In 1950, the Venezuelan Navy placed an order for two large destroyers, and Zulia, with the British shipbuilding company Vickers Armstrong, with an order for a third ship,, following later. The ships was of similar size and layout to the British Daring-class destroyers, but carried the same gun mounts as the older and smaller, and was often compared with the Battles.
The ships were 402feet long overall and 384feet between perpendiculars, with a beam of 43feet and a draught of 12feet. Displacement was 2600LT standard and 3300LT full load. Two Yarrow boilers fed steam at 400psi to Parsons geared steam turbines, which drove two propeller shafts. The machinery, arranged on the 'unit' principle, where boiler rooms and engine rooms alternated to increase survivability, was rated at 50000shp, giving a speed of 34.5kn. The conservative machinery (the Darings boilers produced steam at a pressure of 650psi) gave a range of 4000nmi, less than a Daring despite carrying more fuel.
Main gun armament consisted of three twin QF Mark IV 4.5inches mounts, with two forward and one mount aft, with a close-in armament of 16 40mm Bofors guns in eight twin mounts. Torpedo armament consisted of a single triple mount for 21-inch (533 mm) torpedoes, while 30 depth charges could be carried. The ship had a crew of 18 officers and 236 other ranks.
Zulia was laid down at Vickers Armstrong's Barrow-in-Furness shipyard on 24 July 1951, was launched on 29 June 1952 and completed on 15 September 1954. Zulia was refitted at Vickers Armstrong's Hebburn shipyard in 1959, where the ship's torpedo tubes were removed to accommodate two Squid anti-submarine mortars. In 1960, the ship was fitted with modernised electronics at the New York Navy Yard.