The Wayuu (Guajiro) have never been subjugated…

The Wayuu (Guajiro) have never been subjugated by the Spanish.

The two groups are in a more or less permanent state of war.

There had been rebellions in 1701 (when they destroyed a Capuchin mission), 1727 (when more than two thousand Wayuus attacked the Spanish), 1741, 1757, 1761 and 1768.

Governor Soto de Herrera had called them in 1718, "barbarians, horse thieves, worthy of death, without God, without law and without a king".

Of all the natives in the territory of Colombia, the Wayuu are unique in having learned the use of firearms and horses.

The Spanish take twenty-two Wayuus captive in 1769 in order to put them to work building the fortifications of Cartagena.