Simón Bolívar

Simón Bolívar
Simón Bolívar by José Gil de Castro
1st President of Gran Colombia
In office September 21, 1819 – May 4, 1830
Succeeded by	Domingo Caycedo (acting)
President and Protector Republic of Bolívar
In office August 18 – December 29, 1825
Succeeded by	Antonio José de Sucre
Supreme Military and Political Authority of the Republic of Peru (Dictator of Peru)
In office February 17, 1824 – January 28, 1827
Preceded by	José Bernardo de Tagle
Succeeded by	Andrés de Santa Cruz
President of the Free Province of Guayaquil
In office July 11, 1822 – July 31, 1822
Preceded by	José Joaquín de Olmedo
Succeeded by	Annexation to Gran Colombia
4th President President of Venezuela Third Republic of Venezuela
In office 1817–1819
Preceded by	Simón Bolívar
Succeeded by	Annexation to Gran Colombia
4th President President of Venezuela Second Republic of Venezuela
In office August 7, 1813 – December 11, 1814
Preceded by	Francisco de Miranda
Succeeded by	Simón Bolívar
Personal details
Born	(1783-07-24)July 24, 1783
Occupation	Politician and military officer
Military service
Rank	Captain General of the Armies of Venezuela and New Granada Brigadier of the Union General-in-Chief of the Armies of the North Commander-in-Chief of the Army of Cartagena

Simón José Antonio de la Santísima Trinidad Bolívar Palacios Ponte Andrade y Blanco (Caracas, July 24, 1783 – Santa Marta, December 17, 1830), better known as Simón Bolívar, was a prominent military officer and pro-independence leader, a native of the Captaincy General of Venezuela, who decisively contributed to bringing about the independence of the territories that today make up the present-day countries of Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Panama, Peru and Venezuela.

Like José de San Martín, Simón Bolívar received considerable support, both financial and military, from British political and military circles, eager for revenge for the support Spain had given the American rebels, who took advantage of the chaotic situation to plunder the abundant wealth distributed throughout the different regions of Hispanic America. Supporting Bolívar and San Martín represented a low-risk but highly profitable investment, since with limited financial and military support they managed to plunder a large part of the funds of the Real Hacienda of Buenos Aires (some 40 tons of gold), the Potosí Mint, the mints of Mexico, Guatemala, Peru and other mints (some 550,000 silver bars), the Real Hacienda of Lima, which constituted the largest treasury on the entire South American continent (only San Martín, who loaded it onto the fleet of the English Vice-Admiral Thomas Cochrane bound for London, could know the exact amount), and the Real Hacienda of Santa Fe de Bogotá, Guatemala and Mexico (some 12 tons of gold in each of them). To all this must be added a long record of indiscriminate plunder and robbery of the civilian and ecclesiastical population at the hands of paramilitary organizations, among them the infamous Rifles Battalion of the British Legion, responsible for indiscriminate massacres such as the one that occurred during the Black Christmas.

It is estimated that, altogether, with the connivance of Bolívar, San Martín and other pro-independence leaders, the British troops who fought alongside the pro-independence armies managed to plunder in Hispanic America the equivalent of more than 2 million million dollars (2 billones on the long scale traditionally used in Spanish), through the theft of monetary funds, the looting of government and religious institutions, and the despoiling of the civilian population. The former were mostly intended to sustain the public treasuries of those Viceroyalties, and their purpose was the monetary stability of each of them. The result was disastrous for the fledgling republics, since they were left totally decapitalized and were forced to sign trade treaties that in practice turned them into British commercial colonies, as London kept the monopoly on imports and exports, the rights to exploit natural resources, the monopoly on loans, and borrowing from English banks and financiers at usurious interest rates.

Although these "liberating" military campaigns unquestionably meant genuine economic ruin and a humanitarian catastrophe on the continent, which went from being one of the most prosperous regions on the planet to a fragmented and impoverished territory (with Simón Bolívar himself choosing the expression "plowing the sea and sowing the wind" on seeing that his actions had only generated numerous internal power struggles and clashes between peoples), none of this has prevented him from ideologically inspiring political factions in several Hispanic American countries, which, thanks to an extensive propaganda campaign (also supported by various European countries that were rivals of Spain, together with the United States), turned him into an object of nationalist veneration and gave rise to the political current known as Bolivarianism. Bolívar has received honors in various parts of the world through statues, monuments, parks, squares, etc.

It is also extremely puzzling that there can be organizations that call themselves Bolivarian and Marxist at the same time, when in reality Karl Marx was one of Bolívar's greatest detractors, sparing no epithets against him such as "cowardly, cruel and manipulative". In the encyclopedic article Bolívar y Ponte, written by Marx about the figure of Bolívar, he describes him as a member of the mantuano elite without popular support, who without foreign help could never have tipped the balance in his favor. In an 1858 letter to the German philosopher Friedrich Engels, Marx referred to Bolívar as "the most cowardly, brutal and miserable scoundrel".

The harsh criticism of Bolívar, both from great left-wing ideologues and from high-ranking foreign officers who accompanied him on his campaigns, has posed a serious problem for Marxist intellectuals and representatives of Hispanic American liberation movements who identified with Bolivarianism, who have had great difficulty trying to reconcile the figure of Bolívar with proletarian and libertarian theses once they were able to read many of those writings, some of them practically unknown until they were translated into Spanish in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.

At the end of his days, once he was no longer useful to his British sponsors, Simón Bolívar was left to his fate, and he ended up dying in 1830, at the age of 47, disillusioned, ill, and possibly poisoned in Santa Marta (present-day Colombia), persecuted by the very people who had once fought at his side and who later tried to take his life, while he was attempting to flee to a promised exile in Europe that he would never reach.

Genealogy

Simón Bolívar's father, Juan Vicente Bolívar y Ponte-Andrade, and his mother, María de la Concepción Palacios y Blanco, belonged to the mantuano aristocracy of Caracas. When they married in 1773 there was a great age difference between the two spouses, since Juan Vicente was 47 at the time and Concepción 15. They had four other children, three of them older than Simón and one younger, named María Antonia, Juana Nepomucena, Juan Vicente and María del Carmen (the latter died shortly after birth).

The Bolívar family came from a town called La Puebla de Bolívar in the Lordship of Biscay (then part of the Crown of Castile, present-day Basque Country, Spain), located at the time in the merindad of Marquina. In addition to this Biscayan ancestry, his Galician and Burgos origins should be noted, since his great-great-grandfather, Jacinto de Ponte y Andrade, was a native of Santiago de Compostela. From the beginning of the viceregal period, its members carried out notable deeds in Venezuela.

The first of the Bolívars to arrive in Venezuela was the Biscayan Simón de Bolívar, who, together with his son Simón de Bolívar y Castro (born in Santo Domingo, Higüey, present-day Dominican Republic, and of whom Bolívar was a great-great-great-grandson), arrived in Caracas thirty years after the founding of the city, around 1589, and because they had the same name they were distinguished as Simón de Bolívar the Elder and Simón de Bolívar the Younger.

Bolívar the Elder stood out as Royal Accountant, by special privilege of King Philip II, who in the title of appointment reiterated his full confidence in him as guardian of the Real Hacienda, an office held both by him and later by his son, in Margarita and Caracas.

He was also procurador general of the cities of Caracas, Coro, Trujillo, Barquisimeto, Carora, El Tocuyo and Maracaibo before the Spanish Court between 1590 and 1593, in order to inform King Philip about the state of the province and to request certain improvements, tax exemptions and privileges that would facilitate its development.

Among his achievements for Caracas was obtaining from the Council of the Indies the royal grant of the coat of arms that the city still retains, together with the title of Very Noble and Loyal City.

Over time the Bolívars married into the families of the first settlers of Venezuela and attained ranks and distinctions such as those of regidor and alférez real, and they sought the noble titles of Marquis of Bolívar and Viscount of Cocorote, associated with the cession of the Cocorote mines and the right to administer the lordship of Aroa, known for the wealth of its copper mines (these titles, however, were never granted).

As for the Palacios family, they were natives of the area of Miranda de Ebro, in the present-day Province of Burgos, in Spain. The first of the Palacios to arrive in Venezuela was José Palacios de Aguirre y Ariztía-Sojo y Ortiz de Zárate, born in Miranda de Ebro in 1647, who died in Caracas in 1703. The rest of his descendants married into other aristocratic families and attained the positions of mayor, regidor and procurador, among others. Two generations after José Palacios, María de la Concepción Palacios de Aguirre y Ariztía-Sojo y Blanco would be born, daughter of Feliciano Palacios de Aguirre y Ariztía-Sojo y Gil de Arratia and of Francisca Blanco de Herrera, a descendant of several Canarian families established in Venezuela. She was the mother of Simón Bolívar.

Childhood and youth

Simón was born on the night of July 24–25, 1783, in a manor house located on the Plaza San Jacinto in Caracas. He was baptized on July 30, 1783, in the Caracas Cathedral, with the names Simón José Antonio de la Santísima Trinidad Bolívar Ponte y Palacios Blanco, by Doctor Juan Félix Jerez de Aristeguieta, his first cousin, who, in agreement with Juan Vicente, the child's father, gave him the name Simón. A very important note is that Simón Bolívar's second name (Santísima Trinidad, "Most Holy Trinity") comes from the chapel in which he was baptized, which bears that same name, a chapel that was also the property of the Bolívar y Palacios family.

Bolívar's childhood

Simón's father died of tuberculosis in January 1786, when Simón was barely two years old. Concepción was left as head of the family, efficiently looking after the family's interests until her death.

However, her responsibilities caused her health, as she was also ill with tuberculosis, to decline rapidly, and, according to the opinion of medical historians, it is possible that Bolívar was already suffering at that time the primary tuberculous infection, with a type of tuberculosis that goes unnoticed while the body's defenses are favorable.

Concepción died on July 6, 1792, when Simón was nine years old, but she took the precaution of making a will in which she arranged who should take charge of her children.

The Bolívar siblings then passed into the custody of their grandfather, Feliciano Palacios, who, when he assumed the role of guardian, felt so ill that he also began preparing his will in order to designate a substitute as guardian of his grandchildren, and decided to ask them for their opinion so as to respect their wishes.

Portrait of Simón Bolívar at the age of 17 (1801).

Simón was entrusted to Esteban Palacios y Blanco, one of his maternal uncles, but since the latter was in Spain, he remained in the custody of Carlos Palacios y Blanco, another of his uncles, who apparently was a man with whom he did not get along, and who was coarse, harsh in character and narrow-minded, frequently absent from Caracas to attend to his properties, and who therefore usually left his nephew in the care of the servants, especially his mulatto nursemaid Hipólita Bolívar, who took complete charge of the child, feeding him and guiding his first steps.

The references Bolívar left in his correspondence suggest that his childhood was happy and secure, surrounded by solid affection and pleasant memories of prominent and influential relatives within an aristocratic environment, and in general, within an environment that gave him emotional balance, love and affection. In this regard, there are some anecdotes that became popular in Venezuela presenting Bolívar as a turbulent child, such as those invented and introduced into historical accounts by Arístides Rojas, considered an excellent storyteller but who often used his imagination in the absence of documents that could prove the truthfulness of his accounts.

Education

Bolívar's school career was not very brilliant as a pupil of the Public School, an institution administered by the Cabildo of Caracas that functioned poorly due to a lack of resources and organization.

At that time, Simón Rodríguez was Bolívar's teacher at this school. Carlos Palacios y Blanco, Bolívar's maternal uncle, intended to send him to live with him because he could not look after him personally, and the complaints of his niece María Antonia about the education and care her brother received were frequent.

Faced with the prospect of living with his teacher, Simón escaped from his uncle's house on July 23, 1795, to take refuge in that of his sister María Antonia, who exercised temporary custody of him until the lawsuit was resolved in the Real Audiencia of Caracas, which returned custody of Simón to Carlos. Simón tried to resist but was taken by force from his sister's house and carried bodily by a slave to his teacher's home.

Once there, the conditions in which he lived with the teacher Rodríguez were not ideal; he had to share the space with 20 people in a house not suited for it, and for this reason Simón escaped from there a couple of times, each time ending up returning by order of the courts.

Despite the difficulties, the teacher–pupil relationship was fruitful and revealing for both. The learning was mutual. Bolívar called Rodríguez "the Socrates of Caracas" and "cosmopolitan philosopher". The deep admiration that Bolívar felt for his teacher was documented in a letter of January 19, 1824, where, already bearing the title of "Liberator", he begins by saying: "Oh my Teacher" and continues further on: "You are without doubt the most extraordinary man in the world". The topics of conversation between Rodríguez and Bolívar are not known firsthand or from documents, but when Rodríguez was 33 years old and Bolívar 21, the former the teacher and the latter the disciple, the former wrote "I assure you that I was the disciple, for by divination he knew more than I did by meditation and study".

Shortly afterwards, Rodríguez resigned his post as teacher to go to Europe and the Real Audiencia of Caracas determined that Simón should be transferred to the Academy of Mathematics, directed by Father Andújar, which operated in the house of his uncle Carlos. The friendship between the two endured forever.

Apparently, at this academy Bolívar's education improved notably in quality and quantity, and it was complemented with lessons in History and Cosmography given by Andrés Bello until his enlistment in the Militia Battalion of Whites of the Valleys of Aragua on January 14, 1797.

There is a false idea that between 1793 and 1795 he was enrolled at the Royal College of Sorèze in the south of France, in the department of Tarn.

House that lodged Simón Bolívar during his stay in Bilbao between March 1801 and April 1802.

First journey to Europe and marriage

Bolívar was sent to Spain at the age of 16 to continue his studies; he departed from the port of La Guaira aboard the warship "San Idelfonso". During the voyage the ship called at the port of Veracruz in the Viceroyalty of New Spain, arriving on February 1, 1799. There Bolívar received news that the departure would be delayed due to the blockade of Havana by English ships, so he decided to visit the cities of Jalapa, Puebla and Mexico City, embarking once again in Veracruz on March 20 of the same year to continue his journey. In 1800, he met the young María Teresa Rodríguez del Toro y Alayza in Madrid. In August 1800 María Teresa accepted Simón Bolívar's courtship, and they were married on May 26, 1802, in the now-vanished church of San José, which stood on the site now occupied by the Calle de Gravina at the corner of Luis de Góngora (and sometimes confused with the church of the same name located on the Calle de Alcalá, to which the Parish of San José was transferred in 1838), when Bolívar was 19 years old and María Teresa 21. After about 20 days they moved to La Coruña.

On June 15, 1802, the newlyweds set out for Caracas, disembarking on July 12 in La Guaira. After a short stay in Caracas, in the Casa del Vínculo y del Retorno, located on a corner facing the Plaza Mayor of Caracas, today the Plaza Bolívar, they moved to the "Casa Grande" of the Ingenio Bolívar in San Mateo. María Teresa fell ill shortly afterwards with "malignant fevers" —today identified variously as yellow fever or malaria— so the couple returned to their Casa del Vínculo in Caracas, where she died on January 22, 1803.

Second journey to Europe

In the same year as his wife's death he traveled to Paris. There he was reunited with his former teacher Simón Rodríguez. The latter managed in some way to channel the despair Bolívar felt after María Teresa's death toward politics. Simón Rodríguez also guided him toward reading the classics and educating himself in various fields of universal knowledge. He then traveled through Italy in the company of Rodríguez and of his late wife's first cousin Fernando Rodríguez del Toro.

He returned to Venezuela in 1806, and while managing the family businesses he joined his efforts to the revolutionary cause.

Political and military life

Background to independence

Main article: Independence of Venezuela

Throughout 1808, Napoleon's pressure set off a series of events that further worsened the already compromised Spanish situation. King Charles IV of Spain abdicated the throne in favor of his son Ferdinand on March 19, 1808, after the events of the Mutiny of Aranjuez. Later, on May 5, 1808, the disaster for Spain was complete when Charles IV and his son were forced to cede the throne to Napoleon Bonaparte at Bayonne, who named his brother, Joseph, as the new King of Spain. This provoked a great popular reaction in Spain that set off what is known today as the Napoleonic Invasion of Spain. In both America and Spain, regional juntas were formed that encouraged the struggle against the French invaders to restore the legitimate Monarch to the throne.

However, in the American juntas people spoke with enthusiasm only of the popular Junta of Cádiz, and many of these juntas were viewed with distrust by the Spanish authorities. The authorities suspected them of being favorable to the French and had not forgotten actions such as that of Antonio Nariño in Bogotá, who had published a work on The Rights of Man, the movement of Juan Picornell, the Conspiracy of Manuel Gual and José María España, or the failed military expeditions of Francisco de Miranda in Venezuela.

But they also considered that these juntas had the right to imitate their counterparts in the Peninsula, since the Spanish dominions were regarded as an essential and integral part of Spain, whose territories were not considered mere colonies as such.

Over time, two clearly differentiated sides took shape as a result of the political debates and international instability: the royalists, who wanted to remain under the direct dependence of the Spanish Monarch, led by Juan de Casas; and the pro-independence side, supporters of constituting a Government junta with full autonomy similar to that of the provincial Juntas in Spain, but without maintaining any ties with the metropolis other than a formal recognition of Ferdinand VII as sovereign, thus wishing to imitate the example of Brazil, ruled from Braganza, with autonomy from Portugal.

Thus, in mid-1807, when Bolívar returned to Caracas, he found a city immersed in an atmosphere of great social and political agitation, governed by interim officials under the supervision of a royal Regent-visitor named Joaquín de Mosquera y Figueroa, who was viewed unfavorably by the people of Caracas.

This was an atmosphere ill-suited to facing crisis situations, and it was a circumstance that helped precipitate events in favor of Independence.

Bolívar had returned to Caracas absolutely convinced of the pressing need for independence for America and tried to convince his relatives and friends that this was the best option. But, with the exception of his brother Juan Vicente, he could not easily do so, because news from Europe arrived very late and with few details, so the public learned of events only in a general and inaccurate way, and this limited its ability to assess the situation.

But things changed suddenly within a few days, after a series of events that caused a general commotion in Caracas. In early July 1808, the acting Governor of Caracas, Juan de Casas, received two copies of the London newspaper The Times, which the Governor of Trinidad had previously forwarded to the Governor of Cumaná, reporting the news of the abdication of the throne of Spain in favor of Napoleon.

The authorities tried to keep the news secret to avoid social alarm, but the arrival of the French brig Le Serpent at the port of La Guaira on July 15, 1808, with several commissioners sent by Napoleon to confirm the news, made the plan fail.

A French officer presented himself before Governor Casas with official documentation confirming the bad news from The Times, and while the Governor's office deliberated on the situation, the population began to grow alarmed at the conspicuous arrival of the French, and the news of the disappearance of the traditional monarchy was widely spread in newspapers and other publications.

The popular reaction was one of unease and indignation, and the situation worsened when the English frigate captain Beaver landed shortly afterward from the Alcasta at La Guaira, after pursuing Le Serpent without being able to capture it, to inform Governor Casas and the population that the struggle in Spain to repel the French was continuing and that Napoleon did not have the situation under control.

Then a strange political process arose among the Governor, the Audiencia and the Cabildo that finished undermining the existing colonial order, and this caused the commotion in Caracas society to move in two directions: one represented by Bolívar, who wanted to proclaim Independence; and another represented by other criollos who wanted to maintain loyalty to Ferdinand VII.

Thus, on January 11, 1809, official dispatches arrived in Caracas announcing the creation of the Central Junta of Spain and the Indies, which ended up being installed in Seville in April 1809, and shortly afterward, on January 14, 1809, Field Marshal Vicente Emparan arrived in Venezuela as Captain General of Venezuela and Governor of Caracas. His arrival gave a new perspective to the political situation, since rumors began to circulate linking him as a supporter of the French, and he was therefore accused of wanting to confuse the population.

Amid the prevailing uncertainty, on April 19, 1810, the members of the Cabildo of Caracas decided to constitute a Junta for the Preservation of the Rights of Ferdinand VII, in an act that ended with the signing of the Act of Independence and the constitution of the First Republic on July 5, 1811. With the revolt of April 19, 1810, the then Captain General of Venezuela, Vicente Emparan, was forced to cede his powers to this Junta, and it resulted in the expulsion of the Spanish officials from their posts and their embarkation for Spain.

Shortly afterward, upon learning of the events, the Regency ordered the blockade of the coasts of Venezuela, but it was already too late: from then on the pro-independence process would be unstoppable, and the example of Caracas was followed by the rest of the American juntas.

Mission to London

The new system of government began to create new prospects in every sense. News of what had happened in Caracas reached Admiral Alexander Cochrane, Commander of the British Naval Forces in the Caribbean, who proceeded to dispatch news of the events to London and to place at the disposal of the Junta of Caracas the corvette Wellington so that it could carry a delegation to London if they so wished.

Thus, Bolívar was sent to England with the rank of colonel, together with Andrés Bello and Luis López Méndez, on a diplomatic mission with instructions to request British support for the Junta in the name of King Ferdinand VII of Spain, taking advantage of the circumstance that Spain and Great Britain were now allied nations that had set aside their historical differences in the face of the common danger represented by Napoleon.

The diplomatic mission arrived in London at a delicate political moment, since Great Britain was then providing costly military aid to Spain, and the Venezuelan refusal to accept the authority of the Spanish Council of Regency was inconvenient at that time.

However, Arthur Wellesley considered it advisable to receive the delegation at his private residence, Apsley House, for fear that its members might turn to Napoleon in search of support, and thus to take the opportunity to find out the Venezuelan aims.

The British position was very clear from the beginning, giving the delegation to understand that political support for Venezuela was impossible at that time, and, in an attempt to pressure Spain into letting them trade freely with its colonies, the British tried to steer the negotiations toward commercial agreements more in line with their interests.

Although not all of the delegation's objectives were met, some important commitments were achieved thanks to the presence in London of Francisco de Miranda, with whom Bolívar began to maintain contacts that encouraged Miranda's discreet participation in the negotiations through his personal connections.

Thus, although Bolívar obtained secret English connivance, and the possibility that England would exert pressure on Spain, in practice he obtained nothing more than authorization to buy British arms, paying for them in cash and paying heavy duties.

Bolívar during the First Republic

After agreeing with the English on the permanent presence of a representative in London, Bolívar was embarked on the military corvette Sapphire of the Royal Navy, and landed at La Guaira on December 5, 1810.

Miranda, for his part, arrived in Venezuela aboard Avon, another English brig of the Royal Navy, on December 10, 1810, to a cold official reception from the Supreme Junta, which shortly afterward named him Lieutenant General.

Miranda soon began to clash with the Government's military chief, the Marquis del Toro, over his inability to control the royalist rebellion of Coro. Meanwhile, political circumstances had favored the appearance in Caracas of organizations such as the Patriotic Society, a kind of pro-independence association that functioned as a forum for political debate and disseminated its conclusions in its own publication titled El Patriota de Venezuela.

Bolívar was an important member of this association, which was deeply involved in the later mobilizations of July 5, 1811, to ratify the Declaration of Independence, and which defended positions opposed to the Constitution of December 21, 1811, since they considered it simply a literal copy of the one in force in the United States, not adapted to the reality of the moment in Venezuela.

On August 13, 1811, forces commanded by Miranda achieved a victory at Valencia against the rebels of that city, who sought to recover the privileges of its former status as capital, and it was in this action that Bolívar properly began his military career by leading an attack on a fortified post, which represented his baptism of fire. Miranda proposed him for the rank of colonel and sent him to report the victory to the Government in Caracas.

Shortly afterward, Miranda, then commander-in-chief of the republican military forces, assigned him the rank of lieutenant colonel on the General Staff and named him military chief of Puerto Cabello, the principal stronghold of Venezuela.

That stronghold was then a key military point because of its combined characteristics as a port, arsenal, military prison and main point of support and control in the area. Influential prisoners of war were held there in the Castle of San Felipe, and at the same time a large part of the republican military arsenal was also stored there.

Although it was contrary to the rules of military security, and although Miranda had ordered the prisoners moved to another place, the transfer was never carried out. This was one of the reasons which, together with Bolívar's military inexperience, brought about the fall of Puerto Cabello. The prisoners managed to take the guard by surprise and overpowered it, supposedly thanks to the betrayal of some officer whom they bribed. They then seized the Castle of San Felipe and began to bombard Puerto Cabello.

Bolívar tried to recover the garrison during six days of combat with the forces he was able to control, but the situation was very unfavorable, since the castle could not be shelled because of the short range of the artillery, and the city was beginning to be attacked by the forces of Captain Domingo Monteverde. After launching a desperate frontal attack on the castle that failed, Bolívar hastily embarked at night with eight of his officers, without informing even his own troops of what was happening, arrived at dawn at Guaira and withdrew to his hacienda of San Mateo. When the garrison learned of their commander's flight, they abandoned the stronghold in good order, and it was immediately occupied by the royalists under Monteverde's command.

This event, together with popular support for the royalists, finally tipped the balance in favor of the royalists. Miranda capitulated on July 26, 1812, on behalf of the Congress, through the treaty of La Victoria, which reestablished Spanish rule over Venezuela.

On July 30, 1812, Miranda arrived at La Guaira intending to flee by embarking on the military corvette Sapphire of the Royal Navy (the same one that had previously brought Bolívar to Venezuela), and lodged in the house of Colonel Manuel María de las Casas, Commander of the stronghold. There he met a large group, among whom were Simón Bolívar and Miguel Peña Páez, who persuaded him to stay, at least for one night, at the Colonel's residence.

At two in the morning, while Miranda was fast asleep, Bolívar and Manuel María de las Casas, Peña entered his room with four armed soldiers, cautiously seized his sword and pistol, woke him and roughly ordered him to get up and dress, after which they put him in irons and handed him over to the Spanish chief Monteverde.

In exchange for this act of betrayal by Simón Bolívar and Colonel Manuel María de las Casas, the Spaniard Francisco-Antonio de Yturbe y Hériz would agree to give Bolívar the safe-conduct he had requested in order to go into exile abroad, with the special favor of Monteverde. On this occasion, the Spanish chief had the act of betrayal of handing over Miranda presented as a service to the Spanish state: "The request of Colonel Bolívar must be satisfied, as a reward for the service rendered to the King of Spain by the surrender of Miranda."

The Cartagena Manifesto

Main article: Cartagena Manifesto

Simón Bolívar in 1812

Bolívar was authorized by Monteverde to travel on August 27, 1812, to the island of Curaçao, occupied by the English, on the Spanish schooner Jesús, María y José, together with José Félix Ribas, Vicente Tejera and Manuel Díaz Casado, and he remained there for six weeks.

He then moved to Cartagena de Indias, in New Granada, where the pro-independence process had begun on July 20, 1810, and had led to the formation of several supreme Juntas that rivaled one another. In this context he wrote a manuscript known as the Cartagena Manifesto, in which he made a political and military analysis of the causes that brought about the fall of the First Republic of Venezuela and urged New Granada not to make the same mistakes.

Shortly after arriving, Bolívar asked the government of Cartagena to serve in its troops. He was granted command of a garrison of seventy men in the small town of Barrancas, with which he began to forge his future military prestige.

At first Bolívar was subordinate to a French adventurer, Pierre Labatut. But, against the latter's orders, he decided to take the initiative, carrying out a campaign to defeat the royalist bands that were on the banks of the Magdalena River. At the same time he increased the training and the numbers of his troops.

As a result of this campaign, he succeeded in taking several towns such as Tenerife, Guamal, El Banco, Tamalameque and Puerto Real de Ocaña, and in defeating various royalist guerrilla bands operating in the area. Finally he occupied Ocaña.

In view of these achievements, Colonel Manuel del Castillo y Rada, commanding general of Pamplona, requested his help to stop the royalists who were threatening to enter from Venezuela. To do so, Colonel Bolívar had to ask the Government of Cartagena for authorization to intervene in the territory of the Government of the United Provinces of Venezuela.

When it was granted, Bolívar advanced to the border with Venezuela. At the Battle of Cúcuta on February 28, 1813, he defeated the Spanish forces. Camilo Torres, in his capacity as President of the Congress of the United Provinces of New Granada, conferred on Bolívar the title of citizen of the Union, the rank of brigadier, equivalent to that of brigadier general, and the post of chief of the garrison of Cúcuta.

From February to April 1813 he remained in Cúcuta, held back by legal obstacles and by differences with Castillo, who was beginning to view with suspicion his desire to advance on Venezuela. By then, Bolívar had an effective force at his disposal, surrounded by a brilliant body of New Granadan officers, usable for an eventual attack on the Venezuelan territories.

Admirable Campaign

After receiving authorization and resources from New Granada, Bolívar began one of his most outstanding military actions, the Admirable Campaign.

When in February 1813 he began his campaign through the Venezuelan Andes from Cúcuta, he met no resistance. He advanced to Mérida and took the city peacefully after the royalist authorities fled before his imminent arrival. During this triumphal entry he was granted for the first time the title of "the Liberator," by decision of the Cabildo of Mérida.

Bolívar's forces rapidly gained ground against an enemy that fled before a surprising advance. Finally, Bolívar forced the royalist forces to fight at Los Taguanes, between Tucupido and Valencia. He defeated them, and a capitulation was signed at La Victoria.

After the Spanish capitulation, Bolívar had a clear path and made a triumphal entry into Caracas on August 6, 1813. Standing in a triumphal chariot drawn by twelve damsels dressed in white, chosen from among the best families of Caracas, Bolívar, waving a small baton in his hand, paraded from the entrance of the city to his residence, and proclaimed himself "Dictator and Liberator of the Western Provinces of Venezuela."

After a military triumph at Mosquiteros he was named Captain General, with the title of "Liberator of Venezuela," which from then on remained attached to his name.

Bolívar concentrated on organizing the State and directing the war in what seemed to be its final stage. He organized the military regime, maintained the Consulate, and ordered the creation of a new fiscal system and a new administration of justice. He attended to agricultural activity, exports, and the search for skilled labor. He modified municipal government, and offered nationality to foreigners with an interest in the triumph of the pro-independence cause. However, his dictatorship soon degenerated into military anarchy, in which the most important matters were left in the hands of favorites who ruined the public finances, which provoked popular discontent.

War to the death

Main article: War to the death (Venezuela)

The Decree of War to the Death was promulgated by Bolívar on June 15, 1813, in the city of Trujillo in Venezuela.

During the Admirable Campaign, in every place they passed through, "almost without exception all the Europeans and Canary Islanders were shot" by the pro-independence forces. In February 1814, at the end of the campaign and after being defeated by the royalists at the First Battle of La Puerta, Juan Bautista Arismendi, on Bolívar's orders, had 886 Spanish prisoners shot in Caracas. To swell their number he even added the 300 sick and wounded in the hospital of La Guaira. Bolívar wrote the details to the Congress of New Granada. On July 15, 1813, more than two thousand Spaniards were executed, of whom 1,600 were Canary Islanders, solely for having been born on the other side of the Atlantic.

The War to the Death was practiced systematically on Simón Bolívar's orders during a period of the wars of independence in which Bolívar's troops refused to show leniency toward any Spaniard born in the Peninsula or in the Canary Islands, sparing only those royalists born in America, and sparing only some Peninsulars or Canary Islanders who openly took his side. The war to the death reached its peak in the year 1814, when José Tomás Boves, at the head of the llaneros, with the cry of "death to the whites," unleashed a fierce class struggle that destroyed the Second Republic. Historians have described this period as a civil war between Venezuelans who supported the crown and those who wanted independence.

Black Christmas

During the Pasto Campaign, the city of Pasto and its inhabitants suffered reprisals for remaining loyal to the royalists; Marshal Antonio José de Sucre had direct instructions from Simón Bolívar to attack the civilian population without any consideration. The Rifles Battalion of the British Legion, and Colonel Arthur Sandes, its commander, have been identified as the direct perpetrators of the crimes against the civilian population on December 24, 25 and 26, 1822.

For three days the pro-independence soldiers of the Rifles Battalion (led by Arthur Sandes), notorious for their atrocities in the Capture of Tenerife, sacked the city, where not only the public buildings were plundered, but also the residents and the churches. They also destroyed public archives and parish books, among other property; in addition, they murdered more than 400 civilians, men, women, the elderly and children, a quarter of the population, in an orgy full of death, destruction and pillage.

"An evil night instead of Christmas Eve was the night of December 24, 1822, for royalist Pasto. House by house the city was taken by the patriots. The guerrillas fell by the dozen every minute," recounts the Señal Memoria project of the Colombian public media network. "They took implacable revenge! Some who had surrendered, others wounded, all were killed. Entire families disappeared," [...] "They rode on horseback into the church of San Francisco and finished off all those who had taken refuge there, including women and children," (Taken from the account in the series "Colombia ayer, Colombia hoy," presented on radio in 1970).

The city's historical archives were lost in the process, as the historian José Rafael Sañudo would recount:

"[…] in the horrible slaughter that followed, soldiers and civilians, men and women, were indiscriminately sacrificed, and the republicans gave themselves over to three days of sacking, and to murders of the defenseless, robberies and other outrages; to the extreme of destroying, barbarians that they were after all, the public books and the parish archives, thus blinding such important historical sources"

Not even the churches of Santiago, San Juan, San Andrés, Taminanguito and San Sebastián served as protection for the refugees in them, who hoped the troops would show some consideration for the sacred precincts, which became the scenes of horrifying crimes full of anticlericalism. An example is the case of an elderly sacristan (over 80 years old), who was forced to put his head in the baptismal font, where Apolinar Morillo (the future murderer of Sucre) gave him a grotesque death by throwing a mass of adobe on him, staining the whole church with blood. The cavalry then entered, with complete coldness, to strip the sacred and venerable images of the virgins and saints of their ornaments and many other valuables.

It is also recounted that in the Plaza de Nariño, drunken and shameless soldiers went about sexually abusing women in the open street. According to the chronicles of the time, all the women, including girls and elderly women, were victims of sexual abuse. Not even the nuns in the convents were safe from that lustful orgy. The most horrible thing of all was that several of the soldiers proceeded to cut the throats of the defenseless women in macabre ways after satisfying their most hedonistic whims. It is recounted that they even impaled the mothers' babies on their bayonets so that they would stop crying.

Stay in Jamaica

At the end of 1814, Bolívar arrived in Cartagena to obtain help from New Granada, which was also in a difficult situation.

With the support of the New Granadan Government, he was recognized as chief by all the Venezuelans who were in New Granada. On September 19, 1814, Bolívar met Camilo Torres Tenorio, president of the Congress of the United Provinces of New Granada. After the defeat of General Antonio Nariño in the southern campaign in July 1814, Torres Tenorio entrusted Bolívar with the conduct of the war. On December 10, 1814, Bolívar took Santa Fe and forced Cundinamarca to recognize the authority of the Congress of the United Provinces of New Granada.

Bolívar decided to leave his post in New Granada and depart for Jamaica aboard the ship La Découverte, arriving on the island on May 14, 1815. On September 6, 1815, he wrote a Jamaica Letter, in which he justified the rebellion of the Criollos, called for the struggle for independence, and set out Francisco de Miranda's project for a confederation of Colombia.

However, Bolívar's situation in Jamaica became quite tense. He came out unharmed from an assassination attempt, because that day he had been forced to move out of his lodging house for lack of money. The British government did not want to commit itself to giving him open support, and the Spaniards were trying to assassinate him; Bolívar decided to move to a safer country where he could organize an expedition.

Stay in Haiti

Bolívar during his stay in Haiti.

At that time Haiti had become a republic independent of France, which gave asylum and support to the republicans of the American continent. For this reason Bolívar considered Haiti the right place to organize a military expedition to Venezuela, with the help of the president of that country, General Alexandre Pétion, who provided him with soldiers and arms on condition that Bolívar proclaim the abolition of slavery as soon as he set foot on Venezuelan soil.

On December 19, 1815, Bolívar left Jamaica for Haiti. He arrived at the port of Les Cayes on the 24th of the same month. With the covert help of the Haitian government and of Admiral Luis Brión, Bolívar set out on March 23, 1816, bound for Margarita Island. Bolívar delayed his departure six days because he was waiting for his lover Josefina Machado, who was coming from the Danish island of Saint Thomas. As Brión was pressing to continue, the ships set sail. On reaching the south of Hispaniola, a messenger ship caught up with Bolívar's vessel and reported that Josefina and her family had arrived at Les Cayes. Bolívar asked Brión to send a frigate for her. The British and German officers protested and threatened to abandon this expedition undertaken so lightly, but Brión persuaded them to continue.

Bolívar and Gran Colombia

Map of Gran Colombia.

Main article: Gran Colombia

After the failure of the Second Republic of Venezuela and his short stay in New Granada as military Commander, Bolívar came to the conclusion that, to achieve definitive independence, the Spaniards had to be totally defeated to prevent them from carrying out actions of reconquest. To this end, the uncoordinated and scattered efforts of the regional caudillos throughout America had to be unified under a single command, and, as a guarantee of permanent independence, a large and strong republic had to be created in order to be able to challenge the ambitions of any imperial power.

The idea of creating such a nation gave Bolívar a much broader political objective, in which he saw himself as Emperor of the Americas, and he put all his effort into it.

Colombia as a political project

While on the island of Jamaica, Bolívar had already set out the idea of forming Colombia as a country that had to become a reality. He concluded that, to turn the idea of Colombia into a viable and credible nation, it was necessary to create a centralized government capable of coordinating the actions needed to guard the borders and to bring together the different peoples of Hispanic America as a guarantee of independence.

Although the project of Colombia as a nation was in reality conceived by Francisco de Miranda during his precursory actions, it was Bolívar who had the merit of rescuing this project from the trunk of memories of his first contacts with the Precursor in London and of carrying it out against all odds until his death.

To guarantee the independence of New Granada, Bolívar considered it vital to gain control over Venezuela as soon as possible, to prevent the Spaniards from using it as a mainland outpost for their campaigns of reconquest, and so he decided to undertake this task as a priority.

On July 6, 1816, Simón Bolívar landed at Ocumare de la Costa, coming from Haiti, with 14 insurgent ships and about a thousand Haitian soldiers that the Haitian President Alexandre Pétion had provided. Pétion also assisted with money, arms and a portable printing press, on condition that Bolívar proclaim the emancipation of the slaves as soon as he set foot on Venezuelan soil, which he did after occupying Ocumare without any resistance.

Most of the population of Ocumare had fled, and Bolívar proceeded to march toward Valencia in order to establish from there a connection with the fighters who were in the Llanos. The forces under Morales headed for Valencia and from there toward the hills leading to Ocumare.

After a short skirmish, Bolívar fled toward Ocumare and from there to Bonaire. When Brión arrived in Bonaire, he reproached Bolívar for having abandoned Ocumare in that way and ordered him to go to Cumaná. Brión left for Margarita to repair several ships, and Bolívar landed again at Cumaná. There Santiago Mariño and Manuel Piar likewise reproached him for the flight from Ocumare and threatened to bring him before a court-martial and have him shot. According to Ducoudray Holstein, Bolívar became Piar's bitter enemy from then on. In order to avoid further troublesome encounters with revolutionary officers, he decided to leave again for Haiti.

As time went on, Bolívar had to deal with figures who had earned their generalships through action but who, because of the type of war being waged at that moment, ended up accepting Bolívar's Supreme Command as a necessary evil in order to defeat the Spaniards, until in the long run his leadership was undisputed.

From 1817 onward, a power struggle developed between Manuel Piar, who had led the conquest of Guayana, and Simón Bolívar. Piar had defeated Morales at El Juncal at the end of 1816 and had taken Angostura in April 1817. Simón Bolívar held a council of war on July 24, 1817, to have his leadership recognized. Bolívar wrote a pronouncement against Piar in August, and Sedeño was sent to apprehend him. Accused of wanting to eliminate Bolívar and establish a pardocracia, Piar was shot on October 16, 1817. With this, Bolívar clearly became the chief of the pro-independence forces in Venezuela.

The consolidation of supreme leadership made it easier to control eastern Venezuela and for Bolívar to establish himself in Angostura (today Ciudad Bolívar), which brought with it the inevitable and lengthy confrontation with the expeditionary forces of the Spanish general Pablo Morillo and the organization of the basic mechanisms so that the government could function.

By then the Spanish Army was already very worn down after the long campaign of reconquest carried out in Colombia and Venezuela, and although General Morillo was a very capable military Commander who tried by every means to remedy the situation, he could not prevent his troops from beginning a slow but inevitable decline, due to the lack of resources and of reinforcements to cover the losses they suffered.

By 1818, the situation of the Spanish army in Venezuela became untenable, and Morillo was forced to withdraw some of his forces from New Granada to try to contain Bolívar, who did continue receiving support from foreign powers, mainly England and France. By then the political and military situation was favorable enough for the pro-independence side to consider organizing a State, and thus around 1819 the Supreme Congress of the Republic was installed in Angostura.

Military campaign in New Granada

Main article: Independence of Colombia

From 1813 onward, the situation tipped definitively in favor of the pro-independence side, and from then on their advance across the continent became practically unstoppable, which allowed Bolívar, from Venezuela, and Francisco de Paula Santander, from New Granada, to begin coordinating joint actions from their areas of influence that would foster military unity.

The Battle of Cúcuta marked the beginning of the Admirable Campaign, through which western Venezuela was liberated. It was an armed confrontation between Simón Bolívar and the Spanish troops, in which he achieved the independence of the Colombian city of Cúcuta.

At that time there existed in New Granada an important center of revolutionary resistance against Morillo's troops in the plains of Casanare, an area adjacent to the plains of Apure and Arauca, where some of the most committed New Granadan revolutionaries withdrew to resist the violence of the Counterrevolution of the military Commander Sámano, as a pro-independence bulwark under the command of Santander, whom Bolívar promoted to the rank of Brigadier and named military Commander of the Vanguard Division.

The two had drawn up a plan in which Santander was to prepare the province of Casanare, unify the guerrillas of the south and give Bolívar reports on the Spanish troops in order to begin the invasion of New Granada.

Along with the military preparations, important political actions were also carried out. On January 21, 1819, two British ships, the Perseverance and the Tartare, arrived in Angostura with a corps of volunteers that became known as the British Legion to support Bolívar, and on February 15, 1819, Bolívar convened the Congress of Angostura, an event at which he delivered one of his finest political compositions, the Angostura Address, in which he made a critical analysis of the situation, set out the course to follow in order to found the republic and announced the Fundamental Law of the Republic of Gran Colombia (which would be ratified at the Congress of Cúcuta as the Constitution of Cúcuta in 1821).

Meanwhile, Bolívar continued preparing the military invasion of New Granada, trying to keep the details of the campaign secret, so that its duration, characteristics, starting date and scope were unknown, which helped increase the element of surprise and the unpredictability of the attack.

Pablo Morillo was aware of the arrival of the British Legion in Angostura under the command of James Rooke and sensed that Bolívar's next logical step would be to join forces with José Antonio Páez, a prominent rebel leader of Los Llanos. After analyzing the situation, he decided to attack the main New Granadan rebel stronghold in Casanare with troops under the command of Colonel José María Barreiro, which were constantly harassed by the troops of General Santander through guerrilla tactics that wore down the forces of the Spanish Third Division.

The arrival of the rainy season made the roads impassable and military operations difficult, so the Spaniards decided to fall back on the logic that the enemy would do the same.

However, the course of events made General Morillo sense the worst, since his expeditionary Army, exhausted and without having received reinforcements for a long time, was fighting against effective military forces whose real capacity was unknown.

Bolívar then made the Crossing of the Andes, which he carried out in an unfavorable season. The difficult advance of the pro-independence troops took place through the Páramo de Pisba, until they caught up with the royalists on July 25, 1819, whom he defeated in a bloody Battle, a situation that allowed the pro-independence forces to reach the city of Tunja on August 4.

There he joined the pro-independence troops under the command of Santander in the town of Tame (currently located in the department of Arauca), where the military campaign of New Granada began.

Bolívar's attack succeeded in surprising the Spaniards, who, faced with disaster, tried to take measures. Barreiro still thought he could control the situation, but the state of his troops forced him to remain on the defensive, so he decided to fall back toward the city of Bogotá, where conditions would be much more favorable for him.

The decisive confrontation with the royalists took place at the Battle of Boyacá on August 7, 1819, whose aim was to stop the advance of the loyal troops commanded by Barreiro toward the city of Bogotá, and which ended in a great victory for the revolutionary army.

When Viceroy Sámano, who, like the other royalists, knew of the Decree of War to the Death, learned of the defeat, he immediately abandoned Bogotá, and in this way the pro-independence army was able to enter the capital in triumph on August 10.

Congress of Cúcuta

Main article: Congress of Cúcuta

The result of this Congress was the official birth of the Republic of Colombia, known as Gran Colombia, through the promulgation of the Fundamental Law of Colombia, and its extent at that time covered the territories of New Granada and Venezuela, which were politically divided into three departments: Cundinamarca (Bogotá), Venezuela (Caracas) and Quito (Quito).

In December 1821, the Congress proclaimed Bolívar President of the Republic and Francisco de Paula Santander vice president, in such a way that "the Republics of Venezuela and New Granada are from this day united in a single one under the glorious title of Republic of Colombia."

Final campaigns

Simón Bolívar in 1820.

Over the following years the royalist opposition was completely eliminated. On June 24, 1821, at the Battle of Carabobo, a field near the city of Valencia, a decisive victory was won over the Spanish army, which was completed with the Naval Battle of Lake Maracaibo on July 24, 1823.

During his stay in Bogotá, other pro-independence processes took place, such as that of Guayaquil on October 9, 1820, which was carried out without Bolívar's participation, which influenced Bolívar's later decision to occupy that province, which had declared itself independent under the presidency of José Joaquín de Olmedo. Two years later Simón Bolívar arrived in Guayaquil with his army, removed the Governing Junta and annexed it to Gran Colombia.

After Antonio José de Sucre's victory over the Spanish forces at the Battle of Pichincha on May 24, 1822, Bolívar prepared to march with his army and cross the Andes toward Peru, which had already declared its independence on July 28, 1821, following the landing of General José de San Martín at Paracas and the taking of Lima on July 12.

On July 26, 1822, Bolívar held a conference with San Martín in Guayaquil to discuss military strategy against the rest of Peru. No one knows what happened in the secret meeting between the two pro-independence leaders, but San Martín returned to Argentina (after looting the Royal Treasury of Lima and loading the gold onto the fleet of the English Vice Admiral Thomas Cochrane bound for London), while Bolívar prepared for the struggle against the last Spanish strongholds in South America, in the highlands and Upper Peru. In 1823 Bolívar was authorized by the Congress of Gran Colombia to take command, and in September he arrived in Lima and met with Sucre to plan the attack. The Peruvian Congress named him dictator on February 10, 1824, and from then on he managed to control the intrigues of the new republic.

On August 6, 1824, Bolívar and Sucre together defeated the Spanish army at the Battle of Junín, and on December 9, 1824, Sucre crushed the last bulwark of the Spanish Army at the Battle of Ayacucho, putting an end to Spanish rule in South America.

Bolívar as a military strategist

Militarily, the wars led by Bolívar did not involve a large number of troops, and in total the Spanish expeditionary army never exceeded one tenth of the number of royalists either. However, Bolívar was not a professional soldier in the literal sense of the word, much less a theorist of strategy. His military training was basic, and his theoretical instruction did not go beyond notions of discipline and hierarchy. His time in the colonial military formations of Venezuela was brief, and it has been established that he never attended L'École de Sorèze, nor any other military institute of any kind.

However, the way in which he carried out his various military campaigns and the terminology used in his correspondence suggest that his successes could not have been due to lucky coincidences, and that he possessed knowledge of military strategy more advanced than he should have had given his training.

Analysis of his military actions shows that Bolívar used the fundamentals of planning and strategy to devise his operations.

Within military literature, it is known that Bolívar read the Histories of Polybius and the Gallic War of Julius Caesar, but there are also sufficient indications to believe that he used the military texts of Maurice of Saxony and of the Count of Guibert. However, it is known almost with certainty that he did not know the works of Montecuccoli until 1824, nor the studies on Napoleon until he had almost finished his military campaigns.

Dictator of Peru

Arrival in Peru

Bolívar landed at the port of Callao on September 1, 1823, aboard the brig Chimborazo, after a delegation sent by the Congress of the Republic of Peru headed by José Faustino Sánchez Carrión had sent him an invitation while he was in Guayaquil, a province whose annexation to Gran Colombia he had ordered in July 1822. The reception was attended by President José Bernardo de Tagle, Marquis of Torre Tagle, and his full ministerial cabinet. The day after his arrival, the Congress named him "supreme authority" and shortly afterward entrusted him with directing the struggle against the royalist army, ordering that Torre Tagle himself should account to him for his actions.

Bolívar's first action was to eliminate the forces in Trujillo of José de la Riva Agüero, who had been President of Peru before Torre Tagle and opposed Bolívar's arrival. Riva Agüero was captured in November of that year but managed to escape and went to England. Meanwhile, the first Constituent Congress, which was about to proclaim the first Political Constitution of Peru, issued a resolution stating that the provisions of that charter contrary to the provisions and wishes of Simón Bolívar would be suspended. The Constitution was sworn on November 11 of that year but never came into force.

The royalist army controlled the central highlands and the south of the country (the present-day departments of Junín, Ayacucho, Cusco and Arequipa). For their part, after the defeat of Riva Agüero, the forces of the unified army held the central and northern coast and the northern highlands (the present-day departments of Piura, La Libertad, Ancash, Lima and Cajamarca). In view of this, since it was feasible that Lima might be invaded by royalist forces (as indeed it was after the Callao Mutiny), Bolívar decided to move his General headquarters to the town of Pativilca, 200 kilometers north of Lima.

Bolívar instructed Torre Tagle to approach the Spanish commanders stationed in Jauja to reach a negotiation in order to gain time to increase his army and be able to defeat the royalist one (which, in the manifesto after the Battle of Junín, Bolívar boasted of defeating after 14 years of triumphs against the pro-independence forces). Torre Tagle carried out that assignment but, at the same time, was accused by Bolívar of negotiating with Viceroy La Serna the expulsion of Bolívar, and thus obtaining the fullness of his own mandate.

Apart from these intrigues, on February 5, 1824, the troops from the Río de la Plata in the fortresses of Callao belonging to San Martín's military expedition, led by a sergeant surnamed Moyano, rose in the Callao Mutiny, alleging lack of pay for the soldiers. That uprising freed the Spanish prisoners held in the Real Felipe Fortress and handed over to them the installations and defenses of the port. The royalist forces occupied Lima on February 29, later withdrawing their main force to the central highlands and maintaining a garrison in Callao, whose defenses remained under the command of the Spanish officer José Ramón Rodil, and in which various pro-independence factions took refuge, including Torre Tagle himself, who would remain in the Real Felipe Fortress, where he died the following year during the siege of Callao.

Given the lack of response from President Torre Tagle, the Congress removed him on February 10 and handed Bolívar all political and military power. Immediately afterward, the Congress sacrificed itself and went into recess until Bolívar should convene it. Bolívar became the sole and highest authority in Peru, naming José Faustino Sánchez Carrión as sole Minister General. Bolívar, named supreme chief, returned to Pativilca and ordered the general withdrawal of the united army to Trujillo and Huamachuco.

Formation of the army

From Pativilca, Bolívar began the actions to enlarge the United Liberating Army of Peru. He named as principal chiefs of the united army the Gran Colombian generals Antonio José de Sucre, José María Córdova and Jacinto Lara. No Peruvian formed part of the general staff, and only General José de La Mar was in charge of the Peruvian branch of the army. This was because Bolívar had no esteem for Peruvians, as shown in various letters he sent.

Hiram Paulding, an English sailor, wrote in the notes of his logbook that Bolívar supposedly told him about the Peruvians that they "were cowards and that, as a people, they did not have a single manly virtue. In sum, his insults were harsh and unreserved... Later I was told that he always used to speak that way about the Peruvians." But in recent clarifications it has been suggested that these assertions originated in the slowness and delay of the Peruvians in reacting for their emancipation; however, this assertion is in complete contradiction with the gallantry shown in the naval battle of Callao, as the final event that raised the newly created Peruvian nation as a republic.

Bolívar wrote precise instructions on everything related to the army's weapons; in his letters he included instructions ranging from how to make straps to how to shoe horses. Thus he ordered the military chiefs to take the necessary resources from northern Peru; most were obtained through threats and others were simply seized from their owners. Bolívar's order regarding the use of whatever wealth there might be in the churches gave rise to abuses and looting by the Gran Colombian military chiefs.

Throughout that time, the war was being waged at sea. Admiral Martin George Guisse, chief of the Peruvian squadron, destroyed the Spanish warships that were besieging the Peruvian coasts, allowing supplies and reinforcements to arrive from Colombia and constantly besieging the royalist force of Spain in Peru, stationed in Callao under the command of José Rodil.

On August 2, in the Pasco town of Rancas, Bolívar reviewed the army he had managed to assemble, which numbered 12,000 men ready to attack the army of the Viceroyalty of Peru, which since early 1824 had been paralyzed by the Olañeta rebellion. On August 6 the Battle of Junín took place, where the cavalry of the royalist army was defeated for the first time in Peru. On December 9 of that year the Viceroyalty of Peru was brought to an end through the victory at Ayacucho.

Independent Peru and Bolivia

Even before the Battle of Ayacucho, Bolívar had again appointed a ministerial cabinet. To this end he kept José Faustino Sánchez Carrión as minister, but this time in charge of Foreign Affairs, Hipólito Unanue in charge of the Ministry of Finance, and the Venezuelan military officer Tomás de Heres as Minister of War. His government in Peru was characterized by great repression against the people and his opponents, while he exercised great interference both within the newly formed Judiciary and in the election of the Congress. Nevertheless, Bolívar's government was characterized by the creation of basic institutions within what would be the organization of the nascent Peruvian state.

On February 10, 1825, one year after the Congress had gone into recess, Bolívar convened it again. This Congress sat for one month before dissolving and declaring its functions concluded on March 10. During this period, the Congress authorized the departure of 6,000 Peruvian soldiers to Gran Colombia, agreed to grant rewards to the victorious soldiers and issued a resolution disclaiming any involvement in the future chosen by Upper Peru, present-day Bolivia.

On May 20, 1825, from the city of Arequipa, Bolívar called elections for a General Congress that was to meet on February 10 of the following year. However, the new congress could not be inaugurated that day, since Bolívar did not agree with the inclusion of some deputies such as Francisco Xavier de Luna Pizarro, who had been elected by the department of Arequipa. Only in April did the Congress manage to meet, but its preliminary sessions failed, since the government declared invalid the credentials of the deputies of Arequipa, Lima, Cusco and other provinces.

On May 26, 1826, the government withdrew from the municipalities the right to elect their authorities and shortly afterward decreed that the prefects convene the electoral colleges of the provinces so that each one would directly approve the Lifetime Constitution drawn up by Simón Bolívar, which named him President for Life.

On September 4, 1826, Bolívar embarked on the brig Congreso bound for Colombia, leaving in Peru a "Council of Government" whose mission was to bring the Lifetime Constitution into force. Bolívar would never return to Peru. The Council of Government did not succeed in getting the Supreme Court of Peru to approve the Lifetime Constitution and the appointment of Bolívar as President for Life, so it turned to the Cabildo of Lima, which, under pressure, validated the records of the electoral colleges and gave the green light to the promulgation of the Constitution. This constitution was only in force until January 26 of the following year, when the Council of Government fell and new elections were called.

During his government, Bolívar complied with the agreement on "replacements" for the Gran Colombian army, under which the losses it suffered during the battles fought in Peru were to be replaced, not only for deaths on the battlefield but also for desertions and illness. To this end, Bolívar ordered the forced recruitment of Peruvians to form troops and their subsequent dispatch to Venezuela; this took place while the Gran Colombian troops remained in Peru.

Other measures

Simón Bolívar restored the Indigenous Tribute, establishing its "reduction to the amount paid in 1820," a contribution that Peruvian indigenous people had to pay solely for being indigenous. José de San Martín had abrogated that contribution on August 27, 1821, so the measure did nothing but reinstate a payment that had already been abolished. On the other hand, he prohibited the mita and, as in the other recently independent nations, the freedom of wombs was guaranteed, which guaranteed that the children of slaves who served and enlisted and whose wives were pregnant—the children of these unions—would be born free, and those soldiers who had previously been slaves would be granted their freedom as a reward for their loyal services to the pro-independence cause.

In the area of the organization of the State, on March 6, 1824, Bolívar replaced the High Chamber of Justice which, by order of San Martín, had replaced the Audiencia of Lima. This Chamber gave rise to the Superior Court of Lima and, after the Battle of Ayacucho, gave rise to the Supreme Court of Justice. Bolívar named as its President Manuel Lorenzo de Vidaurre, who left several highly flattering writings about Bolívar. However, as happened in the trial held over the murder of Bernardo de Monteagudo, where Bolívar directly interrogated the suspects and set their sentences, Bolívar exercised direct interference in the Supreme Court. He also created the Superior Court of Justice of Trujillo, the Superior Court of Justice of Arequipa and the Superior Court of Justice of Cusco.

Bolívar created several important national schools such as the National College of Sciences and the Colegio Educandas in Cusco, institutions that became known as the Bolivarian schools. He likewise founded the Diario Oficial El Peruano, the official gazette of the Peruvian State. He issued the first Press Law, which managed to suppress every written source unfavorable to him. The regulation of that law sentenced the authors of writings the government considered subversive to six years in prison and prohibited satires against government measures.

In Peruvian finances, Bolívar's government carried out two main acts. First, the rewards for the unified army were established, whose payment was borne by the Peruvian State until the mid-19th century; and a loan was negotiated with England of which only 25% of the capital was received, while the full amount plus interest had to be repaid. Bolívar received a bankrupt country and his administration did not improve that situation.

During his government, repression was exercised against his main opponents. Thus, the banishment of Francisco Xavier de Luna Pizarro and Mariano Necochea was ordered, as well as the imprisonment of Admiral Martín George Guisse, the brothers Ignacio and Francisco-Javier Mariátegui and several Chilean and Argentine military officers, and the execution of figures such as Torre Tagle's minister, Juan de Berindoaga, Viscount of San Donás. In addition, a cloud of suspicion was cast over the murder of Bernardo Monteagudo.

Although Bolívar is said to have ordered the annexation of the Province of Guayaquil to Gran Colombia in 1822, after the interview with the protector of Peru, José de San Martín, the Free Province of Guayaquil already existed, the work of Joaquín Olmedo, in 1820, before Peru and Ecuador became independent (which began the territorial dispute between Peru and Ecuador).

In 1825 the criollos of Upper Peru or Charcas decided to create an autonomous country, and refused to belong to Lima or to Buenos Aires. Thus from Upper Peru was born the creation of the Republic of Bolívar. In the words of Jorge Basadre, "Bolivia has its roots in the Audiencia of Charcas, placed first under the aegis of the Viceroyalty of Peru and then under that of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata."

A brief sketch of Bolívar is presented by Jorge Basadre, historian and politician of Peru, who said that "the authenticity of Bolívar's genius lies in his polyphony. The warrior, the man of society, the orator, the writer were bound together in him with the politician, the legislator, the forger of love affairs. And though what he did and achieved was considerable, he was not content with it; he was always a passionate seed of dreams and of grandeur."

Political life in Bolivia and other newly independent nations

With Sucre's entry into Upper Peru, on February 3, 1825, a decree was promulgated calling a deliberative assembly so that the provinces that made it up could decide their fate. After many incidents, on July 10, 1825, the constituent assembly met in Chuquisaca in the City of La Plata (Charcas). That assembly sat during the following months until it reached a majority consensus to establish itself as a sovereign State independent of all nations, of both the old and the new world. On August 6, 1825, the Congress of Upper Peru created the Republic of Bolívar, whose name was later changed to Bolivia.

The Constitution of 1826 was written by Bolívar himself. Likewise, Simón Bolívar was named first President, and he governed the country for a short time, delegating his functions to Sucre, until the Congress named the latter president on May 26, 1826. Also in 1826 Bolívar convened the Congress of Panama, known as the first hemispheric conference.

While he was on his way to Venezuela, summoned by the outbreak of the uprising of La Cosiata, which had taken place on April 30, 1826, in Peru he was named president for life on November 30 of that year, but Bolívar did not accept. General Andrés de Santa Cruz was named President of Peru on January 28, 1827.

But from 1827 onward, due to personal rivalries among the generals of the revolution, political conflicts erupted that ended up destroying the prospects of a South American union for which Bolívar had fought.

Once in Venezuela, he pardoned those involved in the Cosiata, and on January 1, 1827, he kept Páez in the post of superior civil and military chief. He reformed the statutes of the University of Caracas (today's Central University of Venezuela) and set out for Santa Fe de Bogotá on July 5 of that year to convene a convention that was to create a new constitution and restore national concord after the battles against the Spaniards and the discord among the parties. Bolívar never returned to Venezuela.

The convention met in Ocaña on April 9, 1828. From the beginning of the meeting, those attending divided into three factions: the first was led by General Francisco de Paula Santander, Vice President of Gran Colombia, who defended a federalist conception of government; the second, headed by Simón Bolívar himself, advocated a Central government; and, finally, a third, that of the independents, in which Joaquín Mosquera and the undecided were active. The Convention failed because none of the proposals for a new constitution was accepted; for that reason, Bolívar's followers resolved to leave Ocaña on June 10, 1828, and the meeting was left without the required quorum.

On August 9, 1828, Bolívar decreed a law that prohibited Spanish citizens from marrying in Gran Colombia. This law was repealed in the Congress of Venezuela in 1831.

Bolívar prohibited the circulation of the works of Jeremy Bentham in the universities of Colombia, considering them harmful to young people, and this even though Bentham was one of the few famous European thinkers of the time who supported independence. He also signed a decree under which the government was to promote and protect Catholicism as the religion of the Colombians.

Believing that through his action he could impose order and maintain the union of Gran Colombia, Bolívar declared himself dictator on August 27, 1828, through the Organic Decree of the Dictatorship, and the Vice Presidency of the Republic was abolished.

Assassination attempt and decline

On September 25, 1828, in Bogotá, an attempt was made on his life, known as the September Conspiracy, from which he emerged unharmed thanks to the help of his lover, Manuela Sáenz, a native of Quito who in 1821 had received the order of Dame of the Sun from General José de San Martín. Beneath the window of Bolívar's residence, opposite the present-day Teatro Colón, through which he made his escape, a plaque was placed with the inscription in the side panel. He spent the night hidden in a culvert in what is known today as the environmental axis of Bogotá.

Bolívar initially tried to pardon those considered to be conspirators, members of the "Santanderist" faction. Eventually it was decided to submit them to martial justice, after which those accused of being directly involved were to be shot, some without their responsibility having been fully established. Francisco de Paula Santander knew of the possibility of attempts against Bolívar, but his direct participation in that conspiracy could not be proven.

Afterward, Bolívar continued governing in a strained atmosphere, cornered by factional disputes. The revolts continued. In this situation, Gran Colombia declared war on Peru, and the President of that country, José de La Mar, invaded Guayaquil, but was defeated by Antonio José de Sucre at the Battle of Portete de Tarqui on February 27, 1829. Venezuela proclaimed itself independent on January 13, 1830, and José Antonio Páez took the presidency of that country, banishing Bolívar.

Bolívar convened the event we know as the Admirable Congress, where he presented his resignation from the presidency on January 20, 1830; however, it was not accepted at first, given that this was a body that would be in charge of issuing a new constitution for Gran Colombia. The Admirable Congress officially ended on May 11, 1830, and only on May 4, 1830, was Bolívar's resignation accepted, while the post of president was given to Joaquín Mosquera and that of vice president to General Domingo Caycedo; Bolívar was granted a pension of 3,000 pesos a year. On May 8, 1830, Bolívar left Bogotá accompanied by a group of friends and politicians with only 17,000 pesos, the proceeds from the sale of his silver tableware, his jewels and his horses. Caycedo sent Bolívar his passport, since he intended to return to Europe. In June he arrived in Cartagena, and his health began to show further deterioration, so he decided to withdraw to a country place, the house of Mr. Judah Kingseller. However, his health did not improve, and they chose to look for a suitable doctor; Juan Pavejeau informed Mariano Montilla that Doctor Alejandro Próspero Révérend was in Santa Marta, and they considered moving Bolívar so that the doctor could treat him.

On July 1, General Mariano Montilla informed Bolívar of the murder of Antonio José de Sucre, news that affected him. At the end of the month he saw published in the press the resolution of the Venezuelan Congress to break off relations with Colombia as long as Bolívar remained on Colombian soil, but his followers persuaded him not to leave Colombia.

Death

Main article: Death of Simón Bolívar

The official account relates that after his resignation, and after receiving news of Sucre's assassination, Bolívar, alone and disillusioned, had decided to leave for Europe. He arrived at Santa Marta in a state of prostration on December 1, 1830. He had made an arduous journey down the Magdalena River from Bogotá aboard the schooner Manuel, which was escorted on the last part of the voyage by the United States Navy ship USS Grampus. He stayed initially at the Customs House, where he was attended by the French physician Alejandro Próspero Révérend in consultation with Mac Night, the military doctor of the USS Grampus.

Despite the good climate and the care he received, his health worsened within a few days. He therefore accepted the invitation of the Spaniard Joaquín de Mier y Benítez and was moved to the Quinta de San Pedro Alejandrino, southwest of Santa Marta, where he arrived on December 6. Moments of lucidity allowed him to dictate his will and his last proclamation. In it the gravely ill Bolívar pleaded that his death might at least bring about the consolidation of the union and the disappearance of the parties. Simón Bolívar finally died of tuberculosis on December 17, 1830, at the age of 47.

On December 24, the secretary general of the Command of Santa Marta wrote an account of what took place after Bolívar's death, reporting that his body was moved to the Customs building. There Révérend performed the autopsy, removed the organs to keep them in containers, and embalmed the body. Révérend established beyond doubt that the cause of death was "tuberculous phthisis," arising from a poorly treated pulmonary catarrh that had become chronic. The wake was then held in the same place for two days, with the body dressed in military insignia and attended by a large share of the population. He was buried on the 20th. The burial was carried out with a military parade to the Cathedral of Santa Marta, where he was interred without the presence of the bishop.

Exhumation of the body

The official account of Bolívar's death raised doubts among some historians. In particular, they questioned the conduct of the physician Alejandro Próspero Révérend and the tuberculosis to which Bolívar's death was attributed. Other points also raised doubts: the absence of other physicians, the reason for the presence of the American warship USS Grampus, and the role played by the ship's military doctor, whose surname was Night.

In 1947 the constituent assembly member Andrés Eloy Blanco argued before the Congress that Bolívar's remains should not lie in a sarcophagus made of so ignoble a material as lead. In 1972 the sarcophagus was opened (not the urn containing his remains), and the urn was covered with a flag of Venezuela made in Great Britain.

In 2007 the Venezuelan historian Jorge Mier Hoffman published a book titled La carta que cambiará la historia (The Letter That Will Change History). Mier Hoffman is a descendant of Joaquín de Mier y Benítez, the Spaniard in whose house Bolívar died. In the book he raises serious doubts about the official version of the cause and circumstances of Simón Bolívar's death. The President of Venezuela, Hugo Chávez, stated publicly that he had read the book. He said he considered it necessary to exhume Bolívar's remains to establish whether they really were his and whether it was true that he had died of tuberculosis.

On January 28, 2008, President Chávez issued Decree No. 5834, creating a scientific commission chaired by the Spanish geneticist José Antonio Lorente. Its central mission was to exhume Bolívar's remains, establish their identity, and verify whether tuberculosis was in fact the cause of his death. If it was not, the commission was to look for evidence of the actual cause, especially traces of arsenic that might indicate possible poisoning.

On July 16, 2010, in a televised broadcast, a group of forensic doctors exhumed Bolívar's remains. The exhumation, promoted by the Chávez government, was intended to verify the authenticity of the remains and the cause of death. After the exhumation, a three-dimensional reconstruction of Bolívar's face was made. The forensic experts concluded that he had mestizo features and presented a recreation that was completely different from any portrait of him that had existed until then. Incredibly, it bore a certain resemblance to the face of Chávez himself.

Chávez then proclaimed that all earlier portraits of Bolívar had been commissioned by white oligarchs of the 19th century. In doing so he overlooked the fact that Bolívar belonged to that very oligarchy, and that many of those portraits had been made by painters as little open to suspicion as José Gil de Castro. He then ordered that this new face replace most of the classic portraits of Bolívar in public institutions and on the local currency.

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  500-bolívar banknote (1981_1998)

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  500-bolívar banknote (2018)

Criticism of Simón Bolívar

Although he often tried to hide it, Bolívar could not avoid leaving a record of his aversion toward the Indigenous and Black population. In various letters he used descriptions such as "thieves, ignorant and liars," as well as "lacking moral principles that might guide them." He thereby justified arrangements under which others would govern and decide for them. For example, in correspondence with the British after the war against the royalists had already ended, he noted:

"Of all countries, South America is perhaps the least suited to republican governments, because its population is made up of Indians and Blacks, more ignorant than the vile race of the Spaniards, from whom we have just emancipated ourselves."

In the opinion of the historian Hugo Pereyra Plasencia, Bolívar came to Peru not so much to give freedom to the Peruvians, "but mainly out of the geopolitical interest of destroying at the root what he considered a threat to Gran Colombia, […] That is why Bolivia was created, to cut off the legs of the Peruvian 'monster'." How little local freedoms mattered to him was shown in 1825. That year Bolívar ordered the annulment of the emancipation of slaves that San Martín had decreed. Shortly afterward he reimposed the Indigenous tribute, which San Martín had also abolished on August 27, 1821.

That same year, the Constituent Congress that he himself had convened in Peru ordered an equestrian statue of Bolívar to be erected in the Plaza del Congreso, where it stands today. It also ordered the payment of a reward of 1,000,000 pesos as a "small demonstration of gratitude" toward him. The sum represented roughly one third of Peru's annual budget at the time.

Once the war against Spain was over, the Peruvian aristocracy secured the annulment of the Bolivarian Constitution that had been imposed on them. That constitution had been defended with the puerile argument, in Bolívar's own words, that although the methods used to approve it were not legal, it was "popular and therefore proper to an eminently democratic republic."

Bolívar according to Ducoudray Holstein

For his part, the Franco-German general Ducoudray Holstein, who served as Bolívar's Chief of Staff, wrote that Bolívar was "more focused on the amatory arts than on the military ones." He also asserted that Bolívar was "ignorant in matters of military strategy" and "vain, arrogant, a womanizer and a coward." This general's criticism in "Memoirs of Bolívar" is so intense that he titled one chapter "The general as he is, and as he is not commonly believed to be." In it he points to as many as seven acts of cowardice in the face of the enemy, "abandoning his troops to their fate while he fled."

His testimony might seem important. He had been Bolívar's friend, confidant and military attaché, as well as a direct and active witness of the pro-independence processes in the Spanish Americas. Even so, probably for propaganda reasons, the book was published in 1828 only in English, and later in German and French. It was not until 2011 that it was finally translated and published in Spanish.

In these "Memoirs" Ducoudray describes Bolívar's personality as follows:

Bolívar when victorious differs not only circumstantially from Bolívar in adversity; he is another person. When he is victorious, he is vain, arrogant, hard-hearted, violent. At the same time, the smallest of circumstances kindles his distrust of anyone's authority, and he ends up arresting, and sometimes condemning to capital punishment, everyone he suspects. To a great extent, he conceals these faults through the courtesy of a man educated in the so-called "beau monde". These traits show themselves in his fits of anger, but they do not appear unless he is sure of having force on his side, that is, the bayonets under his orders.

When he finds himself in adversity and without outside support, as he was from 1813 to 1818, he is perfectly free of any anger or violence of temper. He usually becomes calm, patient, docile and even submissive. Those who have watched him change over time will agree that I have not exaggerated this description.

The predominant defects of General Bolívar's personality are ambition, vanity, a thirst for absolute and undivided power, and great dissimulation. He is very cunning and understands humanity much better than all his fellow countrymen. He skillfully turns every circumstance to his own advantage and spares no effort to win over those he knows can be useful to him at the moment. He is efficient at offering them small services; he flatters them, makes them brilliant promises, and makes them believe that their suggestions are useful and important and that he is ready to follow their advice. Then a third person suggests something to him, or he meets with some unexpected success, and he instantly returns to his true personality. He becomes vain, arrogant, angry and violent, forgets all services and obligations, and speaks with contempt of all those he used to flatter. If they have no power, he abandons them, but he always shows a readiness to avoid those he knows can confront and resist him.

Ducoudray also writes about how he treated his own troops:

During a small skirmish that General Bolívar had with a Spanish detachment in 1814, not far from Araure, one of his officers arrived at full gallop. He reported that a detached company had been attacked on a hill thick with bushes a mile from his headquarters and was in need of cartridges. Twelve soldiers who heard this report immediately offered to carry the cartridges. Bolívar ordered his chief of staff, Tomás Montilla, to send a box of cartridges with each of these soldiers. Since there was no road, however, they were forced to look for a shortcut to climb the hill through a dense forest full of brambles and thorns.

After doing everything possible to continue, they realized there was no way to go any further and were forced to return to headquarters with the boxes of cartridges. They explained to the dictator that it had been impossible to go on and showed him their clothes torn to pieces and their bodies covered in blood and wounds. Bolívar, full of rage, called them cowards, scoundrels, traitors, etc., and ordered that the first three who had arrived be shot. His chief of staff Tomás Montilla, who is one of his great favorites, his artillery commander José Collot, and several other staff officers present begged him to revoke this order. The men fell on their knees and with pathetic lamentations begged him to spare their lives, since they were innocent and fathers of large families. It was all in vain. As soon as they came before him, two or three at a time, he renewed his order, and all twelve were tied up and shot.

At various times Bolívar has shown the same disposition as in this example, as I have already shown before.

Bolívar according to George Hippisley

Colonel George Hippisley describes him as follows in "Narrative of the Expedition to the Rivers Orinoco and Apure in South America":

I had ample opportunity to examine the general (Bolívar) while he conversed with Captain Beire. From what I had heard about him, I had come to expect a very different man from the one I saw before me. General Bolívar has the appearance of a worn-out man. Although he is only thirty-eight years old, he looks about fifty.

Bolívar stands about five feet six inches, of slender and pale complexion, with a long face marked with every symptom of anxiety, unease and, I might almost add, distrust. He also seems to have endured great suffering. His dark eyes, by report once very bright, now lack luster and are very heavy, though I can say they had more fire and energy when his body was less worn. Black hair loosely tied behind with a piece of silk ribbon, a large mustache, a black kerchief around his neck, blue trousers, boots and spurs complete his attire. To my eyes he could pass for anyone but who he is. Across his room hung one of the Spanish hammocks, in which he occasionally sat and swung while he talked, and he rarely remained in the same posture for more than two minutes.

Bolívar is an imitation of a great man. He aspires to be a second Bonaparte in South America without possessing a single talent for the duties of the battlefield or of administration. He would like to be king of New Granada and Venezuela, without the talent to command them and without the importance or abilities to secure or maintain the lofty position to which his ambition aspires.

In victory, in passing prosperity, he is a tyrant and shows the feelings and baseness of an upstart. He suddenly turns spiteful and in a moment becomes like a madman and, pardon the expression, a foul-mouthed man. He throws himself onto his hammock (which always remains hung for his use) and utters curses and imprecations against everyone around him in the most repugnant and diabolical manner. In defeat, in danger, in retreat, he feels confused, harassed and discounted even by himself, disheartened by disasters that he has neither the skill nor the strength of mind to face, relieve or end. It was in this state that he appeared to me in the retreat to and from San Fernando, when he presented an image of misery and hopelessness.

Bolívar has neither the talents nor the abilities of a general, and especially not of a commander-in-chief. The numerous mistakes he has made throughout all his campaigns over the last eight years have almost completely laid waste to all the provinces and annihilated the population. The repeated surprises he has suffered from the enemy (seven so far) are proof of my assertion, and believe me when I declare that any one of them would have been disgraceful even for a corporal.

Bolívar according to Karl Marx

In the biographical article on Bolívar titled Bolívar y Ponte, written by Karl Marx for the New American Cyclopedia, Marx presents him in an extremely critical way. Marx begins by saying that Bolívar was born into a family of "Creole nobility in Venezuela." As "was the custom of wealthy Americans of the time," he was "sent to Europe at the early age of 14."

Throughout the article Marx comments on how Bolívar abandoned his troops on several occasions. He notes that after Bolívar arrived in Caracas in 1813, "Bolívar's dictatorship soon proved to be a military anarchy, leaving the most important affairs in the hands of favorites, who squandered the finances of the country and then resorted to infamous means to restore them."

Karl Marx's animosity toward Bolívar was well known, to the point that he admitted that in writing about him he had strayed somewhat from the "encyclopedic tone." In a letter to Engels dated February 14, 1858, he wrote the following:

"the most cowardly, brutal and miserable scoundrel. Bolívar is a true Soulouque"...

Marx also pointed to the unreal myth that had been created around the figure of Bolívar:

"The myth-making power characteristic of popular fantasy has, in every age, proved its effectiveness by inventing great men. The most notable example of this kind is, without doubt, that of Simón Bolívar"

Marx relied on numerous testimonies from foreign military commanders who fought in the wars of independence. On that basis he attributes many of Bolívar's decisive victories to the "Foreign Legion" of British, Irish, Polish and German soldiers. These men arrived in the country in 1817, entering through the mouths of the Orinoco from the island of Trinidad and going up to Angostura.

Other quotations from Marx:

"At 2 p.m., while (the patriot Francisco) Miranda was fast asleep, Casas, Peña and Bolívar (…) put him in irons and handed him over to Monteverde (…) This earned Bolívar Monteverde's special favor, to the point that when the former asked him for his passport, the Spanish commander declared: 'Colonel Bolívar's request must be satisfied, as a reward for the service rendered to the King of Spain by the handing over of Miranda' (…)

... he was incapable of any sustained effort, and his dictatorship soon degenerated into a military anarchy in which the most important affairs were left in the hands of favorites who ruined the public finances (…) barely three months later the Liberator had lost his prestige (…)

(…) although the city (Bogotá) had capitulated, Bolívar allowed his soldiers to sack it for 48 hours (…)

(…) When Morales's light infantry scattered Bolívar's vanguard, he (…) lost 'all presence of mind and, without uttering a word, in an instant turned his horse and fled' (…) Piar, however, the conqueror of Guayana, who had once threatened to bring Bolívar before a court-martial for desertion, spared no sarcasm against the 'Napoleon of retreats' (…)

(…) Using violence, but also intrigue, he did in fact manage to impose his code (Constitution) on Peru, though only for a few weeks".

Bolívar according to Pablo Victoria

Pablo Eduardo Victoria Wilches, a Hispano-Colombian economist, historian, writer and politician, also devoted his efforts to unmasking Simón Bolívar. He maintained that Bolívar had been mythologized by a large part of Hispanic American society. In his words, this military man "has not had biographers, but flatterers who present him as someone magnanimous, detached from passions, intelligent and cultured." That is an error, for although Bolívar was educated thanks to his membership in the Creole elite, he committed "murders with tremendous cruelty." He also "aspired to establish a dictatorship in the American territories with the support of England and of some" local "provinces," in order to "crown himself emperor of the continent."

In one of his last books, El terror bolivariano (The Bolivarian Terror), Victoria maintained, on the basis of unpublished documents, that the self-proclaimed liberators led by Bolívar deliberately eliminated thousands of Spaniards. They did so under the orders of "someone immensely cruel whose motivation was to amass power and be dictator for life." The account of this drama does not deal only with epic battles. It is also a history of human cruelty and of what the author has not hesitated to call the Bolivarian genocide: the slaughter outside combat that Simón Bolívar unleashed against thousands of defenseless Spanish civilians.

"It is a history of human cruelty and of what I have chosen to call the Bolivarian genocide, the slaughter outside combat that Simón Bolívar unleashed against thousands of defenseless or innocent Spaniards. The Bolívar I have discovered, I must admit even at the cost of my compatriots' incomprehension, has filled me with horror, anguish and shame. I could never have imagined that behind that idealist and great man there could be hidden, at the same time, so vile and bloodthirsty a soul. That is why my book is a picture of lights and shadows: lights of the grandiose, and shadows of the vile and despicable."

Victoria spent twelve years of research gathering documents of Bolívar himself. With them he sought "to bring to light what many historians have insisted on keeping hidden in the shadows": lies woven about the Spanish presence in America to justify a secession that was in reality a bloody civil war. "In my research I show that he aspired to establish a dictatorship in the American territories. What is more: he wanted, with the support of England and of some provinces of America, to crown himself emperor of the continent."

Victoria speaks of "Bolívar's life journey up to his disillusionment with Independence, the collapse of his unionist dream, his exile and his sad end, when he repented of what he had done and acknowledged that 'it was better with the Spaniards'." "What is happening in Venezuela today, its expropriations, its strongmen and its misery, has its antecedent in that catastrophe that Bolívar brought about," the author declared.

Bolívar according to other historical writers

• In his biography of Bolívar, Salvador de Madariaga states that he was "cowardly to the point of panic." As an example he points to the handing over of Francisco de Miranda to the Spanish authorities after the Capitulation of La Victoria.
• The Venezuelan writer González de Soto described him as "cowardly, a braggart, very audacious, excessively cruel and bloodthirsty."
• The former President of Peru, José Bernardo de Tagle, said of Bolívar that from him "only desolation and death could be expected."
• The French Commander Maurice Persat, who also fought alongside Bolívar, called him "a bad patriot, a bad general, a coward." He added «êtait d´une violence sans façon» (he was of an unrestrained violence).

Legacy

Monument to Bolívar in Ciudad Bolívar.

In general, Bolívar often had to combine political obligations with military ones, so the two frequently appear intertwined. The influence of his political ideals, however, has led to a cult of the man that remains alive in many Hispanic American nations that regard themselves as heirs to his work.

His political work has been analyzed mainly through the copious correspondence, reports and speeches he produced throughout his life. Thus the Cartagena Manifesto, the Jamaica Letter and the Angostura Address are considered his principal political statements.

The large body of Bolivarian literature contrasts with its interpretive monotony and with the anecdotes that have crept in and served to build the Bolivarian cult. There are few critical historical works on the life and work of Simón Bolívar. Literary Romanticism had much to do with this process of idealization. It was carried out by writers who were not historians and who first created the current of the cult of Bolívar.

Cult of personality

The figure and thought of Bolívar have been invoked in Latin America by different political currents to defend their ideas and projects, ranging from the far left to the far right.

The historian Germán Carrera Damas has described the process by which the cult of personality of Simón Bolívar was formed. Another Venezuelan historian, Manuel Caballero, also devoted several works to analyzing how various groups in Venezuela and abroad spread that cult for political ends.

Even his physical appearance has been distorted in numerous portraits made after his death, so that he looks like something that bears very little relation to reality. His features have been changed completely. He has been given an intellectual and cordial complexion, and the mustache for which he was famously known has been removed. Attempts have been made to make him resemble one of the great military figures of the age. Ducoudray-Holstein, as Bolívar's Chief of Staff, was among those who knew him best personally, and he left us the following portrait:

"Simón Bolívar is five feet four inches tall; his face is gaunt, with sunken cheeks, and his complexion brownish and livid; his eyes, neither large nor small, are deeply sunk in their sockets; his hair is thin. His mustache gives him a somber and ferocious look, particularly when he is irritated. His whole body is thin and fleshless. He looks like a man of 65. When he walks he swings his arms incessantly. He cannot walk far on foot and tires quickly."

José Antonio Páez, despite his conflicts with Bolívar, already used Bolívar's figure to unite the population under his command. For a long time many Venezuelan parliamentarians had refused to pay homage to Bolívar. Only on April 30, 1834, did the congressmen around Páez manage to pass a decree permitting the cult of the so-called "Liberator." The decree also stipulated that Bolívar should "return" to Congress, at least in the form of marble statues.

On April 30, 1842, Páez signed a decree that, among other things, ordered the repatriation of Bolívar's remains. Public employees were to wear mourning for eight days, a funeral anniversary was to be held in every provincial capital, and all employees were to be given days of mourning. It also ordered that effigies of Bolívar be erected in all the halls of Congress and of the Executive. Páez did not succeed in changing the name of Caracas to Ciudad Bolívar, although Angostura did receive that name in 1846.

The historian Damas speaks of a "theological conception of history" in which Independence was seen as the titanic work of a single man. The German historian Norbert Rehrmann comments: "in the first years of reconstruction the advantages of such views were evident. After all, everyone who went against these commandments was threatened with the punishment of the creator, even if in the form of his representatives on earth."

Antonio Guzmán Blanco was the second caudillo after Páez to increase the cult of Bolívar again. The "El Libertador" coin was introduced, which would later be called the Bolívar. Guzmán Blanco, who wanted to strengthen centralism, renamed the Plaza Mayor as Plaza Bolívar. He also commissioned an equestrian statue of Bolívar in Italy to occupy the center of that space.

Mural with the face of Simón Bolívar with Chavista features, according to a study sponsored by Chavismo

The sacralization of Bolívar's figure is especially notable in Venezuela, and different governments have used it to justify their political and social projects. Notable among these efforts were those of President Hugo Chávez, who tried to give Bolívar's figure a sacred character and make him an untouchable figure. As part of this conception, the adjective Bolivarian was introduced to define the Venezuelan State that emerged from the 1999 Constitution of Venezuela.

Chávez made constant use of Bolívar's image. During his government Bolívar's name, image and ideas became omnipresent in Venezuelan society, and his name was used for satellites, telephones, orchestras and films.

Honors

Simón Bolívar has been honored many times, including posthumously, with tributes such as:

• In Bogotá, on July 20, 1847, the old main square was renamed Plaza de Bolívar in his honor. In the center of this square stands the first full-length statue, sculpted in 1844 by Pietro Tenerani, which has been there since the mid-19th century. The main squares of all the towns of Colombia have been given this name. A department on the Caribbean Coast is also named Bolívar.
• In Venezuela almost all the capitals of the municipalities have a Plaza Bolívar, and there are parks, monuments, towns and municipalities bearing his name. The largest state of Venezuela, in the southeast of the country, also bears his name. All the South American countries that became independent from Spain have important departments, sites, squares, streets or monuments dedicated to Bolívar.
• In Panama City there is a monument in his honor in a square named Plaza Bolívar. On one side of this square stands the Palacio Bolívar, today the foreign ministry of the Republic of Panama. Inside the building is the "Amphictyonic Hall," where the Congress of Panama was held, and a sword of Bolívar rests in this hall.
• In Socha, Colombia, there is a bust of Bolívar commemorating the National Route 64 (Colombia).
• In Argentina there is a monument by the Argentine sculptor José Fioravanti, inaugurated on October 28, 1942, which occupies the center of Rivadavia Park in Buenos Aires. The sculpture consists of a straight-lined arch 11 meters high and 22 meters wide, with an inscription reading "To Simón Bolívar, the Argentine Nation." It is accompanied by four bas-reliefs, with a statue at the center of the sculpture. There is also the city of San Carlos de Bolívar, seat of Bolívar Partido in Buenos Aires Province. In the city of Buenos Aires, a street and a subway station bearing his name are very close to the Government House. Bolívar Station is located beneath Avenida Julio Argentino Roca between Bolívar and Perú streets, in the Monserrat neighborhood, a few meters from the Plaza de Mayo. It was inaugurated on April 24, 1966.
• In Ecuador there is a province named after him in the Inter-Andean region. There are two cantons named Bolívar in the country (in the provinces of Manabí and Carchi) and one named Simón Bolívar in Guayas Province. In the city of Guayaquil, the avenue along the banks of the Guayas River is called the Malecón Simón Bolívar. In the same city, Seminario Park (also known as Bolívar Park and colloquially as Iguana Park) has a monument in his honor at its center.

Monument to Bolívar in Seville.

• In Paris there is the Bolivar metro station.
• In Brussels, Boulevard Simón Bolívar (Simon Bolivarlaan) begins at the entrance of the North railway station. A bust of Bolívar was installed in 2011.
• In various cities around the world there are streets and avenues named after him, such as Avenue Simon Bolivar (Paris), Simon-Bolivar-Straße in Berlin, Bremen and Leipzig, Simón Bolívar Caddesi (Ankara), Simon Bolivarstraat (Utrecht), Simon Bolívar Street in Windhoek, Simon Bolívar Square in Cairo, Simon Bolívar Ave (New Orleans), and Simón Bolívar Boulevard in Tehran, among others.
• Santa Cruz de Tenerife has been twinned with Caracas since 1981 because of the historical ties between the Canary Islands and Venezuela. In that city there is a bust of Bolívar on Calle Benito Pérez Armas, at the end of Avenida Venezuela. There are also two other busts on the island of Tenerife, one in San Cristóbal de La Laguna and another in Garachico, the town from which some of his ancestors came.
• In Cádiz stands a monument to Simón Bolívar, a gift from Venezuela to the City of Cádiz. Opposite it is the Aulario Simón Bolívar of the University of Cádiz.
• In Madrid there is the Monument to Simón Bolívar in the Parque del Oeste.
• The Monument to Simón Bolívar in Barcelona.
• In Seville the Monument to Simón Bolívar (Seville) was also erected.
• As of December 30, 1999, the official name of Venezuela, Republic of Venezuela, changed to "Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela" in honor of Bolívar.
• In Peru various provinces, institutions, schools, streets, etc. bear his name. The Plaza del Congreso (the former Plaza de la Inquisición in Lima) also has a monument to Simón Bolívar. The house where he lived in the Pueblo Libre District is a museum. However, in view of the results of his actions, he is a controversial figure in that country who has divided historians, and there is a varied literature on the subject.
• Airports, railways, metros and metro stations, as well as numerous public schools and universities in Latin America, bear his name.
• In Mexico, in the state of Durango, there is a municipality named General Simón Bolívar. General Simón Bolívar Municipality borders the municipality named after the first Mexican president (a native of Durango), Guadalupe Victoria, who sent money to Bolívar for the independence of Peru.
• Ciudad Bolívar, capital of the largest state of Venezuela, Bolívar State.
• Venezuela's monetary unit bears his name, the "bolívar."
• Documents of his, on his thoughts and his surroundings, are kept in museums around the world. Most are exhibited in the Latin American region, mainly in the countries where he played a leading role in the pro-independence struggle.
• One of the most important universities in Venezuela is Simón Bolívar University. It offers undergraduate programs in science and technology, as well as graduate studies in fields such as music, political science and philosophy, in addition to science and technology.
• In Bogotá, one of the 20 localities is called Ciudad Bolívar. The largest park in the city is the Simón Bolívar Metropolitan Park, which has sports facilities, a lake, bike paths, a library, a museum, a high-performance sports center, an athletics stadium, a coliseum and an events plaza for 100,000 people.
• In Colombia the official currency is the Colombian peso. Simón Bolívar is the image on the 1- and 2-peso coins and on the 20-peso coin. He is also the image on the 1,000-peso banknotes (the blue ones, 1982–1994) and the 2,000-peso banknotes (ochre, 1983–1994).
• In the Dominican Republic, one of the main avenues of the city of Santo Domingo bears his name. It is located in the southwest of the city, and along it are numerous important businesses and buildings, as well as the national headquarters of various parties of the country. At its intersection with Máximo Gómez Avenue is the Plaza Simón Bolívar of Santo Domingo, inaugurated on November 6, 2004, in the presence of Presidents Leonel Fernández and Hugo Chávez.
• In Nicaragua, one of the main avenues of its capital, Managua, is named Simón Bolívar in his honor.
• In Costa Rica there is a monument in Morazán Park. The national zoo and botanical garden, also located in the capital, bears his name.
• The most important football tournament in America, the Copa Libertadores de América, was named in honor of the heroes of South American history: Bolívar, Bernardo O'Higgins, José de San Martín, Pedro I, among others.
• In the Normandía neighborhood of Bogotá there is the "Simón Bolívar" Military School, founded in 1977 on Bolívar's ideals. A monument to Simón Bolívar stands on its parade ground. The institution also pays tribute to him in the Plaza de Bolívar every July 24, Bolívar's birthday.
• In Lisbon, Portugal, there is a statue in his honor on one of the city's main avenues, the Avenida da Liberdade.
• In New York City, United States, there is an equestrian statue in his honor at one of the entrances to Central Park, specifically at the intersection of 6th Avenue and 57th Street. The base is decorated with the coats of arms of Venezuela, Colombia, Panama, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia.
• In a BBC Mundo contest, Rubén Darío and Simón Bolívar were chosen as "Figure of the Millennium."
• Simón Bolívar is the non-religious historical figure with the greatest number of monuments, statues and busts in the entire world. Counting only Bolívar squares, 64 have been identified worldwide, not including the countless busts.

See also

• Gran Colombia
• Bolivarianism
• Congress of Panama
• Rulers of Colombia

• Palomo, Bolívar's horse
• Nevado, Bolívar's dog
• Andrés Bello
• President of Venezuela

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External links

• Archivo del Libertador. Digitized original documents of Simón Bolívar.
• Simón Bolívar at the Miguel de Cervantes Virtual Library.
• Simón Bolívar at La BitBlioteca.
• Simón Bolívar - Historia de Venezuela para nosotros.
• Bolívar y Ponte. Biographical article published in volume III of The New American Cyclopedia, written in January 1858 by Karl Marx.
• Carlos Malamud, "Un hombre de su tiempo, no del nuestro", El País, November 27, 2010.
• Caso: Decreto "Guerra a Muerte" y su aplicación contra los españoles residentes en América Hispana (1813 – 1814) on the Héroes de Cavite website.
• Las toneladas de oro que los ingleses saquearon en Sudamérica Carlos del Riego
• 'El terror bolivariano' Presentation in Madrid of Pablo Victoria's book on the genocide against the Spaniards decreed by Simón Bolívar.