GUAICAIPURO The Great!

When the conquistadores arrived in Venezuela in 1498 they did what came natural to them, they stole the land from the natives and destroyed their way of life in the name of Spain, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella.  However, in 1530, there was an inspirational leader who led his people fight against the invaders. His name was Guaicaipuro a native Venezuelan sachem and a man of great presence who rallied a group of chieftains with shared concerns in order to repel the infiltrators which had progressively been taken over their territories.  Among those partisan sachems were Aramaipuro, Baruta, Chacao, Guaicamacuto, Naiguata and Paramaconi who were willing to support Gauicaipuro in his quest for halting the conquistadores advance. Consequently, a resistance movement was formed aimed at fighting the Spanish occupying forces and the Spanish Crown itself. Nonetheless, the covetous Spanish conquistadores did not come to the New World to wander far from home with no particular purpose and, over and above that, they were not prepared to go home simply because their presence was not desired in Venezuela as they were only concerned with making fortunes at the expense of ethics and compassion, and as soon as they found gold in an area of seemingly unguarded boundaries they gave an inescapable endorsement to the idea of establishing a settlement there.  With pistols, rifles, cat-o'-nine-tails and steel blades the conquistadores ruled the land and its resources at will while the native inhabitants were forced to endured pain and hardship.  In 1562 a spirited resistance by Guaicaipuro and the coalition was evinced when the marauders were subdued and forced to withdraw from their new settlement and all the wrongs committed against their people were avenged. The Spanish Crown was perturbed by Guaicaipuro's extraordinary audacity in the region of Los Teques and decided to send a military force capable of dealing with any violent uprising against its authority. Juan Rodriguez Suarez was given the task of put an end to the insurrection and after several encounters with Guaicaipuro's militia he managed to accomplish part of his mission.  Having temporary pacified the area, Juan Rodriguez Suarez decided to go to Valencia to meet Lope de Aguirre, a Spanish conquistador, with a small number of soldiers but he was intersected by Guaicaipuro and his warriors and subsequently slew. From there on, Guaicaipuro's force of character was no longer a voice in the wilderness and the Spanish Crown, realising that his influence in Los Teques and its surroundings was a threat to Spanish rule in Venezuela, issued a warrant for his arrest and his followers. In spite of being declared an illegimate group, Guaicaipuro and his rebels carried on their guerrilla war against their oppressors and in 1567 the brilliance and ingeniousness of Guaicaipuro conjured a plot to capture the recent founded city of Caracas. Lion-hearted Guaicaipuro and his braves reached the gates of the new city and they seemed hell bent on taking it by force but the Spaniards had different ideas and, astutely, decided to meet them at the gates rather than challenging them inside the city.  Stout-hearted the Spaniards managed to fend off the invation and Guaicaipuro and his men had no other alternative than to retreat to the high grounds where his strong leadership stood out. In the flick of a wand, Guaicaipuro and the coalition had became a remorseless force capable of tearing to pieces the yoke of imperialism and strike the monster of all the monsters in his own underground chamber of absolutism; it must be said that in their endeavour they mounted the podioum of the greates heroes of Venezuela. Indeed, one can still find the footprints of Guaicaipuro and his warriors on the hills of Los Teques long after the past of the years, the changing of the wind and the fall of the rain.

Pedro Figueras