The base takes its everyday name from the La Carlota hacienda on which it was built. Spanish-language Wikipedia records that the land was turned into a civil and military airport in April 1946, the year the Fuerza Aérea Venezolana became an independent service. English Wikipedia says it first served tourist and private flights.

The air force formalised its presence step by step. A Destacamento Aéreo Especial La Carlota was set up in 1962 and raised to the status of an air base on 22 July 1966; Spanish-language Wikipedia’s article on the service dates the base’s activation to 1966 as well. On 5 December 1970 the Comandancia General, the air force’s general command, moved in, and it has stayed there since. The base was named after Generalissimo Francisco de Miranda, the precursor of Venezuelan independence.

The city grew around it. The Parque del Este opened next door in 1961, and by the 2000s La Carlota was a military enclave in the middle of residential districts. Spanish-language Wikipedia records that it was declared a military security zone in 2002, closed to public use in 2005 (military and air-ambulance flights continued), declared an asset of cultural interest in 2007, and that in 2008 the authorities agreed to turn it progressively into public space; part of it is now a park. The same article says flights were banned in 2014, which could not be checked against an official source.

On 23 January 1958, as the armed forces and the street turned against him, Marcos Pérez Jiménez left Miraflores palace for La Carlota and flew into exile in the Dominican Republic, according to English Wikipedia. The air force had set the crisis in motion: on 1 January its fighters, from the Boca de Río base near Maracay, had flown over Caracas in a failed uprising.

On 27 November 1992 the second coup attempt of that year turned the air force against itself. English Wikipedia lists the Generalissimo Francisco de Miranda Air Base among the targets bombed by rebel aircraft, together with the Helicoide, Miraflores and a police headquarters. The rebels were defeated the same day.

On 30 April 2019 the opposition leader Juan Guaidó, who claimed the interim presidency, appeared with Leopoldo López and a group of soldiers at the Altamira overpass beside the base and called supporters to La Carlota. A Reuters timeline cited by Wikipedia says troops inside the base fired tear gas at 6:44 am, and CBC News reported that armoured vehicles driven by government loyalists ran into protesters nearby later that morning. Guaidó called it Operation Freedom; the Maduro government called it an attempted coup. The base stayed under government control.

In the early hours of 3 January 2026, United States forces struck targets around Caracas and on the coast while special forces captured Nicolás Maduro and his wife, who were taken to New York for trial on narco-terrorism charges. English Wikipedia’s article on the operation says early reports placed the explosions at La Carlota and Fort Tiuna, and its article on the base, citing the Miami Herald, says the airfield was hit at about 2 am local time. Explosions were also reported at Higuerote, where an aircraft and a Buk-M2E air defence system were destroyed.

The two governments describe that night differently. Washington called it a law-enforcement operation with military support; the Venezuelan government called it a kidnapping and imperialist aggression, and UN officials and experts said it violated the UN Charter. Delcy Rodríguez became acting president on 5 January. No official figure for damage or for aircraft destroyed at La Carlota has been published, and none is given here.

The headquarters kept working. On 1 April 2026 the new defence minister, General-in-Chief Gustavo González López, visited the AMB’s general command at La Carlota, which the ministry called the “house” of the service, and gave guidance on planning air operations; the ministry’s report says nothing about damage or repairs.