This paper discusses the role played by warfare in the emergence of social hierarchization in the Savannas of the Orinoco in Colombia and Venezuela. Here the main elements of the ethnohistorical and archaeological models proposed for the region are summarized.  In addition a methodological strategy to the archaeological analysis of warfare in the Llanos is presented. In conclusion it is argued that although warfare was present in the Llanos of Venezuela, the earliest trends to demographic centralization were related to agriculture rather than military factors. https://doi.org/10.22380/2539472X17