CARABOBO, BATTLE OF

(June 24, 1821), during the Latin-American wars of independence, a victory won by South American patriots over Spanish royalists on the plains near Caracas; it virtually freed Venezuela from Spanish control. Following the instructions of the recently installed liberal government in Spain, Gen. Pablo Morillo had signed an armistice with Simn Bolvar, commander of the revolutionary forces in northern South America, in November 1820. Subsequently, the patriots broke the terms of the agreement by moving against the royalist garrison on Lake Maracaibo. At Carabobo, Bolvar led his somewhat numerically superior army of about 6,500 troops, including volunteers from the British Isles, to victory over the Spaniards, commanded by General La Torre. Gen. Jos Antonio Pez and his llaneros (plainsmen) and the British and Irish volunteers routed the Spanish right wing while the patriot cavalry crushed their centre.