Last modified: 2000-01-21 by dov gutterman
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![[Flag of Venezuela]](../images/ve.gif)
National Flag
by Giuseppe Bottasini
State Flag in circular and straight up stars
allignment
by Guillermo Aveledo
See also:
Coronel Hugo Chavez say some time ago that he want to change
the national flag if they win the elections. Currently Chavez is
president and in the last elections won 120 of 131 seats in the
Constituant Assembly. We can wait some change in the new
Constitution. Anyone has the proposal of Constitution?
Jaume Olle' 7 September 1999
The popular proposals today are many. The new Government, led
by Lt Cl (R) Hugo Chavez (an ardent Bolivar fan), has proposed
unofficially a flag with eight stars, rescuing the wishes of
Simon Bolivar. But projects vary: not only they change the
positions of the stars from one day to another, but they even
change their minds on the right number of stars
Guillermo Aveledo , 8 September 1999
According to Spanish newspaper "El País" of 22nd
August 1999, page 2, one of Venezuela's new National Constituent
Assembly suggestions for the Constitution being drafted is to add
one more star to the national flag, as homage to what was before
called the Province of Guayana.
Santiago Dotor , 14 September 1999
I have received from the Dutch vexillologist Jos Poels some
informations concerning the possible future flag of Venezuela,
that is the present flag but with one more star. This flag
already existed in the past. It was adopted on 20 November 1817
and lasted until 1830. I got the official text of Bolivar's
decree in Spanish.
Pascal Vagnat 14 September 1999
Here is the translation of the information that was provided
by Pascal Vagnat :
Having increased (or augmented) the number of Provinces which
make up the Republic of
Venezuela, through the incorporation the Province of Guayana
decreed last
October 15th, I have decreed and I decree :
Single Article (or Article One) - A star shall be added to the
seven stars displayed on the national flag of Venezuela, as
emblem (or symbol) of the Province of Guayana, so that the number
of stars shall hereforth be eight.
Given, signed by my hand, sealed with the provisional State seal
and endorsed by the Office Secretary, at the Government Palace in
Angostura city, on the 20th November 1817.
Santiago Dotor and Gonzalo Guerra 15 September
1999
As far as I know, the "Province of Guayana" is a
stripe of territory formerly in dispute between Spain and the
United Kingdom, sometimes addressed as the "Spanish Guayana",
and later and up to today between Venezuela and Guyana. According
to different claims and adjudications, the territory can be
considered anything from a very thin strip of land close to the
Venezuelan border up to 2/3rds of Guyana's territory, with a
Venezuelan claim reaching the Essequibo river line.
Santiago Dotor 15 September 1999
There were more than one Guyana. There were the French and
English Guyanas. When the strategic importance of keeping the
Guyana as a safe harbor near the caribeean diminushed, Great
Britain conceeded independence to the British Guyana. By this
time, the claim on this territory was been made not by Spain, but
by Venezuela. In most Official Venezuelan maps, it is shown as
"Territorio Esequibo" or "Zona en reclamación".
As of today, I see no way that Venezuela can regain this land,
and there is little to gain from doing so. Legally, Venezuela may
still claim it, but in the mean time the Venezuelan goverment has
recognized the State of Guyana, and we have bilateral
arrangements, including the sale of Hydroelectric power to this
claimed territory.
Please check out this site for more information, it's the Guyana
side of the story http://www.guyanareview.com/rroom/venezuela.html
So, in short, yes, the Province of Guyana is no more. It is now
an independent country simply called Guyana. That change probably
was enough to justify a change in the flag.
Ricardo Kowalski 15 September 1999
Anyway, even accepting the broadest Venezuelan claims over
Guyanan territory, there would still be about 33% territory left,
so there would be four Guayanas:
Santiago Dotor 15 September 1999
Well, in fact Venezualan Guayana does still exist, and it's
named the state of Bolivar. At the time of the declaration of
Angostura (renamed 1864 Ciudad Bolivar) Simon Bolivar had a
grandiose scheme for the Province of Guyana, where Alexander von
Humboldt had just found vast mineral richess. He planned the
South American capital there (Ciudad Guyana) and connections from
there through the Amazone region, etc. That scheme never became a
reality; neither was it completely forgotten. Two aims are still
on the agenda: 1. Development of Venezuelan Guyana, that is the
state of Bolivar (possibly already renamed (or part of it), hence
possibly the extra star) with as its center the new town, founded
1961 as Ciudad Guayana, renamed Santo Tome de Guayana, planned to
be a metropolis of over a million inhabitants, with (1980) 250.000
inhabitants. It is now the capital of Bolivar state (and as
eccentric lying as Ciudad Bolivar; it might become the new
capital of Venezuela, in which case it would be quite central).
2. Claims to large parts of the independent state of Guyana (see
above), first claimed by the independent state of Venezuela in
the second part of the 19th century. This claim has been on the
diplomatic table for some 140 years now and concerns about 135.000
sq. km, that is c. 62 % of Guyana.
Sources:
Merriam-Webster New Geographical Dictionary, 1988
Tudyka: 'Confilcthaarden in de Derde Wereld', 1985
Kramers 'Aardrijkskundig Woordenboek', 1883
The 1980 South American Handbook
Jarig Bakker 15 September 1999
.In fact Venezuela has a claim that covers almost 2/3rds of
Guyana, although I dont think they control any of it.
Antonio Martins 16 September 1999
Here is some more information on the Venezuelan claims on
Guyana's territory:
"From 1682, Catalan Capuchin monks established foundations
in Guayana [west of the Essequibo river] which strengthened the
Spanish conquest of the area. (...) In 1790 the Dutch-founded
Stabrock was taken by the British and became nowadays' Georgetown.
Along the 17th century, (...) the British established themselves
on the Lower Oiapoque (Leigh Expedition); but by the end of the
17th century only the Dutch colonies stood [ie. not the British
or French ones].
"A [Spanish] province of Guayana existed as part of the
viceroyalty of the new Kingdom of Granada from 1732 to 1763. From
that date on it belonged to the Captaincy-General of Venezuela,
and after this country's independence it became the [federal]
state of Guayana (...).
"In 1835 Schomburgk, a German naturalist, at the request of
the British government, marked the limits of its colony in
Guayana: the frontier with Venezuela was established in the
Essequibo river. According to Venezuela, the British took
territories outside the Schomburgk line between 1835 and 1897. By
the end of the 19th century, Venezuela demanded from Great
Britain more than 62000 km2 of its Guayana colony.
"In 1895 the situation grew tense and the USA forced an
arbitration: an international commission (British, Americans and
Russians: Paris 1899) gave the larger part of the disputed area
to Great Britain, drawing the frontier which nowadays Guyana
considers correct but Venezuela opposes. A 1970 treaty between
Venezuela and Guyana reconsidered [=accepted?] the Paris frontier."
Source: "Enciclopedia Larousse", Madrid 1981
Santiago Dotor 16 September 1999
More than half of Guyana's (former British Guyana) teritory is
claimed by Venezuela (as a matter of fact, it is legally
determined that all venezuelan maps should draw stripes over the
reclamation zone, wich gives Venezuela a second "leg").
Guillermo Aveledo 17 September 1999
A ten-star proposal is being discussed by the Constitutional
Assembly, but it has not catched on
Guillermo Aveledo 24 September 1999
A photograph show a meeting
of the Constitutional Commision of our Constitutional Assembly (which
is drafting a new Consitution). It appeared on the first page of
one of our daily papers, "EL UNIVERSAL". The caption
read as follows:
"PLENARY SESSIONS TO START OCTOBER 14th:
The Constitutional Commision, presided by Hermann Escarra [the
man at the left end of the picture] has agreed on the discussion
proccess, either articly by article or in blocks, should be
determined by the Assembly. The full project [of the new
Constitution] should be ready for the next 12th of Ocotber,
including the eight star on the flag, which has served as the
background for the talks among the Assembly men"
The eight-stars-flag is supposed to be Bolivar's flag (he added
the 8th star in 1817, after Guayana was liberated; the first
seven stars represent, and are an homage to, the seven provinces
which in 1810 declared their independance for Spain). However,
Simon Bolivar (our founding father) merely modified the flag
designed by the Cariaco Congresillo, de facto acknowledging the
previous design.
Beyond that, it wasn't needed to undergo Constitutional changes
to modify the flag: the 1961 Constitution (current, but de facto
suspended by the Assembly), states as follows:
"ARTICLE 5th: The National flag, with the colours yellow,
blue and red; the
National anthem, "Glory to the brave People", and the
Coat of Arms of the
Republic are the symbols of the Fatherland. Law will determin its
carachteristics and rule its use.
Guillermo Aveledo 30 September 1999
According to Reuters (October 21), the Constitutional Assembly
of Veenzuela has started to discuss the President Chavez's
proposal of the new constitution. Two articles - intriguing for
us - were rejected: new name of the country (The Bolivarian
Republic of Venezuela) and new 8-star flag.
Jan Zrzavy 21 October 1999
From: Agence France Presse , November 13, 1999 :
Venezuela changes name to "Bolivarian Republic of
Venezuela"
Venezuela's Constitutional Assembly on Friday approved a name
change for the country, which in the future will be called the
Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has said the name change was an
essential part of his "revolutionary project" to change
the country's constitution.
"Bolivarian" referes to revolutionary figure and
national hero Simon Bolivar.
Members of a style commission agreed the text of the name change,
although it has not yet been decided when the name change would
go into effect.
David Fowler , 14 November 1999
Venezuela has, if the people give a YES vote to this
Constitutional change , a new name: República Bolivariana de
Venezuela. However, the Flag will remain the same.
Guillermo Aveledo , 14 November 1999
see also Coat of Arms
at :http://www.ucab.edu.ve/UCAB/Estudiantiles/Venezuela/bandera.htm (Not availible anymore) one finds :
"Our flag is made up of three horizontal stripes of equal
width. Yellow stands for the richnesses of the territory, blue
for the sea separating us from Spain and red for the blood shed
by our patriots during the Independence [War].
Our national flag was brought by General Francisco de Miranda in
his second expedition on March 12th, 1806 into "Vela de Coro"
; this is why the Flag Day is held on March 12th. It was
recognised as national standard by Congress on July 15th, 1811
and was firstly hoisted as such on July 14th that year."
translated by Santiago Dotor - 30 December 1998
Coro, which is the oldest city in the mainland of Venezuela,
is directly on the shoreline. A lookout post was placed north of
the city, and was named "La Vela de Coro", literally
"The watch over Coro". The Spanish word "vela"
can both mean sail and vigil. This later is the correct sense of
this word, the place where the vigil, the watch, took place.
Ricardo Kowalski 15 September 1999
Flags in Venezuela are made in a very informal, quite crafty
way. AFAIK There isn't any official guideline or chart for the
construction of the national flag, so there are flags with
smaller stars, narrower archs, longer stripes, different colours.In
the current constitution, it says, about the flag, that this is
the tricolori of yellow, blue and red.
Plain and simple. Not much further explanatios are set in the law
of National Symbols.
Guillermo Tell 5 November 1999
circular and straight up stars allignment (see
below)
by Guillermo Aveledo , 30 December 1999
In the national Venezolan flag the stars are for (hoist to fly):
Caracas, Cumana, Barinas, Barcelona, Margarita, Mérida and
Trujillo. The seven provinces revolted against Spain colonial
rule.
Jaume Olle - 14 February 1997
in last "Vexillacta" (a belgian vexillolgical review),
a note about the venezuelian flag states that the 7 stars are
disposed so as to have a point orientated towards the exterior of
the imaginary circle of stars.
Armand Noel du Payrat , 20 December 1999
according to the Law of National Symbols they could be
arranged like that, as it did not specify, and we could also (and
usualy) find the version of the flag depicted above: the point of
th stars pointing straight up. As I've been paying attention to
any venezuelan flags I see on the street (and there are many: we
are on a national duel due to the mudslides and floods which we
suffered last week), and have noticed both variants used in very
similar proportions. My count: 35 (straight up) to 33 (circular
allignment).
Guillermo Aveledo , 20 December 1999
We discussed a few weeks ago about the presence on civil flag
and ensign of Venezuela of the Coat-of-Arms (Whitney Smith writes
there is no COA)
I phoned for confirmation to Venezuelian Embassy in Paris, they
answered me very strongly that there is always a COA on all flags
& ensigns.
So, who is right ?
Armand Noel du Payrat - 1998-02-25
In The Statesman's Yearbook 1993/94 I read: National flag:
Three horizontal stripes of yellow, blue and red with an arc of 7
white stars in the center, and the national arms in the canton.
On this URL: http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/4841/simb_ven.htm
There are the national symbols, among which the bandera with the
CoA in the canton.
Jarig Bakker 16 September 1999
After a second query (including speaking to venezuelians), I
come to the conclusion that the flag with the CoA is the state
flag (and naval ensign), and that the civil flag & ensign has
no CoA (only triband with arc of stars in the blue stripe)
Armand Noel du Payrat 17 September 1999
The State Flag (with the coat of arms) is of civil use as well,
and I have not seen an presidential standard, or military flag or
naval ensign that would be different to that flag. I have, though
seen that,in formal rooms, like the office of the Presidents and
the heads of Congressa flag with a golden-yellow fringe (not a
border) is used. I am told it is mainly decorative. Every citizen
is allowed to use the flag, although it should be respected . I
have never seen a flag on an office building without the coat of
arms on the hoist end of the yellow stripe.
Guillermo Aveledo 24 September 1999
The naval ensign of Venezuela is the national flag with the
coa in the upper left corner.
Source: Christian Fogd Pedersen - Flaggor i färg, 1973
Marcus Wendel 15 September 1999
The flag of the president is the tricolor with proportions 1:1
and the coa (covering approx. half of the flag) centered on the
flag and with four stars (one above, one below, one to the right
and one to the left).
Source: Christian Fogd Pedersen - Flaggor i färg, 1973
Marcus Wendel 15 September 1999
No party is allowed to use, among its symbols, theVenezuelan
Flag or its colours (in any arranged order), the name of Simon
Bolivar and the Coat of arms. At party rallies, candidate podiums
and so on, it is alowed to use all of these (but it carries
certain controversy). Parties rarely wave flags, beyond some rags
with their colours (very rarelywith their logos on it), although
I have seen a Communist Party Flag at somerallies. A flag with
eight stars (as Bolivar's model in 1817 and 1819) has been flown
at the current party in power (Fifth Republic Movement) rallies.But
they are alligned in various positions, and move around the flag
from one rally to another
Guillermo Aveledo 24 September 1999
