Machurucuto Incident

Machurucuto Incident
Date 8 May 1967 - 11 May 1967 Location Machurucuto, 70 Miles East of Caracas, Venezuela Result Victory for the Republic of Venezuela
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.^[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 Venezuela held a press conference denouncing Cuban aggression against the Republic of Venezuela and showing the two captured Cubans, Manuel Gil Castellanos, and Pedro Cabrera Torres.

Notes

1. TIME, 19 May 1967, Latin America: Castro's Targets

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)