The Caracas Independence day parade was introduced in 1953 by then–Minister of Defense and President Major General Marcos Pérez Jiménez, as the finale of "Fatherland Week" ("Semana de la Patria"), which marked Independence Day and included a whole week of public parades, military drills, and patriotic and sporting events that celebrated the anniversary of national independence, as well as expressing national pride. The parade was also aimed at revitalizing the old practice of military parades that were held in the capital on Independence Day in years past (since 1886 parades had been held every June 24 in the Carabobo Field in Valencia, Carabobo, to celebrate Army Day and the anniversary of the patriotic victory in the Battle of Carabobo in 1821), while also becoming a showcase for the armed forces to extoll its martial virtues and the great strides made in modernization of the military and the nation at large. The modern parade is thus one of his more positive legacies to the cultural and military traditions of the republic.