Gual and España conspiracy

The Gual and España conspiracy (1797) was a pro-independence movement that originated in the port city of La Guaira in Colonial Venezuela. It was led by José María España and Manuel Gual, two white creoles. The Spanish revolutionary, Juan Bautista Mariano Picornell y Gomila, was involved. It is also believed that Simón Rodríguez, an early teacher of Simón Bolívar, was involved.

The conspiracy of Gual and España was reported on 13 July to Captain General Pedro Carbonell, who ordered a persecution against the conspirators, in which 49 Creoles and 21 Spaniards were arrested. Both Gual and España escaped to the neighboring English colony of Trinidad. A reward was put on their heads.

Deaths of Gual and España
Despite the reward offered for his capture, in 1799, José María España secretly returned to Venezuela, but was arrested in La Guaira and sent to Caracas, where the Royal Court sentenced him to the death penalty on 6 May. He was tortured, hanged, beheaded and dismembered on 8 May in the Plaza Mayor (current Plaza Bolívar). Manuel Gual remained in Trinidad, from where he maintained communication with the precursor Francisco de Miranda, who was in London. On 25 October 1800 he died in San José de Oruña, Trinidad, possibly poisoned by a Spanish spy named Valecillos.