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This July 24 are commemorated the 228 years from the birth of Simon Bolivar, “El Libertador” The Liberator, date that almost went unnoticed in Colombia but that had a serious solemnity in Venezuela, republic in which ruling regime considered itself as the today´s heir of the Bolivarian ideas.
During the course of the republican history of our countries there has been the sterile discussion in the different political ideas that dispute the heir of the Bolivarian thought, but the reality is that very little is known about the ideas of Simon Bolivar, the Liberator of five south American nations, and here as an example is not contemplated as was also in Panamá, and part of Nicaragua that were members from the New Grenade.
Two fundamental texts to understand the ideas are the Carupano Manifesto (1814), and the Jamaica Letter (1815), in which Simon Bolivar exposed in a detailed way his political criteria about the social situation that impeded the development of the Republican governments in Venezuela, that was the center of his worries, that were born from the different analysis of the traumatic facts that agitate them, such as the sinking of the Republic on the year 1812, the failure of the reestablishment of a Republican government on the next year, in 1813, and the fall of the republican government in the New Grenade, on 1815. Since the Cartagena Manifesto written on 1812, Simon Bolivar has been insisting on the political lack of the illustrated elites that proposed the Independence. The civil war, the lack of unity, the excessive value for the federal regime, the attach for the religious ideas and the simple political intrigue, are the points that come out on the inventory that helps as base of a heavy balance made by the national hero: “our division- says- and not the Spanish arms, turned us into slavery[1].
The testimony is important because it represents the first social lecture of the problem that the American societies were facing since the start of the political crisis in Spain and the Revolution in Haiti: “the establishment of the freedom in a slave country – comments with a lucid style the Liberator in the Carupano Manifesto (1814)- which is a texts so impossible to execute in an immediate way, that is out of the reach of the human power; that our excuse for haven´t obtained what we desired is inherent to the cause we follow; because as the justice justify the audacity of looked for it, the impossibility of the acquisition qualifies the media” [2].
It has to be asked if on these heights the proclamation of independence of our nations has meant a true freedom from the chains that still keep us restrained to the underdevelopment, the internal divisions, the unjustified violence and the political intrigues or if those same faults that impedes the unity dream that inspired the Liberator are today the cause of our social, political and economical backwardness.
Bolivar was back to Caracas on mid 1807, after a short time in the United States, in order to take back on his life on his ranch; the intellectual heritage acquired in Europe would make him be part of the conspiracy movements in Latin America, Bolivar was already in the conspirator activities (in 1808 he was already in the conspiracy) when the revolt of April 19th of 1810 started. The news of the kingdom announced the invasion of Spain by Napoleon´s troops and the kidnap of his son Fernando. The situation was the best for the count of Tovar presented to the government a project to create the joint of the government attached to the Audience of Sevilla. The creoles demanded the political participation. In a start, the authorities showed reluctant to the project, but, after the power vacuum that was created, they decided to pact with the conspirators. Bolivar, aware of the situation, opened the doors of the “la cuadra de Bolivar” for incorporating the reunions. He refused to participate in the coalition project; for him, there must be an absolute emancipation [3].
In that sense Bolivar must be considered as a pioneer of the real independence from the Spanish crown, in order to maintain that coalition it implied, as in effect it was, being dependent from the same evils that prevailed in the nations from this side of the sea. Bolivar took part of the famous events on that Holly Thursday of 1810, date in which the famous revolt of Caracas, without purpose, gave birth to the Venezuelan Independence process. It was created the Supreme Venezuelan Committee. Bolivar was named “Infantry Colonel”. And was assigned to him the task to travel London, in company of Andres Bello and Luis Lopez Mendez, in search for support for the new government project [4].
The British decided to be neutral towards the situation. Bolivar, though was frustrated in the attempt, found in this situation the last push that was missing for deciding to give up his soul and life for the idea of the absolute emancipation of all America. The key of this circumstance was located by Francisco de Miranda, ideologist and visionary of the American Independence, who already thought among other things, in a project for the construction of a great nation called “Colombia”. Bolivar took these man ideas and reformulated them through a campaign that would last twenty years [5].
It would be Francisco Miranda the author of this unity dream that would be few years later nightmare that took his own life, Bolivar´s and many other men that became the victims of the political intrigues and the division that keeps today though the new American people, the new countries, the Latin-American unity.
On July 5th the Congress declared the Independence of Venezuela and approved the Federal Constitution for the states of Venezuela. The first Republic was lost as consequence of the of the different criteria among the creoles, the resentments among families and the social classes, and the incursions of Domingo Monteverde, Frigate Captain of the royal army, in Coro, Siquisique, Carora, Trijullo, Barquisimeto, Valencia and finally, Caracas. It was clear that a civil war was about to be unleashed immediately, because the project was all except as monolithic. Bolivar will take continence of the classist character of the war and thought over it through all the political proclamations [6].
From here we will initiate a series of articles that have as object to contribute in an active way to the true knowledge of the Bolivarian thought, and no the usurpation that from it has been done to manipulate the conscience of the people and to embark them on failure political attempts in the rest of the world.
- [1] BIOGRAFÍAS Y VIDAS. Simón Bolívar. En: http://www.biografiasyvidas.com/monografia/bolivar/
- [2] Ibíd.
- [3] Ibíd.
- [4] Ibíd.
- [5] Ibíd.
- [6] Ibíd.
colombia says 