The archipelago as a single park.
Paraguachoa —Margarita, Coche, Cubagua and the Macanao peninsula— presents itself to the world as a park of parks: one identity, one standard and a heritage agenda with dates. It is not a new administration: it is the layer that gives name and method to what the territory already is.
The Park is a project proposal. The protected areas, the Ramsar wetland and the heritage this page mentions are verified facts; the park that gathers them is not, yet.
What the territory already is · what the project proposes
The territory ALREADY IS
VFacts verified against primary sources, in hand.
- Eight protected areas in force (2 national parks, 3 natural monuments, 3 wildlife reserves).
- A wetland of international importance: Ramsar Site No. 857, since 1996.
- Fortifications and colonial churches with national designation (1957-1979).
- Species recovering: flamingos and the Margarita parrot, with recent censuses.
- The ruins of Nueva Cádiz, a National Historic Monument since 1979.
The project PROPOSES
DThe laboratory’s design and proposal; it does not measure the world.
- A name and an identity: the archipelago as a single park.
- A single standard of quality and data for everything that happens inside.
- A heritage agenda with calendar, status and owner for each piece.
- A link —not an absorption— with the Commonwealth, the MGTA standard and the Fund.
- A public page that separates, at all times, fact from proposal.
A park of parks has parks
The Green Book’s phrase is literal. These are the eight areas under special administration in force today in the archipelago, plus the international designation and the scientific figure that accompany them.
| Figure | Act | Area | Status / administration |
|---|---|---|---|
| La Restinga Lagoon National Park | Decree 1.591 · 6 Feb 1974 · Ramsar 857 (4 Sep 1996) | 18,862 ha (NP) · 5,248 ha (wetland) | Management plan 1999 · INPARQUES |
| Cerro El Copey “Jóvito Villalba” National Park | 27 Feb 1974 | 7,130 ha | Management plan 1991 · INPARQUES / MINEEC |
| Tetas de María Guevara Natural Monument | Decree 1.634 · 27 Feb 1974 · O.G. 30.342 | 1,670 ha | INPARQUES |
| Las Marites Lagoon Natural Monument | 27 Feb 1974 · Decree 1.633 | 3,674 ha | Management plan 1993 · KBA |
| Matasiete and Guayamurí Hills Natural Monument | Decree 1.635 · 27 Feb 1974 · O.G. 30.342 | ≈1,672 ha | — |
| Macanao Wildlife Reserve | Decree 4.545 · 3 Aug 2021 · O.G. 42.182 | 12,013.85 ha | no management plan located |
| Bahía El Saco Wildlife Reserve (Coche) | Decree 4.550 · 3 Aug 2021 | 489 ha | no management plan located |
| Punta El Palo Wildlife Reserve (Coche) | Decree 4.551 · 3 Aug 2021 | 2,916 ha | no management plan located |
Add Ramsar Site No. 857 (5,248 ha, 1996) and AICOM A-VE-001 for the Macanao Caves (300 ha; certification verified, year to be confirmed). The sum of areas is indicative: overlaps have not been clarified.
State of administration, without makeup
Four figures have a management plan and use regulations (1991-1999). The three wildlife reserves from 2021 have no management plan located. This is not a brochure: it is what the source allows us to state today.
And there is a documented management gap: in 2024 it was reported that INPARQUES, the agency that manages several of these areas, lacks equipment and resources, with park rangers whose monthly salary was described in the order of three to five dollars. This page says it because the Park is designed against that, not despite it.
Twelve properties with their Gazette, one by one
Fortifications and churches from the 16th–18th centuries, plus two works linked to independence. Each entry carries its protection status where it is documented; what is not documented is declared.
| Property | Century / date | Protection | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| San Carlos de Borromeo Castle (Pampatar) | 1663-1684 | National Monument · Res. 28876 (1965) | Restored, open to the public |
| Santa Rosa Castle (La Asunción) | 1677-1682 | NHM · O.G. 27.876 (1965) | Restored · Governor’s Office |
| La Galera Fort (Juan Griego) | 16th-17th c. · battle 1817 | no act located | Lower battery abandoned |
| La Caranta Battery (Pampatar) | 1586 / 1595 · rep. 1778 | delimitation to be confirmed | Ruins |
| La Libertad Fort (La Asunción) | 1815-1816 | BIC · Res. 003-05 (2006) | Traces only |
| Cathedral of Our Lady of La Asunción | late 16th c. · tower 1699 | NHM · O.G. 26.320 (1960) | Poor condition (2019) |
| San Francisco Convent (La Asunción) | colonial | NHM · 2 Aug 1960 | — |
| Church of Our Lady of the Valley (El Valle) | 1st church ~1518 · temple 1894 | NHM · O.G. 26.320 (1960) | Very good · Diocese |
| San José de Paraguachí Church | ~1874 (not colonial) | NHM · 6 Aug 1960 | In use |
| Santa Ana del Norte Temple | ~1748 | NHM · 1957 (date disputed) | — |
| San Juan Bautista Church (Díaz) | colonial origin | BIC · Res. 003-05 (2006) | In use |
| Old Customs House (Pampatar) | 1863 | NHM · O.G. 31.797 (1979) | — |
Ensembles: the Urban Centre of La Asunción and Pampatar (NHM, O.G. 31.114, 1976) and the Ruins of Nueva Cádiz (NHM, 5 Nov 1979).
Fragility is the identity
The Park is not a catalogue: it is a wetland territory. Its dominant ecosystem class is not a spot in the destination — it is its structure.
4,503 in ten wetlands (2025 census); the largest colonies in Las Marites and La Restinga.
From a minimum of ~650–700 to more than 2,800 individuals in recent censuses.
Endemic subspecies with its own taxonomic description since 1910.
Cretaceous rocks ~90–100 million years old, exhumed 54–47 million years ago.
The reading of the archipelago as a single wetland structure.
23 to 27 km of barrier that at no point exceeds two metres above the sea.
An agenda with calendar and status
Each piece has its verified status today and its path ahead. The Park prepares and links; the decision belongs to whoever holds the competence.
Ramsar Site No. 857: 5,248 ha, designated on 4 September 1996.
Done. No path pending.
Three wildlife reserves (2021) already exist over Macanao’s dry forest and the Coche coast.
Path: the technical Ramsar designation file. The State Party (MINEEC) decides.
The ruins have been a National Historic Monument since 5 November 1979. Today they are NOT on Venezuela’s Tentative List.
Step 1: inclusion in the World Heritage Tentative List, by the State Party. Then, nomination from 2028.
The Guaiquerí Royal Decree of 18 May 1525 is the archipelago’s memory piece. Its exact shelf mark in the General Archive of the Indies is yet to be located.
Path: locate the shelf mark and nominate to the Regional Register (annual call). The custodian and the National Commission decide.
Twelve properties with national designation, from 1957 to 1979. They are run by the IPC, the Governor’s Office, the dioceses and the municipalities.
The Park integrates them as narrative and itinerary. It does not administer or restore.
Emblem rule
UNESCO and Ramsar names and emblems require written authorisation: this page uses them as facts in text, never as logos, and never declares “UNESCO candidate” — that is not an official category.
A living people, with their word
The documentary base of the Guaiquerí people lives in the Cacique’s repository: 128 verified records across nine axes, with work and page. Here we state only what that base supports, and we cite by page.
It was the engine of barter and salting “from its beginnings”.
F-0064 · Castañeda Malavé 2006, p. 121
Priest and healer described by Las Casas; his cave remained active for centuries.
F-0055 · Mata García 1998, pp. 44-45
The one in El Valle, founded “more than ninety years” before 1608.
F-0108 · AGI, 1608, pp. 2-3
Coche = deer; Pampatar = the House of Salt.
F-0052 / F-0054 · Mata García 1998
The name itself is a declared hypothesis: no colonial chronicler cites “Paraguachoa”, and the source itself warns of this (F-0075 · Rosa Acosta 1996, p. 334). It is used with dignity and without inventing etymologies.
The Park links; it does not absorb
The Park is the layer of identity, standard and agenda. It does not run the traffic light, the standard or the fund: it names them as its own and publishes their real status.
Every data point on this page carries its certainty level. What is design is declared design; what has no source yet is declared pending. No heritage piece is presented as achieved if it is not.
The archipelago chart
The silhouette and the technical chart of Nueva Esparta are in the public domain (CC0), verified pixel by pixel. They are used as a plate, without redrawing or recolouring.
Chart: “Nueva Esparta Mapa Vial” (Wilfredor) · Wikimedia Commons, CC0.
This is Subsystem 1 of the SOT Paraguachoa. Green Book, chapter 6, describes the threshold layer this page shows.