Portal:Venezuela

Fortín Solano was built at the top of the Cresta de Vigía (or "lookout crest") to protect the city from naval attacks.

Fortín Solano is an eighteenth-century colonial fortification overlooking Puerto Cabello, Venezuela. With the Castillo San Felipe, an earlier fort built at sea level, it formed part of a complex of fortifications designed to protect Puerto Cabello and its important harbour from naval attacks. It was constructed c. 1766 by order of Don José Solano y Bote on behalf of the King of Spain. It has been described as the last military construction built in Venezuela during the colonial era.

The fort has been the center of several notable events in Venezuelan history. Spanish commander Antonio Zuazola was hanged after a surprise attack by the forces of Rafael Urdaneta overthrew the royalists, giving control of the fort to the patriots. Pedro Carujo was imprisoned in the fort after attempting to kill Simón Bolívar in 1828. In 1962, the fort was the stronghold of an uprising led by several commanders in the city. (Full article...)

Rodríguez in 2026

Delcy Eloína Rodríguez Gómez (born 18 May 1969) is a Venezuelan lawyer, politician, and diplomat who has been interim president of Venezuela since 2026, following the capture of Nicolás Maduro during the U.S. intervention in Venezuela. She is the first woman in Venezuelan history to perform the duties of the presidency. A member of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), Rodríguez served as the 24th vice president under Maduro's government since 2018.

The daughter of guerilla leader and politician Jorge Antonio Rodríguez, Rodríguez was born and raised in Caracas. When she was seven years old, her father was murdered while in custody of the DISIP. In 1993, Rodríguez graduated from the Central University of Venezuela (UCV) with a Bachelor of Laws' degree. During her time there, Rodríguez was a student leader and activist. She then studied labor law in Sorbonne University in Paris and social policy in Birkbeck, University of London, but did not graduate from either of them. (Full article...)

• October 8, 1993 — Birth of Garbiñe Muguruza, Spanish-Venezuelan tennis champion (2016, 2017) and former world #1
• October 9, 1557 — In the Venezuelan Andes, Captain Diego García de Paredes founds the village of Trujillo
• October 11, 1980 — Baruj Benacerraf wins the Nobel Prize for Medicine
• October 12, 1966 — "The Anacoco Crisis" erupts between Guyana and Venezuela over the sovereignty of the eastern part of Ankoko Island, a 28 km² river island on the Cuyuní River, part of the boundary of the disputed area of Guayana Esequiba
• October 17, 2004 — The Twin Towers of Central Park are bombed, with a resulting fire destroying the East Tower
• October 18, 1945 – A group of the Venezuelan Armed Forces stages a coup d'état against President Isaías Medina Angarita, who is overthrown by the end of the day
• October 26, 2016 — Protests marches are held after the recall referendum against the Maduro administration is suspended
• October 28, 1875 — The National Pantheon of Venezuela is inaugurated
• October 29, 1988 — The Massacre of El Amparo occurs, with 14 fisherman murdered
• October 29, 2008 — Venezuela begins its space race, with the help of China, launching the Simón Bolívar Satellite part of the Venesat-1 project
• October 30, 1817 – Simón Bolívar becomes President of the Third Republic of Venezuela

• ... that a Canadian skier was the only competitor for Venezuela at the 2026 Winter Olympics?
• ... that, according to Guyanese authorities, an oil tanker seized by the United States off the coast of Venezuela in 2025 was falsely flying Guyana's flag?
• ... that after fleeing the Spanish Civil War to Venezuela, Spanish anarchist Concha Liaño became a supporter of Hugo Chávez?
• ... that one of the two civilian casualties in the 2026 US intervention in Venezuela had postponed returning to her native Colombia due to the tensions between the US and Venezuela?
• ... that Pedro Berroeta Morales, a diplomat and later the president of a Venezuelan television channel, has also written fiction and essays on topics from science to esotericism?
• ... that lawyer Gilbert Ray Hawes exposed an American diplomat for bribing the president of Venezuela?

A bronze statue of Luis Aparicio, the namesake of the award

The Luis Aparicio Award is given annually to a Venezuelan player in Major League Baseball (MLB) who is judged to have recorded the best individual performance in that year. The winner of the award is determined by a vote conducted by Venezuelan sports journalists and Spanish-language media around the world. It is named after former MLB shortstop Luis Aparicio, who is the only player from Venezuela to be inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame. The award was first presented in 2004, and was created in order to honour Aparicio's major league career and to commemorate his father, who died thirteen years before his son was elected into the Hall of Fame.

Johan Santana, Jose Altuve, Miguel Cabrera, and Ronald Acuña Jr. are the only players to win the Luis Aparicio Award more than once, with Cabrera having won the award five times. Cabrera won the MLB Most Valuable Player (MVP) Award and Hank Aaron Award alongside the Luis Aparicio Award in 2012 and 2013, becoming the first Venezuelan to win the MLB MVP Award. Santana, the 2004 and 2006 recipient, also won the Cy Young Award in those two years, winning by a unanimous vote on each occasion. Altuve is the only player to win the Luis Aparicio Award, the MVP award, and become a World Series champion in the same season in 2017. He has also won a batting title in three of his four award seasons. Santana (2006) and Cabrera (2012) are the only award winners to also earn the pitching and batting Triple Crown respectively in the same season. In accomplishing the feat, Cabrera became the first player in 45 years to achieve a Triple Crown in batting since Carl Yastrzemski in 1967, while Santana became the first pitcher since Dwight Gooden in 1985 to secure a "Major League Triple Crown" by leading all of MLB in wins, earned run average and strikeouts. Francisco Rodríguez compiled a major league record of 62 saves in a single season in 2008 and went on to win the Rolaids Relief Man Award in the same year as the Luis Aparicio Award. Five winners, Cabrera, Altuve, Magglio Ordóñez, Carlos González, and Arráez, were batting champions in their respective leagues in the same year they won the award. (Full article...)

27 October 2026 – War on drugs

A bomb explodes near a bridge in Cúcuta, Colombia, at the border with Venezuela, injuring four police officers. (AP)

25 October 2026 – Crisis in Venezuela

Venezuelan opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate María Corina Machado announces she has returned to Venezuela from exile. (CNN)