Hacarigua

Hacarigua belongs to the country of Acarigua and Araure, at the northern edge of the Venezuelan Llanos. Rivers descend from the surrounding hills onto the plains, watering a region long inhabited by Indigenous communities. Spanish authorities founded Araure in 1694 near the existing settlement of San Miguel de Acarigua. Disputes over the location of the two neighbouring towns continued into the following century.

On 5 December 1813 the plains near Araure became a battlefield in the Venezuelan war of independence. Simón Bolívar’s forces met royalist troops commanded by José Ceballos and José Yáñez near the Acarigua River. The republican victory was an important episode in the struggle for control of western Venezuela and its Llanos. The river and the adjoining settlements remained landmarks of a region where mountain routes meet the great plains.