MARACAIBO, a city and seaport of Venezuela and capital of the State of Zulia, is situated on the west shore of the broad channel which connects Lake Maracaibo with the Gulf of Vene zuela, or Maracaibo, about 25m. from the mouth of the channel opening into the latter. Pop. (1926), there is a considerable foreign element in the vicinity, largely engaged in petroleum operations. The best residential suburb, Haticos, extends along the lake shore toward the south. The city is provided with tramways, telephone service and electric lighting, but the water supply and drainage are inferior. The most important buildings are the executive's residence, the legis lative chambers, the municipal hall, the prison, the market, a hospital and six churches. The city also has a school of arts, a public library and public gardens. Within the past few years the development of petroleum around the shore of Maracaibo lake has greatly promoted business activity in the city. In colonial times Maracaibo had a famous Jesuits' college (now gone) and was one of the educational centres of Spanish America; the city now has a national college and a nautical school. The industries include shipbuilding, and the manufacture of saddlery and other leather products, bricks and tile, rum, beer, chocolate and coco nut oil. Maracaibo has become one of the most important petro leum export centres in Latin America. Some oil is also refined
here. The bar at the entrance to Maracaibo channel does not admit vessels drawing more than i2ft., but there is a depth of 3oft. inside and near the city. Steam communication is main tained on the Catatumbo and Zulia rivers to Villamizar, and on the Escalante to Santa Cruz. The principal exports from Mara caibo are petroleum, coffee, hides and skins, cabinet and dye woods, cocoa and mangrove bark, to which may be added divi divi, sugar, copaiba, gamela and hemp straw for paper-making, and fruits.
Maracaibo was founded in 1571 by Alonso Pacheco, who gave it the name of Nueva Zamora. Up to 1668 the entrepOt for the inland settlements was a station named Gibraltar at the head of the lake, but the destruction of that station by pirates in that year transferred this valuable trade to Maracaibo. The city did not figure actively in the War of Independence until 1821 (Jan. 28), when the province declared its independence and sought an alliance with Colombia. This brought to an end the armistice between Bolivar and Morillo, and thenceforward the city ex perienced all the changing fortunes of war until its final capture by the revolutionists in 1823.