Machurucuto Incident

Machurucuto Incident
Date 8 May 1967 - 11 May 1967 Location Machurucuto, 70 miles east of Caracas, Venezuela Result Venezuelan government victory
Belligerents
Cubans and Venezuelans trained by Cuba	Venezuelan National Guard. Army of Venezuela.
Strength
12	200-300?
Casualties and losses
10 Dead 2 Captured	unknown

The Machurucuto Incident was a battle between Venezuelan Army and National Guard troops and Cuban trained guerrillas. Some Venezuelans remember the event as the Invasion of Machurucuto. On 10 May 1967 a dozen guerrillas landed in Venezuela at the beach of Machurucuto. The Army of Venezuela and the National Guard engaged them on the night of 10 May and the battle lasted until 11 May. Two men were captured and the rest were killed in battle. The guerrillas had completed paramilitary training in Cuba to train Venezuelan guerrillas in the Venezuelan Andes to overthrow President Raul Leoni.^[1]

Landing

On 8 May, twelve guerrillas arrived off the coast of Machurucuto in two rafts. While preparing to land one of the rafts capsized drowning one guerrilla. The rest disembarked on the coast and abandoned their rafts.

Battle

A fisherman spotted the two rafts and notified the armed forces. They discovered and engaged the guerrillas on the evening of 10 May and the battle lasted until the morning of 11 May. In the fighting ten guerrillas were killed and two captured; any Venezuelan casualties are unknown.

Aftermath

Soon after, the government of President Raul Leoni held a press conference denouncing Cuban aggression against Venezuela and showing the two captured Cubans, Manuel Gil Castellanos and Pedro Cabrera Torres. Cuba was denounced by Venezuela to the OAS. Cuba did not recognize the action even if the investigation of the AK47s in possession of the guerrillas were identified as weapons sold by Czechoslovakia to Cuba. The Government of Venezuela broke all relations with Cuba after this incident and then take them back in 1974.

Notes

External links

• Time Magazine's Article "Castro's Targets"
• Machurucuto: historia de una invasión La intervención cubana en Venezuela (Spanish)
• Desembarco cubano en Machurucuto, 1967 (Spanish)