More than five hundred years ago, the area was populated by peaceful local ethnic tribes and Caracas did not exist. Years went by, and Francisco Fajardo, a Spanish colonizer founded a plantation there in 1562. Fajardo’s stay in the valley did not last long, and he was expelled by the locals who returned to their flower-filled freedom. This wast the last rebellion on the part of the aborigines, for on July 25, 1567, the Spanish captain Diego de Losada laid the foundations of the city of Santiago de León de Caracas, and the ethnic settlement of Catuchacao became transformed under the influence of the colonizers into the new city of Caracas.