Due to Puerto Cabello's location it was attacked by buccaneers and was a popular market for Dutch smugglers during the 17th century. Most of the contraband trade consisted of dealing in cacao with neighboring island Cura�ao, colonized by the Dutch. Also Puerto Cabello was at that time under Dutch control.
It was not until 1730 that the Spanish took over the port, after the Real Compa��a Guipuzcoana had moved in. This company built warehouses, wharves and an array of forts to protect the harbor.
During the War of Jenkin's Ear, the commodore Charles Knowles at command of the 70-gun HMS Suffolk in 1743 received orders to carry out attacks on the Spanish settlements at Puerto Cabello and La Guaira. The Spanish were well informed of the plans, and were able to recruit extra defenders, and were supplied with gunpowder by the Dutch. Consequently an attack on La Guaira on 18 February 1743 was beaten off by the defenders. Knowles withdrew his force and refitted at Cura�ao before attempting an assault on Puerto Cabello on 15 April, and again on 24 April, but both assaults were beaten back. Knowles called off the expedition and returned to Jamaica.
By the 1770s Puerto Cabello came to be the most fortified town on the Venezuela�s coast. The San Felipe castle and the Solano fortress remain from the period. It was the last Spanish royalist stronghold during Venezuela�s war for independence, it was captured by Jos� Antonio P�ez in 1823.
In 1962, Puerto Cabello was the site of an uprising, known as El Porte�azo, by pro-Fidel Castro naval officers, marines, and members of the FALN. Although loyalist naval forces were able to quickly take back the base and arrest the rebels, they were unable to prevent the marines from occupying the city and arming pro-Castro forces. Despite ambushes and bloody house-to-house fighting, loyal National Guard and mechanized regular forces were able to retake Puerto Cabello.[2]
