Ángel de Amparo, Illuminated monument in Amparo district, Maracaibo, Venezuela.

The Ángel de Amparo is an illuminated monument in Maracaibo's western sector, standing on a communications tower that rises above the surrounding neighborhoods. At night, thousands of energy-efficient lights create a glow that can be seen from various parts of the city.

In February 1971 the state electricity company held a contest, "Un Diseño de Navidad para la Torre de Amparo", to choose a figure for its Teolindo Álvarez workplace in the Amparo sector; the winning angel was drawn by Isauro Valbuena, a draftsman in the Distribution Department. The figure first lit up in December 1973 with coloured lights visible only from the north and south. For Christmas 1975 Valbuena made it three-dimensional with a transparent suit of over 1,800 bulbs, and in 1985, with the new ENELVEN communications tower as its base, it grew to more than 110 metres, equal to a 45-storey building.

The angel recalls the Annunciation: the jury chose Isauro Valbuena's design so that each year the lights would evoke the Angel Gabriel announcing the birth of Jesus to Mary. It also announces the feast of the Virgin of Chiquinquirá, and Maracaibo residents follow its switch-on as the start of Christmas.

The monument is visible during the later months of the year when the Christmas season arrives and the lights are turned on throughout the evening. From various neighborhoods across the city, you can see the glow in the sky, especially as darkness falls.

The angel has been lit outside its usual season only five times: for Pope John Paul II's visit in February 1996, on his death in 2005, during the 2007 Copa América, and in February 2012 and March 2013, when Hugo Chávez left for surgery in Cuba and later died.