of Juan Vicente Gómez who ruled Venezuela from 1908 until his death in 1935, thus ensuring a strong base for state power.
Gómez extinguished the regional caudillos by passing power to the central high command of the Armed Forces of Venezuela.
[13] These civil wars were above all combats between armed militias, each one organized by its place of origin, reflecting the alliances of the regional power groups with the government or the rebels at each moment.
[17] Guzmán Blanco, a man from Caracas, managed to stay in power thanks to the coffee boom, as did the Andeans Cipriano Castro and Juan Vicente Gómez.
[18] This process, in which regional leaders felt dissatisfied with the distribution of power in the capital, took up arms and overthrew weak central governments by taking Caracas, has been continuous since Independence.
[19] After his victory in 1899, a modern professional national army was created that was capable of subduing the militias of Llaneros, Barloventoños, Corianos and Orientales that would confront him in the Liberating Revolution (1901–1903).
[22] Before, the Caudillos agreed with, or fought against each government, promoted local revolts or autonomist movements and got involved on different sides (according to their momentary interest) in the national rebellions.
[23] Initially the conservatives and liberals, who marked the entire nineteenth century with their wars for power in the Andes,[14] sought to identify themselves with the colors of the Venezuelan flag – yellow, blue and red from top to bottom.
[24] From the second half of the 19th century, conservatives identified themselves with the color blue,[24] and the liberals, beginning with the supporters of the government of Juan Crisóstomo Falcón,[24] continued to use yellow.
[27] Both factors were also present in the Federal War (1859–1863) and even earlier, in the Second Republic (1813–1814), when the inability of the ruling classes to fulfill their promises and the aspirations of the common people led to extremely violent popular insurrections that devastated Venezuela.
On July 2, 1849, Paez landed at La Vela de Coro and concentrated 2,000 rebels, but was defeated at the battle of Casupo on August 12, surrounded by 4–5,000 government soldiers, and surrendered three days later.
[32] In August 1853 in Cumaná a thousand conservatives had risen up demanding the return of Páez, they were quickly crushed and the government decided to increase the army to 10,000 men.
A new revolt in Barquisimeto broke out on July 12, 1854, under the command of Juan Bautista Rodríguez, with 3,000 men mutinying; he immediately divided them into three battalions for a combined offensive inland.
[42] After years of political tension, on December 12, 1867 José Tadeo Monagas and disgruntled liberals and conservatives, called the Blue rebels, rose up against the Falcón government.
On April 27, after three days of fighting, Guzmán Blanco and six to eight thousand rebels entered Caracas (the city had only 1,600–2,000 defenders, most of them armed civilians).
Guzmán Blanco divided his army into three forces and sent General José Gregorio Cedeño with 2,300 soldiers to La Victoria, where the decisive battle took place on February 6.
The government of Raimundo Andueza Palacio sends General Sebastián Casañas with 4,000 men to suffocate the movement, focusing the fight on Táchira, where Governor Cipriano Castro joined the rebels.
After some initial victories, the government forces began to fall back in the west until the decisive defeat at Táriba (14–15 May), allowing the rebels Castro and Juan Vicente Gómez to enter Mérida at the head of 3,000 soldiers.
The rebels of Hernández and Luis Lima Loreto added up to 700 combatants, but they succeeded in defeating former president Crespo and his 1,500 men in Mata Carmelara, in Cojedes, on April 16.
Like the famous Admirable Campaign in 1813, the forces of the rebels called Restorers or Tachirenses grew, as they entered the center Venezuelan Andean to overthrow the unpopular Andrade government.
[57] On September 12, with 2,000 troops, he defeated 4,000 or 4,600 government soldiers in Tocuyito commanded by the Minister of War, General Diego Bautista Ferrer, who lost 2,000 men trying to assault the enemy positions.
[60] At first, on July 26, 1901, a group of 1,000 Venezuelan exiles in Colombia and 5,000 Colombian soldiers led by Carlos Rangel Garbiras attempted to invade Venezuela.
Initially, these rebellions occurred in isolated areas, but eventually grew into a large-scale uprising led by Manuel Antonio Matos, a banker.
Matos had spent months forming a coalition of opposition politicians and military personnel, and received support from foreign companies with vested interests in the country.
[62] The Mochistas were in revolt in the center and west of the country, the Yellow Liberals in the east, and the Ciudad Bolívar garrison had risen up led by Nicolás Rolando.
After the decisive battle of La Victoria (October 12, 1902) the rebels begin to be subdued, the powerful army of 12,000 to 16,000 combatants that they had concentrated, suffered 3,000 casualties.
[64] This was the last civil war in the country, that ended on July 21, 1903, after three days of siege, when Rolando's troops surrendered in Ciudad Bolívar.
