June 24th is a holiday in Venezuela. We celebrate the Battle of Carabobo, a decisive defeat to the Spanish armies, fought in 1821 at the Sabana de Carabobo. Since 1810, Venezuela had declared independence from Spain, which by the time had a French king (Joseph Bonaparte). While Spain itself opposed the French occupation, Venezuela (most of it, in any case) was opposing any kind of colonial domination.

Source

After a long and bloody Independence War, the patriots here took advantage of the complications Spain was having (now with Fernando VII back in the throne enjoying the worst reputation of any Spanish ruler). The almost 6000 Spanish troops left at their own device were not enough for the 8,000 that Bolivar gathered to fight what should have been the last battle (they would need two more years to seal the independence).

Miguel de la Torre led the royal troops (about 4500 after sending 1000 to defend Caracas, thus biting Bolivar's bait). Simón Bolivar, José Antonio Páez, Manuel Cedeño and Ambrosio Plaza led the patriots' armies. At a pivotal point of the battle, Paez got some help from a British batallion commanded by Thomas Farriar.
The battler was briliantly fought in about an hour and Venezuela claimed the victory even if at great price in lives lost.

The opposition to tyranical rulers lives on, even if in rather uneven conditions. The neo-kings have found ingenious ways to hide the cruelty of their methods of oppresion. There are not armies on our side now, only civilians trying to expose the truth and demand what is fair. The cost in lives, unfortunately equals that of any war and even though we do not see a Farriar batallion coming to the rescue, it is our duty to oppose the king with whatever weapons we can.

Thanks for your reading

This was my entry to @mariannewest and @felt.buzz’s 5-Minute Daily Freewrite: Tuesday Prompt: oppose the king. You can see the details here

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