Spanish colonization

The city of Trujillo was founded in 1557 by the conquistador and captain Diego García de Paredes, in honor of his homonymous and native town located in Extremadura, Spain. Hostility from the Kuikas Indians and natural calamities forced changes in settlement, but on 27 October 1570 the town was finally located under the temporary name of Trujillo de Nuestra Señora de la Paz. It is also known as the Portable City because of its many foundations due to the fierce resistance of the indigenous people who inhabited that territory when defending their lands.

On 31 December 1676, Maracaibo (separated from the province of Venezuela) and Mérida-La Grita are united in a government, which includes in its territory the current state of Trujillo, called the Province of Mérida del Espíritu Santo of Maracaibo (capital in Mérida) dependent on the Audiencia of Bogotá.

In 1677 the French pirate Michel de Grandmont sacked the city of Trujillo after subduing Maracaibo and Gibraltar on the eastern shore of Lake Maracaibo. In 1678 Governor Jorge de Madureira moves the capital from Merida to Maracaibo and changes the name to Province of Maracaibo.

On September 8, 1777, King Carlos III created the Captaincy General of Venezuela by Royal Decree, adding the surrounding provinces to his jurisdiction "in the governmental and military field" and ordering the governors of those provinces to "obey" the Captain General and "carry out his orders". The provinces of Cumaná, Maracaibo, Guayana, Trinidad and Margarita are separated from the viceroyalty of New Granada and united with the province of Venezuela. In addition, those of Maracaibo and Guayana pass from the jurisdiction of the Audiencia of Bogotá to that of Santo Domingo, to which the others already belong.

It was part of the Province of Caracas until 1786, when it became an integral part of the Province of Maracaibo. A Royal Decree of February 15, 1786, ordered the transfer of the city of Trujillo from the governorship of Caracas to that of Maracaibo. The same document separated the city of Barinas from Maracaibo, choosing it as a separate province.

19th and 20th centuries

In 1810 the city and district of Trujillo separated from the Province of Maracaibo to create a new province, which would be a signatory of the Venezuelan Independence Act in 1811.

On June 15, 1813, Simón Bolívar, the Liberator, signs in the town of Trujillo at 3:00 am the Decree of War to Death against the Spaniards and the Canaries until they were granted freedom, which makes Trujillo a very important city in the history and the War of Independence of Venezuela.

On July 2, 1813, the patriots, under the command of Colonel José Félix Ribas, defeated the royalists in the battle of Niquitao in the framework of the Admirable Campaign.

On November 27, 1820, in the town of Santa Ana de Trujillo, Simón Bolívar and Captain General Pablo Morillo sign the Treaty of Armistice and Regularization of the War. By means of these treaties the war to death was officially repealed, a truce of six months was agreed in addition to constituting a de facto recognition of the Great Colombia by the crown of Spain.

When Venezuela separated from Gran Colombia in 1830, the Department of Zulia was renamed the Province of Maracaibo. The provinces of Merida and Coro were immediately separated, leaving the province composed only of the sections Zulia and Trujillo.

In 1831 the province of Trujillo was constituted by separating from the province of Maracaibo which was composed only of the Zulia section. The state of Trujillo was created in 1863, as it would be during the government of Juan Vicente Gómez, when he created more states after being diminished by Cipriano Castro.

General Simón Bolívar signing the decree of War to Death against Spanish Empire during the War of Independence in Trujillo, 1813

Between 1859 and 1864, during the Federal War, the state was strangely divided into two factions, the conservatives of Jajó and the liberals of Santiago. In 1863 the state was created as Trujillo, formed by the former province of Trujillo that had been created in 1810, with the territory that had been assigned to it in 1856: Trujillo, Escuque, Boconó and Carache. In that same year it was called the Sovereign State of Los Andes; but the Constitution of 1864 recognizes it as the state of Trujillo. In 1881 it is part, together with Mérida and Táchira, of the Great State of Los Andes.

In 1887, the port of La Ceiba became very important when the Gran Ferrocarril La Ceiba-Sabana de Mendoza began operations and later in 1895 it was extended to Motatán. In 1898, it was separated and organized again as Trujillo State, giving itself a new Constitution in 1899; with this denomination it has continued until today.

The railway line begins to lose importance in 1925 with the inauguration of the Trasandina Highway, as well as the progressive decrease of coffee production in Venezuela. In the era of President Juan Vicente Gómez, the population of Trujillo was almost entirely foreign and commercial, but after its fall, its cultural development began. The Ateneo de Trujillo (Kuikas complex) is an example, little by little this population became a city and capital of the state. Among other towns, the most important are Boconó and Valera, both of which are great tourist attractions.

Limits

The boundaries of the state of Trujillo are:

• To the north, it borders the states of Zulia and Lara.
• To the South, it borders the states of Merida and Barinas.
• To the East, it borders the State of Portuguesa
• To the West, it borders on the State of Zulia and has coasts on the Lake of Maracaibo.

Relief

Los Cedros Lagoon, Trujillo State

The relief is rugged because it is located in the Venezuelan Andes (Sierra de Merida), which is part of the great Andes Mountains, although it has a vast flat region in the depression of Lake Maracaibo.

Climate

The climate is tropical mountainous, and the temperature can be between 20° and 10 °C approximately. However, there are areas such as Monay where the temperature can reach 32 °C and in the páramo area, such as the Riecito area at the border of the Urdaneta, Boconó, and Trujillo municipalities, where the average temperature drops to 4 °C. The relief favors the formation of a series of local climates, where the winds play a very important role, penetrating the state from the northeast, as well as from the east. The predominant climate in almost the entire state corresponds, according to Köeppen's classification, to a savanna climate (Aw), with an average annual temperature in the state capital of approximately 23.5 °C and rainfall of up to 936 mm per year. Soils Despite its traditionally agricultural character, the state of Trujillo has a limited amount of land suitable for agriculture. The presence of large mountain areas is a determining factor in this limitation. However, the State Management Plan states that 64.5% of the territory has good conditions for the implementation of a variety of agricultural production systems of a certain intensity, and that the remaining 35.5% is covered by natural protective vegetation. The development of an intensive agriculture must be subordinated to conservation practices of the resources involved, that is why three levels of preservation of lands with potential for agricultural activity are proposed: maximum, medium and low, expressing each one of them different degrees of flexibility in the defense of the soil resource.

Hydrography

Burate River, Trujillo State

Rivers

• Motatan River
• Carache River
• Boconó River
• Burate River
• River Castan
• Jimenez River
• River Caus
• Rio Pocó
• Piedras Negras River
• Escuque River, known as the Quebrada de Escuque.

Executive Power

It is composed by the Governor of the State of Trujillo and a group of State Secretaries chosen by him to assist him in the government functions. The Governor is elected by the people through direct and secret vote for a period of four years and with the possibility of one or more reelections as of 2009 for an equal period, being in charge of the state administration.

Since 1989 the Governors are chosen in direct elections by the people, the current Trujillo Government is led by Henry Rangel Silva.

Legislative Power

The state legislature is the unicameral Legislative Council of the State of Trujillo, elected by the people through a universal, direct and secret vote every four years, with the possibility of being reelected for other consecutive periods, under a system of proportional representation of the population of the state and its municipalities. The state has 9 legislators, of which 1 belongs to the opposition (UNT) and 8 to the government (PSUV and UVE).

Trujillo Police

Like the other 23 federal entities of Venezuela, the State maintains its own police force, which is supported and complemented by the National Police and the Venezuelan National Guard.

Headquarters of the General Directorate of the State Police of Trujillo

Race and ethnicity

According to the 2011 Census, the racial composition of the population was:^[7]

Agriculture

The great variety of geological, geomorphological and climatic factors have determined the existence of a great variety of soils in the state, which has a total of 291,280 ha of agricultural land, representing 39.36% of its total area. In addition some 55,110 ha of livestock use (7.45%), some 307,020 ha of forest vegetation (41.49%) and 86,590 ha of combined use (11.70%). In the plain in contact with Lake Maracaibo or "low zone", specifically in jurisdiction of the municipalities of Andrés Bello, La Ceiba, Sucre, Bolívar and Monte Carmelo, and in the plains of Monay (municipality of Pampán), the highest proportion It comprises about 200,000 ha of land suitable for agricultural and forestry use for the cultivation of cereals,oilseeds,roots and tubers,vegetables and plantations and/or fruit trees.

One of the oldest irrigation systems and agricultural settlements in the country, El Cenizo, was built in this area and development programmes have been undertaken It is also located on the plain in the industrial zone of Agua Santa, of the same name as the Caús-Pocó, with fruit trees, cereals and an important Cattle farm. In the plains of Monay, located in the north and east of the AguaViva, sugar cane production has a great competitive advantage due to its proximity to the La Pastora power station and the agronomic conditions of its soils.

National Parks

• The General Cruz Carrillo National Park (Guaramacal Park) is an interesting ecosystem located in the mountains of Guaramacal, formed by cloud forests and moors with little intervention. It was created according to Decree No. 2,170 of May 25, 1988, to protect it both for its environmental interest and to ensure the production of water for the supply of the surrounding population centers and for the Boconó-Tucupido hydroelectric development. It is located in the jurisdiction of the states of Trujillo and Portuguesa; it has an extension of 210 km2, of which 193.11 km2 are included in the state of Trujillo.

Guaramacal National Park, Trujillo

• Dinira National Park was created according to Decree No. 2564 dated November 30, 1988, to protect the upper basins of theTocuyo River, in the state of Lara; the Chabasquén and Boconó Rivers, in the state of Portuguesa; and the Carache River, in the state of Trujillo, and to guarantee the water resources necessary for human supply, agricultural development and biological diversity. It is located towards the northeast of the state, on the border with the states of Lara and Portuguesa, with whom It has an area of 453.28 km2, of which only 97.41 km2 correspond to the state of Trujillo.
• The Sierra de La Culata National Park (named after the Meridian conservationist Antonio José Uzcátegui) occupies an area of 2,004 km2, of which only 106 km2 are in the jurisdiction of the state of Trujillo, and the rest in the state of Merida. It was created according to Decree No. 640 dated December 7, 1989, to preserve the plant formations, ecological processes, biological species and physical features existing in the area, as well as for the integral protection of the upper river basins Chama, Mucujún, Capaz, Motatán,Tucaní and Santo Domingo, to ensure the supply of permanent and good quality water for human consumption, irrigation and hydroelectricity.