Rafael Urdaneta

Rafael José Urdaneta y Farías was born on October 24, 1788, in Maracaibo, then part of the Captaincy General of Venezuela, into a prominent family of Spanish origin. His parents were Miguel Jerónimo de Urdaneta y Troconis and María Alejandrina de Farías. He started his schooling in Maracaibo and later attended secondary school in Caracas. Before the independence wars began, he studied Latin and philosophy.

He married Dolores Vargas París, a well-known heroine from Santa Fe in Gran Colombia, on August 31, 1822. The couple was widely popular until Gran Colombia dissolved in 1831. After that breakup and the rise of a dictatorship in the Republic of New Granada, they had to leave the country. When they reached Maracaibo, they faced harassment from José Antonio Páez, who had turned against Simón Bolívar after the Venezuelan War of Independence. Because both Urdaneta and Dolores backed Bolívar, they fled again, this time to Curaçao.

In 1832, the Venezuelan government granted them a license to return to Caracas, but on the condition that Urdaneta stay out of politics. The family moved to Santa Ana de Coro, where a revolt against the government broke out. That uprising gave Urdaneta a chance to re-enter Venezuelan politics. He eventually served as a senator until 1845.

That same year, he was named Venezuela’s envoy to Spain, but he died in Paris, France, on August 23, 1845, from complications related to kidney stones, before he could reach Spain. His remains were placed in the National Pantheon of Venezuela on May 16, 1876. In 2015, October 24 was declared a national holiday in Venezuela in his honor.

Urdaneta’s military career began after his uncle, Martín de Urdaneta y Troconis, who worked as chief accountant of the Court of Accounts in Santa Fe, encouraged him to move there in 1804 to continue his studies. He spent several years in Santa Fe, gaining experience in military administration. On July 20, 1810, a junta formed in Santa Fe as part of the wave of independence movements spreading across the continent after the Caracas Junta was established in April. Urdaneta joined this movement. He was made a lieutenant in the first battalion of the New Granadan patriot army on November 1, 1810, and fought in the Campaña del Sur the following year. After the Battle of Santa Fe in 1813, royalists captured him, and he spent a few months in prison before being freed.

During the Admirable Campaign, Urdaneta joined Simón Bolívar’s revolutionary army. He stood out under Colonel José Félix Ribas at the Battle of Niquitao on July 2, 1813, and played a key role in the patriot victory at the Battle of Taguanes against Colonel Julián Izquierdo’s royalist forces. After the Second Republic of Venezuela was established, Bolívar reported to the New Granada Congress in Tunja that Urdaneta was “worthy of recommendation and deserving of all esteem from the government for the valor and intelligence with which he distinguished himself in action.”

From then on, Urdaneta led many military actions, including the 1814 Caracas Exodus, the capture of Maracaibo, and the March to San Carlos in 1821, which freed the Province of Coro and set the stage for the Battle of Carabobo. He did not fight at Carabobo because Bolívar felt his troops were too exhausted from the march. Bolívar requested that Urdaneta be promoted to general officer in recognition of his service. After Carabobo, with Venezuela independent, Urdaneta became one of Bolívar’s closest friends and collaborators.

In 1828, as Minister of War and head of the Cabinet, Urdaneta judged those accused in the September Conspiracy, an attempt to assassinate Bolívar. Convinced that Francisco de Paula Santander was the main conspirator, Urdaneta and most of the Cabinet sentenced him to death. Fearing for the stability of Gran Colombia, Bolívar instead exiled Santander for life. Conflicts like this one, along with the assassination of Antonio José de Sucre in 1830, led to the collapse of Gran Colombia and the union Bolívar had fought to preserve.

Urdaneta also served as Chief of Army Staff and as Minister of War and Navy. In 1830, he overthrew President Joaquín Mosquera in a military coup and served as President of Gran Colombia until 1831, when José María Obando and José Hilario López overthrew him. Throughout his life, he remained an ardent supporter of Simón Bolívar and one of his most trusted and loyal allies.