Venezuela achieves home rule: Vicente Emparán, Governor of the Captaincy General is removed by the people of Caracas and a junta is installed.
Vicente Emparn (Spanish pronunciation: [biente empaan], or sometimes Emparan [empaan]; 1747 3 October 1842) was a Spanish Basque Captain General.
Emparn was born in Azpeitia, Guipzcoa, Basque Country, in 1747 as the son of Jos Joaqun de Emparan. He was governor of Cuman Province in the Captaincy General of Venezuela between 1792 and 1804, where he had gained a favorable reputation among Venezuelans.By 1808, Emparn had returned to Spain during the Peninsular War. There Joseph I's recently installed government named him Captain General of Venezuela, but after this appointment Emparn crossed over to the territory controlled by the Supreme Central Junta. He swore allegiance to the Junta and to Ferdinand VII, the king who was being held captive by the French invaders. In January 1809 the Central Junta ratified his appointment to replace the former captain general, Manuel de Guevara y Vasconcelos, who had died two years earlier.
Emparn arrived in Venezuela in May 1809. During the following year he successfully avoided several attempts by the elites to establish a junta in Venezuela (among them the famous Conspiracin de Los Mantuanos), often by personally talking with proponents of the movements. Although a well-liked governor, on 19 April 1810, various members of the municipal council (cabildo) of Caracas and other important residents took advantage of the large crowds gathered for Maundy Thursday services to orchestrate popular agitation for the establishment of a junta. The crowd prevented him from arriving at the Cathedral for the day's services and he was directed to the cabildo building (today site of the Casa Amarilla) just across the main square from the Cathedral. There he met with an expanded council (cabildo abierto). Emparn spoke directly to the crowd from the balcony of the building and seeing the amount of support for a junta, he voluntarily stepped down. The cabildo transformed itself into the Supreme Junta of Caracas, and began to manage the affairs of the province. Following his ouster, he left for Philadelphia, United States, from where he reported to the Spanish government on the events of 19 April, before returning to Spain. There, it seems, he was tried for his failure to stop the establishment of a junta, but was acquitted. He died in El Puerto de Santa Mara, Cdiz, Spain on 3 October 1842.
Venezuela (; American Spanish: [beneˈswela] (listen)), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela (Spanish: República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea. It has a territorial extension of 916,445 km2 (353,841 sq mi), and its population was estimated at 28 million in 2019. The capital and largest urban agglomeration is the city of Caracas.
The continental territory is bordered on the north by the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Colombia, Brazil on the south, Trinidad and Tobago to the north-east and on the east by Guyana. The Venezuelan government maintains a claim against Guyana to Guayana Esequiba. Venezuela is a federal presidential republic consisting of 23 states, the Capital District and federal dependencies covering Venezuela's offshore islands. Venezuela is among the most urbanized countries in Latin America; the vast majority of Venezuelans live in the cities of the north and in the capital.
The territory of Venezuela was colonized by Spain in 1522 amid resistance from indigenous peoples. In 1811, it became one of the first Spanish-American territories to declare independence from the Spanish and to form part, as a department, of the first federal Republic of Colombia (historiographically known as Gran Colombia). It separated as a full sovereign country in 1830. During the 19th century, Venezuela suffered political turmoil and autocracy, remaining dominated by regional military dictators until the mid-20th century. Since 1958, the country has had a series of democratic governments, as an exception where most of the region was ruled by military dictatorships, and the period was characterized by economic prosperity. Economic shocks in the 1980s and 1990s led to major political crises and widespread social unrest, including the deadly Caracazo riots of 1989, two attempted coups in 1992, and the impeachment of a President for embezzlement of public funds charges in 1993. The collapse in confidence in the existing parties saw the 1998 Venezuelan presidential election, the catalyst for the Bolivarian Revolution, which began with a 1999 Constituent Assembly, where a new Constitution of Venezuela was imposed. The government's populist social welfare policies were bolstered by soaring oil prices, temporarily increasing social spending, and reducing economic inequality and poverty in the early years of the regime. The 2013 Venezuelan presidential election was widely disputed leading to widespread protest, which triggered another nationwide crisis that continues to this day.Venezuela is a developing country and ranks 113th on the Human Development Index. It has the world's largest known oil reserves and has been one of the world's leading exporters of oil. Previously, the country was an underdeveloped exporter of agricultural commodities such as coffee and cocoa, but oil quickly came to dominate exports and government revenues. The excesses and poor policies of the incumbent government led to the collapse of Venezuela's entire economy. The country struggles with record hyperinflation, shortages of basic goods, unemployment, poverty, disease, high child mortality, malnutrition, severe crime and corruption. These factors have precipitated the Venezuelan migrant crisis where more than three million people have fled the country. By 2017, Venezuela was declared to be in default regarding debt payments by credit rating agencies. The crisis in Venezuela has contributed to a rapidly deteriorating human rights situation, including increased abuses such as torture, arbitrary imprisonment, extrajudicial killings and attacks on human rights advocates. Venezuela is a charter member of the UN, Organization of American States (OAS), Union of South American Nations (UNASUR), ALBA, Mercosur, Latin American Integration Association (LAIA) and Organization of Ibero-American States (OEI).