Simón Bolívar

Simón José Antonio de la Santísima Trinidad Bolívar y Palacios Ponte-Andrade y Blanco (24 July 1783 – 17 December 1830), generally known as Simón Bolívar, and also colloquially as El Libertador or the Liberator, was a Venezuelan military and political leader who led what are currently the states of Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Panama to independence from the Spanish Empire.

Bolívar has become a political symbol in parts of Latin America, with various movements utilizing the memory, image and written legacy of Bolívar as important parts of their political messages and propaganda. One use has been to support militarism. See also Hugo Chávez.

Towards the end of his life, Bolívar despaired of the situation in the ethnically heterogeneous Latin America. In an address to the Constituent Congress of the Republic of Colombia, Bolívar stated "Fellow citizens! I blush to say this: Independence is the only benefit we have acquired, to the detriment of all the rest."

He also stated "[Latin] America is ungovernable: Those who have served the revolution have ploughed the sea. These countries will inevitably fall into the hands of the disenfranchised multitude to then fragment into small tyrannies of all colors and races, devoured by their crimes and extinguished by their own ferocity."

See also

• Creole nationalism
• Effects of race mixing: Latin America
• Ethnic heterogeneity
• Monroe Doctrine

External links

• The Color of Corruption - On corruption and race in Latin America.

Encyclopedias

• Encyclopedia Britannica:
• Encyclopedia Britannica 1911 Edition: Simon Bolivar
• Encyclopedia.com: Simon Bolivar
• Encyclopedia.com: Bolívar, Simón (1783-1830

References

Part of this article consists of modified text from Wikipedia, and the article is therefore licensed under GFDL.