218 years ago, the national tricolor flew for the first time on Venezuelan soil

Published at: 03/08/2024 08:26 AM

On August 3, 1806, Generalissimo Francisco de Miranda, accompanied by the martyrs of his liberation expedition, touched Venezuelan land, in the Choir Candle, and deployed for the first time on Venezuelan soil, a national tricolor, which they called “Mother Flag”, since it represented the independence movement that Miranda led.

In order to found a Republic of free men on American soil, the pro-independence hero Francisco de Miranda left New York for Venezuela on February 2, 1806, on a ship called the Leander, in honor of his son and two schooners containing 200 men, as well as cannons, rifles, guns, swords and powder barrels to confront the Spanish army.

After passing through Haiti asking for help from the island's new independence government, he arrived on the night of April 26, 1806, on the coast of Ocumare, where colonial forces frustrated his arrival and captured the two schooners, while Miranda managed to flee in the Leander. He moved to Trinidad where he reorganized his troops, to arrive on August 3 at the sail of Coro, in which the Spanish thwarted the attack, since they had anticipated his arrival.

This struggle for emancipation generated, among the liberators, the need to create, from the beginning, a symbol that would express the commitment and the will to create an independent homeland, far from Spanish rule, and that at the same time would be a sign of their identity for future generations. From that libertarian and rebellious spirit, the Mother Flag was born, which has undergone modifications that result in the current national tricolor.

It should be noted that previously Flag Day was celebrated on March 12, since that day, in the year 1806, the tricolor pavilion was set fire for the first time, in Jacmel, Haiti. But starting in 2006, Commander Hugo Chávez declared August 3 as Flag Day, in justice for Generalissimo Francisco de Miranda and the martyrs who arrived 218 years ago at La Vela de Coro to raise this national symbol for the first time, on Venezuelan soil.

“Miranda Flag Day. Revolutionary Flag Day, in justice to true history,” said the Leader of the Bolivarian Revolution at the time, 200 years after Coro's glorious feat.

Mazo News Team