{"id":1455,"date":"2017-05-17T03:31:58","date_gmt":"2017-05-17T02:31:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fittedin.org\/fittedin\/?p=1455"},"modified":"2020-03-14T18:29:17","modified_gmt":"2020-03-14T18:29:17","slug":"a-flawed-hero","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fittedin.org\/fittedinwp\/2017\/05\/17\/a-flawed-hero\/","title":{"rendered":"A Flawed Hero"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Satish Sekar \u00a9 Satish Sekar (July 4<\/span><\/span>th<\/span><\/span><\/sup> 2013. Updated on May 15<\/span><\/span>th<\/span><\/span><\/sup> 2017)<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Hero or Anti-hero<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Sim\u00f3n Bol\u00edvar, dubbed by many the Liberator, was undoubtedly one of the great leaders of the nineteenth century independence movement. He occupied pride of place in Venezuela\u2019s National Pantheon. Built in 1874 it serves as a testament to that nation\u2019s liberation. Other heroes and heroines were relegated to the aisle, although some tombs lie empty. Either the remains have not been located, or in one case request for repatriation has been refused. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

That tomb is the one next to Bol\u00edvar, intended for his most trusted General, Antonio Jos\u00e9 de Sucre y Alcal\u00e1. Ecuador has refused three requests from Bolivia and one from Venezuela for Sucre\u2019s remains to be repatriated \u2013 it won\u2019t happen. His tomb occupies pride of place in the Cathedral in Quito. He is one of Ecuador\u2019s national heroes, despite only spending a small part of his life there.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Among the remains that have not been discovered are those of the executed General Manuel Piar and the leader of the first independence struggle of Venezuela and Bol\u00edvar\u2019s mentor, Francisco de Miranda \u2013 a man Bol\u00edvar betrayed to captivity and death. Nevertheless, the late President of Venezuela Hugo Ch\u00e1vez had an elaborate mausoleum constructed that was unveiled in May 2013. Bol\u00edvar\u2019s remains have been reinterred in the Mausoleum. But how justified is his reputation as South America\u2019s Liberator?<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Miranda\u2019s Ghost<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Bol\u00edvar served his apprenticeship under the first of the great Venezuelan patriots Francisco de Miranda \u2013 a colourful character, no doubt. Miranda\u2019s first attempt at liberation was a dismal failure. His leadership of the First Republic failed too. Miranda decided to flee \u2013 a decision that incensed Bol\u00edvar among others. They captured Miranda. Bol\u00edvar and others handed him over to the Spanish, not caring what happened to him. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Their decision condemned Miranda to die in exile in jail and to be buried unidentified in a mass grave. With Miranda out of the way, there was a vacuum in the revolutionary independence movement. Bol\u00edvar was one of many vying for control of the movement. He assumed the leadership of a faction of the independence movement, which lacked unity and strong leadership \u2013 essential traits in a liberation struggle. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Bol\u00edvar, like the others was ruthless when he needed to be. In reality the liberation movement consisted of warlords vying with each other as much as the Spanish. There was little to separate Bol\u00edvar from the others. The difference was yet another man he betrayed, but in a different way to Miranda \u2013 Haiti\u2019s President Alexandre P\u00e9tion.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The Liberator<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

In 1815 and 1816 Bol\u00edvar\u2019s liberation campaign was undistinguished at best. In reality it had failed. Had Bol\u00edvar been captured or killed at this point, history would have forgotten him. He was saved from obscurity by an implacable opponent of slavery and contributor to many liberation struggles throughout Latin America. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

P\u00e9tion, at this stage was by far the more successful revolutionary. Born mixed race, but darker-skinned than his father Pascal Sab<\/span><\/span>\u00e8<\/span><\/span>s wanted, P\u00e9tion experienced both privilege and prejudice at an early age. He was denied his father’s name, but received an education and training in France. As a young man he returned to Saint-Domingue (Haiti) and fought under General Andr<\/span><\/span>\u00e9<\/span><\/span> Rigaud on the losing side in the War of Knives \u2013 the Haitian Civil War \u2013 returnintg in 1802. Realising that he had been duped \u2013 Napol<\/span><\/span>\u00e9<\/span><\/span>on intended to deny them rights and restore slavery, P<\/span><\/span>\u00e9<\/span><\/span>tion switched sides, joining the revolution under Jean-Jacques Dessalines. Haiti became independent in 1804, but Dessalines proved to be a tyrant.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

P<\/span><\/span>\u00e9<\/span><\/span>tion and Henri Christophe conspired against the despotic Dessalines. The Emperor Jacques I was assassinated in October 1806. The following year P<\/span><\/span>\u00e9tion had become President of Southern Haiti, Christophe had himself crowned King Henry I. The two remained at loggerheads, but while Christophe established a feudal regime, P\u00e9tion favoured a Presidential system. Despite never being a slave, P\u00e9tion proved to be the greater opponent of that institution.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Larger than Life<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

President P\u00e9tion was a larger than life character. When an assassin tried to kill him, P\u00e9tion interceded, shut everyone but the man out of the room and spoke to him at length. P\u00e9tion convinced him to become one of his most devoted supporters. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, destitute and desperate, Bol\u00edvar was at his wits end. He had spent his fortune trying and failing to liberate Venezuela. He needed help. P\u00e9tion recognised the revolutionary spark in Bol\u00edvar \u2013 the potential to become a great independence fighter \u2013 so he supported Bol\u00edvar by offering troops, ships, arms and resources. A grateful Bol\u00edvar set sail to resume the fight, but lost it all and had to return to beg further help of P\u00e9tion, which the Haitian President provided again. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

P\u00e9tion demanded just one thing in return \u2013 a promise that Bol\u00edvar would abolish slavery everywhere he liberated. Bol\u00edvar readily agreed. He would later renege on his word to P\u00e9tion, but his success depended on utilising Miranda\u2019s idea with the one thing that Miranda had lacked \u2013 the resources to hire experienced fighters who had cut their teeth in the Napol\u00e9onic wars.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Satish Sekar \u00a9 Satish Sekar (July 4th 2013. Updated on May 15th 2017) Hero or Anti-hero Sim\u00f3n Bol\u00edvar, dubbed [\u2026]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1652,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[19],"tags":[517,525,526,527,528,529,530,531,532,533,534,535,536,523,537,538,539],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fittedin.org\/fittedinwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1455"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fittedin.org\/fittedinwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fittedin.org\/fittedinwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fittedin.org\/fittedinwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fittedin.org\/fittedinwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1455"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/fittedin.org\/fittedinwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1455\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1653,"href":"https:\/\/fittedin.org\/fittedinwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1455\/revisions\/1653"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fittedin.org\/fittedinwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1652"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fittedin.org\/fittedinwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1455"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fittedin.org\/fittedinwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1455"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fittedin.org\/fittedinwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1455"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}