The Dutch–Venezuelan crisis of 1908 was a dispute that broke out between the Netherlands and Venezuela after the Venezuelan president, Cipriano Castro, cut off trade with the Dutch Caribbean island of Curaçao. Venezuela expelled the Dutch ambassador, prompting a Dutch dispatch of three warships: HNLMS Jacob van Heemskerck (1906), HNLMS Gelderland (1898), and HNLMS Friesland (1896). The Dutch warships had orders to intercept every ship that was sailing under the Venezuelan flag. On 12 December, Gelderland captured the Venezuelan coast guard ship Alix (Alejo in Spanish) off Puerto Cabello. She and another ship, 23 de Mayo, were interned in harbor of Willemstad. A few days later, on 19 December 1908, Vice President Juan Vicente Gómez seized power in Caracas during the absence of President Castro, who had left for Berlin for a surgical operation, installing himself as de facto president. Gómez reverted Castro's measures in the following days, and the Netherlands proceeded to withdraw its warships.

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