Venezuela celebrates "5 de julio" - why it matters to Trinidad

Venezuela celebrates its Independence Day ... the South American country declared independence from Spain on July 5th, 1811. Up to that day, the undisputed maximum authority by Divine mandate was the King of Spain, who at the time was Fernando VII. Today, the King of Spain is Juan Carlos I and Venezuela is totally different. According to historians, from the moment of the Act of Independence, the King became a symbol of despotism, arbitrariness and abuse. Spain stopped being the origin of civilization and became the one to blame for any ignorance, backwardness and misery in Venezuela. At the time the Province of Margarita was represented by Manuel Placido Maneiro, the Province of Cumaná by Francisco Javier de Mayz, José Gabriel Alcalá, Juan Bermúdez de Castro and Mariano de la Cova, and the Province of Barcelona by Francisco Policarpio Ortiz, Francisco de Miranda and José María Ramírez. A map would show that the above provinces are near the island of Trinidad. Trinidad would therefore have likely been included in Venezuela's Act of Independence had it still been under Spanish rule. Spanish rule over Trinidad, which had been going on for centuries like the rest of Venezuela, ended when the final Spanish Governor, Don José María Chacón surrendered the island to a British fleet of 18 warships under the command of Sir Ralph Abercromby on February 18, 1797. In other words, had Venezuela declared independence from Spain only 14 years earlier, today your first language might not be English and you would have been Venezuelan.