July 24th is a pivotal date in the history of Venezuela's struggle for independence. In 1823, Simón Bolívar was celebrating his 40th birthday at the Bolívar family home in the heart of Caracas. At the time, he was in Guayaquil, while the final major battle of the independence movement was being fought on Lake Maracaibo. This battle also marked the defeat of the main force of Spanish imperialism, which would ultimately fall in Puerto Cabello between November 7th and 8th of that same year. Two patriot leaders led the battle: Admiral José Prudencio Padilla, from New Granada, and General Manuel Manrique, a native of Cojedes. The Spanish also had two commanders: General Francisco Tomás Morales and the naval officer Ángel Laborde, who, after being defeated on the lake, fled with his ship.
During this encounter, Manrique was responsible for defeating the royalists on land. A key moment in this battle was the destruction of a powerful cannon (nicknamed "La Cotorra"), which had prevented the patriot squadron from entering the lake. However, after their victory, they were finally able to enter, and the naval battle ensued. The Spanish colonial forces were defeated, leaving only the garrison of Puerto Cabello under their control and isolated.
A historically significant fact is that the patriots had the French commanders René Beluche and Nicholas Joly, as well as Walter Chitty, among others, on their side at Lake Maracaibo. The results were as follows: the patriots lost eight officers and 36 enlisted men, plus 195 wounded. Meanwhile, the royalists lost 800 men, including dead and wounded, in addition to 69 officers and 369 enlisted men taken prisoner. With the Spanish defeated, their leader, Francisco Tomás Morales, was left—as the military term goes—unprepared, since the few troops he had at his disposal guaranteed his defeat and the possibility of his death. The story continues, and we see that 14 days later, he lost his command as governor and surrendered to Padilla on August 3rd, receiving advantageous terms from his now-generous enemies. By then, Spanish colonialism, which had lasted 326 years, had fallen in Puerto Cabello, and Venezuela was emancipated with this decisive victory, securing the independence of Gran Colombia.
