Caracas, founded with the name Santiago de León de Caracas, is the capital of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, 2 and the main administrative, financial, political, commercial and cultural center of the city the nation. It is located in the north central coastal region, about 15 km from the coast of the Caribbean Sea and is situated in a mountain valley at an average altitude of 900 meters. The Waraira Repano National Park, known as the Cerro Avila is mostly green lung and is the geographical feature that separates laciudad the central coast, which connects with through thehighway Caracas-La Guaira, Vargas leads the state and the main international airport and second delpaís port on the Caribbean Sea.

The first civil, political and administrative authority is the mayor of Caracas, head of the Metropolitan District of Caracas, an organization of political and administrative coordination groups the Libertador Municipality of the Capital District and Baruta, Chacao, El Hatillo and Sucre municipalities, the Miranda state without undermining the territorial integrity or competence of both federal entities. Caracas has been considered one of the most important cultural, tourist, industrial and economic centers of America America.3 May 4 ElMuseo of Contemporary Art in Caracas is one of the most important Sudamérica6 by the large number of representative works it houses. The Museum of Fine Arts is also remarkable.

Caracas has two of the tallest skyscrapers in South America: Central Park Towers. It has a nominal GDP of 99 000 billion and a GDP per capita of 24000 PPP dollars.7

The city was ranked 55. º in the Global Cities Index 20108 and is considered a global city by the Beta type GaWC.9.

Caracas is the northernmost capital of South America

Caracas was the name of the tribe that lived in the "Valley of the Caracas", one of the coastal valleys adjacent to the current city in the north, a name still in effect. This tribe was known to the Spaniards settled in the pearling island deCubagua because of their slavery to the coast between 1528 and 1540 expeditions, so usual word was made between the Spanish east of the country as a place name for the entire area with This name was generalized land area of ​​Caracas.

Many were the trials and failures of this process. But it was not until 1567, when he reached the valley becomes a coming issue of The Tocuyo preceded by Captain Diego de Losada, who managed the founding of a town by the name of Santiago de León de Caracas.

However, there are several theories about the source that led to the name of Santiago de León de Caracas. The consensus is that the city is named in honor of Santiago Santiago el Mayor, the apostle of traditional Spanish reconquista, which was the military saint of Spain; León, after the last governor of the province of Venezuela at the time, Pedro Ponce de León; and Caracas by the Indians who inhabited the province at the time of the foundation. As shown, if the surname Leon is taken as case to explain the name of the city, it can be claimed must have been Ponce and not Leon surname chosen argument alleging some authors to discredit this hypothesis, as there is the example of the city of Ponce founded and named by Ponce de Leon in Puerto Rico.

Another argument, which has taken more importance, is the theory that Santiago de León comes from the above sources, but that the name of Caracas was taken from a flower that the natives called caraca, which abounded in the valley where it is today city. This flower, actually a grass, also known locally as "pira" is the conocidoamaranto or quinoa, which has a high nutritional value for their high protein content. Actually taking the name Captain Caracas resident name of the province, and this in turn comes from the name of an ethnic group from its coast. LaRelación Pimentel, 1578 provides an explanation for the name of Caracas as the adjective given to that tribe, and reports that actually refers to the plant and that ethnicity is as plentiful as the pyre or amaranth with other aboriginal groups who compare it, by giving hence the name of Caracas.

A third hypothesis argues that the name of Santiago decided by Diego de Losada, the founder of the city, after the Spanish victory in the Battle of Maracapana in memory of the day the natives of the coast Caracas gave peace, or surrendered in July 1567 before the king's representative, Diego de Losada, since apparently this formal ceremony of surrender of these was purposely Caracas July 25, 1567, the day of Santiago. The name of Leon should be further up in the city, San Leon Day was founded, according to this new thesis, which liturgically celebrated on March 1. The shield of the city recalls the shield of the Kingdom of León.

The history of the founding of Caracas originate from livestock to San Francisco, which in 1560 established the mestizo Francisco Fajardo. This foundation is made from a previous town founded on the coast of Caracas by the same Fajardo, and as a result of their attempts to settle the Toromaimas Valley or San Francisco, to support and defend the exploitation of gold mines discovered previous year in the immediate area of ​​Los Teques, where dwelt the Cacique Guaicaipuro. Fajardo broke twice, in 1555 and 1558, from Margaret, his native island, to found cities on land, using their familiarity and friendship with the Indians who inhabited the north-eastern coast and north-central Venezuela, and taking advantage to master the language of the indigenous Caracas, relatives of the coast.

When the Spanish conquistador Juan Rodríguez Suárez herd arrived at San Francisco, the region was at war against the Spanish invaders, and every day the herd was attacked by losses of people and animals. In order to strengthen this system and use it as a strategic base for future conquest of territory, Rodríguez Suárez makes Villa de San Francisco, appointed mayor and aldermen, and distributed land among the soldiers. However, this foundation did not survive the attack of the Indians of the Teques, Mariches, Toromaimas and other inhabitants of the province by Confederate Guaicaipuro ethnicities.

In 1567, the Spanish conquistador Diego de Losada, following a Royal Cédulaemitida in 1563, following the depopulation of San Francisco, populated place, ordered its reconstruction and formally refounded the city July 25, 1567 with the name Santiago de León Caracas, a name that endures to this day, taking the place name of Caracas by the name taken by the Indians who inhabited the region at the arrival of the conquerors and the name of the apostle James by the date of the foundation and the evocation of Santiago "the matamoros" to serve as a spiritual guide in the fight against the natives.