The base stands on land once called the Potreros San Vicente, owned by the Martínez family until the government bought it in 1934 for 280,000 bolívares, according to Spanish-language Wikipedia, which draws on histories by Caraballo Guzmán, Paredes and others. Nothing was built on it for almost two decades. Work began in 1952 with the control tower, during the oil-funded military build-up of the Pérez Jiménez years, when the FAV was buying its first jets from Britain and the United States.

On 9 December 1955, for the 35th anniversary of the air force, General Marcos Pérez Jiménez inaugurated the base himself and Lieutenant Colonel Alberto Delgado Ontivero became its first commander. Spanish-language Wikipedia records a change of name by Resolution A-57 of 2 December 1958, after Pérez Jiménez had fallen; the earlier name is not given in the sources checked. An industrial area for heavy maintenance followed from 1962 and a theatre-chapel in 1964.

Over those decades the base hosted the core of the FAV’s jet and transport fleet: F-86 Sabres, Canberra bombers, Vampires and Venoms, then Canadair VF-5s and Mirages, together with C-47D, C-123B, C-130 and G.222 transports. In 1980 it was activated as an autonomous base and modernised, with a new communications network, an electrical substation and a rebuilt control tower, in time for the F-16.

In 1981 Venezuela bought 24 new F-16s from General Dynamics, 18 single-seat F-16As and six two-seat F-16Bs, after refusing the downgraded F-16/79 Washington had first offered. Grupo Aéreo de Caza 16 was activated at El Libertador on 31 August 1983, and the first six aircraft arrived on 16 November 1983, Infodefensa recalls. The defence ministry speaks of 60 “pioneers” who brought the system into service and still lists the 1987 Gulf of Venezuela crisis with Colombia, when F-16s made low passes over the corvette Caldas, as the group’s historic deployment.

The jets’ decline began with politics in Washington. A mid-life update planned for 2005 with Belgian and Israeli firms collapsed under US pressure, and in May 2006 the US barred arms sales to Venezuela, which stopped the flow of spare parts. Russia’s Su-30s, based at Barcelona, became the front-line fighter; the number of El Libertador’s F-16s still airworthy has never been published.

The defence ministry still celebrates the unit. On 31 August 2026 the new minister, General-in-Chief Gustavo González López, marked the group’s 43rd anniversary at El Libertador and called it a spear forged for the defence of the homeland. Its motto is Tutor et Ultor, “protector and avenger”.

The February 1992 coup attempt led by Hugo Chávez was an army affair. The second attempt, on 27 November 1992, was led in part by air force officers, and El Libertador was at its heart. Spanish-language Wikipedia records that in the morning OV-10 Broncos flown by rebel officers took off from the base to attack targets around the country; English Wikipedia lists the DISIP headquarters at the Helicoide, Miraflores palace, a police headquarters and the air force’s own La Carlota base among the targets bombed by rebel aircraft.

Loyalist F-16 pilots took off and fought back. English Wikipedia says one shot down an OV-10 over Barquisimeto, and the figures for rebel aircraft lost differ between Wikipedia articles: two OV-10s and a Tucano to F-16s and two more Broncos to ground fire in one, four Broncos in another. By mid-afternoon the rebels had lost control of the air and flew to Iquitos in Peru in two C-130s. Wikipedia gives 172 dead in all for the day.

The Venezuelan state today calls 27 November a “heroic feat” and the air force marks it every year; the government of Carlos Andrés Pérez, against which it was aimed, called it a coup. Both descriptions are recorded here as the parties’ own.

Much of El Libertador’s recent news has been about aircraft returning from long groundings. On 20 April 2026 Infodefensa reported that F-16B serial 9583 had rejoined the flight line after 15 years and 10 months out of service, repaired by the air force’s own technicians; the commanding general, Major General Royman Hernández Briceño, attended.

Two months later, on 10 June 2026, Infodefensa reported that a Shaanxi Y-8F-200W had been returned to service by the air force’s maintenance service and the maintenance squadron of Grupo Aéreo de Transporte 6, in the presence of the defence minister. Venezuela bought eight Y-8s in March 2011; the first two arrived in November 2012 and a simulator opened in March 2014. Infodefensa states that all eight belong to the transport group at El Libertador; how many fly is not published.