It’s not just a great name for a band: 45 years ago this week, a group of Cuban and Cuban-trained Venezuelan guerrillas actually tried to invade Venezuela by sea through Machurucuto (just east of Higuerote).
Machurucuto was a kind of through-the-looking-glass Bay of Pigs that went just as badly as the original: when all was said and done, ten guerrilleros lay dead, and Fidel Castro’s first ploy to lay his hand on Venezuela’s oil riches lay in tatters.
But the guy was playing the long game, and the joke’s on us: turns out that one of the guerrilleros involved ended up as speaker of Venezuela’s National Assembly.
It’s one of those mostly-forgotten footnotes that adds an extra layer of irony to the irony lasagna that is our contemporary history: the only imperial power that’s ever tried to actually militarily invade Venezuela in the last 100 years isn’t the big bad imperialist U.S.. It’s Fidel Castro’s Cuba.
Deep sigh.
Antes nos invadían por Barlovento, ahora es por la rampa 4 de Maiquetía…
Caracas Chronicles 
The Muchurucuto Incident rocks! Fuck yeah guys!
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In all seriousness,
I guess about 5 people i know are aware of the Incident. And they are from my own family,all chavistas (an uncle of mine was a guerrillero who died in combat) and one ex-chavista Lieutenant.They are all over 50 years old. Whoever wanted to bury Venezuela’s past,has done a hell of a job.
And needless to say, history class is full of ancient history.I’m pretty sure i don’t remember ANY class of History where they taught us about 20th Century history. I’m sure it’s worse these days.
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Was there anything else about communism besides being unashamedly imperialistic?
Yeah, you bet, fanatic proselytizing and absolute intolerance…
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it’s also about being enlightened. Poor masses don’t know what you know.
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“Antes nos invadían por Barlovento, ahora es por la rampa 4 de Maiquetía…”
That’s why knowing and understanding our history does matter.
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Twelve fighters land on the beach (the Dirty Dozen?). Their goal is to establish a guerilla movement in the Andes, but they decided to start in Higuerote… Smart. Maybe, they were planning on fighting their way through Caracas first? Or were they going to bypass Caracas to the south and maybe blow up the runways at Maiquetia on the way…? They landed in rafts, making them appear so obviously out of place, that a fisherman reported them… Smart. I could go on…
The reason I know this whole thing is true, is that you just can make this s**t up!
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Uh, that would be “bypass Caracas to the north”
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The Cubans were screwed from the beginning. A mole in Cuba let the CIA know what was going down, and where. CIA let the Betancourt government know and the reception was on. In fact, the guy who ratted them out was responsible for the maps used, and actually guided the landing force to a more “ambush friendly” locale.
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Wow! What else do you know, RobertoN? For example- what was US official response?
And, the UN sanctioned Cuba for this-what were the sanctions?
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They got kicked out permanently of the OEA … not that it has made any difference.
That is one more reason why Chavistas hate OEA
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1967. That would be the Leoni government.
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Corrected, Leoni it was.
I know so much because I stayed at a Holiday Inn Express last night…………..
Actually, Caracas Gringo recommended a book by Brian Latell about Fidel. good stuff!
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There IS a discrepency in this story (or in the history). Wikipeadia identifies the two captured guerilleros as Cubans, Manuel Gil Castellanos, and Pedro Cabrera Torres. There were 10 killed out of a total of 12: four Cubans and eight Venezuelans. So, how was Fernando Soto one of the survivors if all the Venezuelans were killed and two Cubans were killed?
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Did you just figure out that the ex-president of the Venezuela National Assembly is in fact Cuban ?
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Indeed, the whole issue of the guerrillas never been methodically studied and documented. There are only testimonials and stories in broad strokes. (Google Translate rocks!)
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Actually, one of the surviving Cubans apparently still rents out rooms to tourists. I will post the contact details later.
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I will look him up next time I’m in Cuba:
SR. MANUEL GIL CASTELLANOS
Paseo del Prado 20, e/ San Lazaro y Carcel, bordering Centro and Vieja, overlooking Plaza Maximo Gomez. Zone 1 Tel. (7) 861-7932
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History? What do Venezuelans know about it?
Most Venezuelans don’t know in what century – take one more or less – Jesus Christ is believed to have been born or in what century – take a century more or less- Venezuela got its independence or from what language Spanish derives…Lots of people everywhere have little interest for history but never did I see such an attitude for it as in Venezuela…I don’t know how Venezuelan historians – with a couple of exceptions – managed to do the subject so boring,
how there are so little questions about so many historical issues – about what really happened during the Caracazo, specially about the “how come”…
Chavistas were capable of electing Roger Cordero as deputy…Roger Cordero, a military who committed war crimes during the Cantaura Massacre…hell, they elected Chávez, who praised Pérez Jiménez.
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I don’t think it is about history knowledge, I think those who voted Cordero or Chavez will do it again even if they knew history. It is totally congruent that chavistas elected a president that praised Perez Jimenez because they were electing a mititar who tried to take over the goverment with violence (producing hundreds of deaths).
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Just something to think about,- 1967 (when Machurucuto Incident happened) is also when Che Guevara and his band of guerillas were hunted down and killed by Bolivian forces..
And, in Panama-Manual Noriega became”-Chief of Military Intelligence. In performing his duties, he led a campaign, that has been described as ruthless, against Western Panama guerrillas”
Ah-hh-h the ‘good old days”, lots of fun and games…hey wait, it’s happening again!?
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Those were “wise men from Cuba” bearing gifts for the future king of Venezuela-they had seen a sign ( they were looking for the baby Chvez)..finally Chavez got his gifts from Fidel. Now, you know the rest of the story..
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Do you remember that some PSUV drones made a commemorative plaque in that beach to honor the cubans?
http://paispobrepaisrico.blogspot.com.es/2008/02/que-fue-la-invasion-de-machurucuto.html
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Article posted below by ErneX-note this sentence:
Para el año de 1967 estaba en su mayor auge , la tan rimbombante “Revolucion Cubana” y por ende su intento de expansion por el continente sur americano, islas del caribe ,centro america e incluso llego a tratar de sembrar sus raices en el continente africano
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And Cubans worked at various Venezuelan government posts many security related such as Disip and Interior Ministry throughout 60’s and 70’s. I think it was Cubans in the Guyana rebellion incident.
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