Being in 'Favoured Nation' status with the United States made access to plans for the large carriers that had so far been built and under construction much easier. In 1939 the US Navy had just commissioned the Wasp and had the Yorktown class under construction. Neither of which really suited the Venezuelan Navy. They were just too big. It would cost an arm and a leg of the Navy's budget just to keep the required number of aircraft aboard and also the number of crew required would put a strain on the people resources of the Navy.
Having been turned down for the big boys toys (the US would love Venezuela to build a couple of large carriers) the US BuShips showed the Venezuelans the future plans for the war that was coming. The Essex, Saipan and Bogue types were all there ready to go in detailed plans. The Venezuelans pointed at the Saipan type Light carrier and said "that is what we are looking for". And that is what they built with changes made for their requirements. The hull for the Tachira class were that of a heavy cruiser (Baltimore class) that the US had just laid down. Those ships had a 76 foot beam. Either the ship would need to be fitted with bulges to offset the extra topweight or the hull could be widened from the start. The Venezuelans took the second option and increased the breadth to 90 feet which had the other effect of slowing the ship from 33 knots to 30 knots.
The armament had a mixture of 3.9" twins, 40mm in quad and twin mountings, and a lot of 20mm.
