Puerto Cabello - History

History

Puerto Cabello's location made it an easy prey to buccaneers and was a popular trading post for Dutch smugglers during the 17th century. Most of the contraband trade consisted of cocoa with neighboring island Curaçao, colonized by the Dutch. Puerto Cabello was also at that time under Dutch control.

It was not until 1730 that the Spanish took over the port, after the Real Compañía Guipuzcoana had moved in. This company built warehouses, wharves and an array of forts to protect the harbor.

During the War of Jenkin's Ear, the commodore Charles Knowles at command of the 70-gun HMS Suffolk in 1743 received orders to carry out attacks on the Spanish settlements at Puerto Cabello and La Guaira. The Spanish were well informed of the plans, and were able to recruit extra defenders, and were supplied with gunpowder by the Dutch. Consequently, an attack on La Guaira, on 18 February 1743, the english fleet nwas beaten off by the defenders. Knowles withdrew his force and refitted at Curaçao before attempting an assault on Puerto Cabello on 15 April, and again on 24 April, but both assaults were beaten back. Knowles called off the expedition and returned to Jamaica.

By the 1770s Puerto Cabello came to be the most fortified town on the Venezuela’s coast. The San Felipe castle and the Solano fortress remain from the period. The fregate Santa Cecilia (former HMS Hermione), under the command of Captain Don Ramon de Chalas, sat in Puerto Cabello until Captain Edward Hamilton, aboard HMS Surprise cut her out of the harbour on 25 October 1799. The Spanish casualties included 119 dead; the British took 231 Spaniards prisoner, while another 15 jumped or fell overboard. Hamilton had 11 men injured, four seriously, but none killed. Hamilton himself was severely wounded.

Puerto Cabello was the last Spanish royalist stronghold during Venezuela’s war for independence, it was captured by José Antonio Páez in 1823.

In 1962, Puerto Cabello was the site of an uprising, known as El Porteñazo, by pro-Fidel Castro naval officers, marines, and members of the FALN. Although loyalist naval forces were able to quickly take back the base and arrest the rebels, they were unable to prevent the marines from occupying the city and arming pro-Castro forces. Despite ambushes and bloody house-to-house fighting, loyal National Guard and mechanized regular forces were able to retake Puerto Cabello.