Cuicas

The Cuicas were one of the two main branches of the Timoto–Cuica people, the most advanced Indigenous society of the Venezuelan Andes, whose language and ways linked them to the Chibcha world of the Muisca. The Cuicas held the mountains and foothills around Trujillo and the adjacent plains, while their Timote kinsmen centred on Mérida.

They built permanent villages of stone and timber houses ringed by irrigated stone terraces, grew maize, potatoes and sweet yucca, made anthropomorphic ceramics and gold objects, and used cacao beans as currency in trade with Arawak and Carib neighbours.

In 1549 the Cuicas and Timotes forged a war alliance at Escuque, defeated a Spanish column in open battle and drove it back to El Tocuyo. In colonial times their old settlements were reorganized into Indian parishes and few place names kept their original forms.