News of Spanish losses in the 1808 Napoleonic Wars soon reached Latin America , but only on 19 April 1810 did the " cabildo " ( city council ) of Caracas decide to follow the example set by the Spanish provinces two years earlier . On 5 July 1811 , seven of the ten provinces of the Captaincy General of Venezuela declared their independence in the Venezuelan Declaration of Independence . The First Republic of Venezuela was lost in 1812 following the 1812 Caracas earthquake and the Battle of La Victoria ( 1812 ) . Simón Bolívar led an " Admirable Campaign " to retake Venezuela , establishing the Second Republic of Venezuela in 1813 , but this did not last long either , falling to a combination of a local uprising and Spanish royalist reconquest
1812 Caracas earthquake
1812 Caracas earthquake
Spain–Venezuela relations