El Pilar Fault is a right-lateral strike-slip fault crossing northeastern Venezuela, running roughly east to west through the states of Sucre and Monagas near the cities of Cumaná and the Gulf of Cariaco. It forms a major segment of the boundary between the Caribbean Plate to the north and the South American Plate to the south, continuing offshore toward Trinidad.
The fault takes up much of the eastward motion of the Caribbean Plate relative to South America, slipping at roughly two centimetres per year, one of the higher rates on the continent. Its trace controls the elongated Cariaco basin, a pull-apart depression that has repeatedly hosted strong earthquakes.
El Pilar generated the destructive 1997 Cariaco earthquake (magnitude 7.0), which killed dozens of people and collapsed schools and buildings in Cariaco and Cumaná, as well as historical events in 1929 and earlier. Its high slip rate and proximity to coastal cities make it one of the most active and closely monitored faults in Venezuela.