Luisa Cáceres de Arismendi

Her father, Domingo Cáceres, and her brother Félix were assassinated by the royalists in the town of Ocumare in 1814, and thus she had to emigrate with the rest of her family to Isla Margarita. She married the general Juan Bautista Arismendi on December 4, 1814; they had met in Caracas, during Christmas of 1813.

In 1815, she was detained by the Spanish authorities with the purpose of pressing her husband Arismendi, who was by then battling a fierce campaign against the Royal Spanish forces. However, the island's governor, Joaquín Urreiztieta, did not obtain anything from her and her husband which means that Luisa stayed imprisoned in Santa Rosa fortress –where she delivered a baby girl who died at childbirth– until she was transferred to the Pampatar fortress, afterwards to La Guaira and finally she was sent to Spain (1816), where she was also victim of tortures to make her relinquish her republican ideals.

She was then taken to Cádiz; however, on the way, the ship she was on was attacked by privateer vessel, and she and other passengers were stranded on Santa Maria Isalnd, located in the Azores. Luisa finally arrived at Cádiz on January 17, 1817. She was presented to the general captain of Andalusia. He protested against the arbitrary decision of the Spanish authorities in the Americas, and gave Luisa the category of being confined

Nevertheless, she never abandoned her independentist ideals. Once in freedom, she returned to Venezuela in 1818, and continued to support the ideas of freedom and sovereignty of the people of the Americas. She lived in Caracas until her death in 1866. In recognition of her fight for Venezuelan independence, her remains were entombed in the Panteón Nacional in 1876. She now appears on the 20-bolívar fuerte note.

Luisa Cáceres de Arismendi is pictured on the 20 Bolivar Fuerte (strong bolivar) bill, which was introduced on January 1, 2008.

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  San Carlos de Borromeo Castle
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  Castillo de Santa Rosa
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  Panteón Nacional
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  The plaque at Santa Rosa, which commemorates where Luisa was held and gave birth to a girl. The plaque translated into English reads: "Luisa C de Arismendi for her virtue, valour and martyrdom for husband and country. Held captive in this jail at sixteen years old."

• Venezuela
• History of Venezuela