These two ships had started out life as Svetlana Class cruisers (see Aragua Class). They arrived in Venezuelan waters in an uncompleted state. Two years passed while the Navy planners decided what to do with the hulls. The old pre-dreadnoughts were being stripped of everything useful which included a lot of single (casemate mounted) 8" guns. It was decided that five 8" guns could be fitted to each hull in single turrets. The ships would then be classed as 'heavy' cruisers because they had been fitted with 8" guns. Any of the Treaty 8" cruisers would eat the Valencia for breakfast. In saying that. These ships were a good compromise for what was available to the Venezuelan Navy. The guns were the same type as fitted to the Amazonas Class cruisers. The old ice breaker bow was replaced with a clipper bow of longer dimensions to allow for the increased weight of the two 8" turrets forward. This added 20 feet to the overall length.
The ships went through various refits through to the start of World War Two. The original 3" AA were replaced with the twin 3.9" mounting. Three of the 28mm mountings were added as the cannon AA armament, while the good old Browning 0.5" machine guns were fitted as well. Four twin 21" torpedo tubes were part of the original fittings.
Refitted in the US in 1942, the lesser AA armament was replaced with 40mm and 20mm. Sea search, Air search, and gunnery control radar were fitted. Further upgrades to the electronics suite were added through to the end of 1943 when it was decided the ship would not receive any further additions as they would not be kept past the end of the war. The two ships (if they both survived the war) would be scrapped 1946-47.
