Bolivar: American Liberator

by Arana, Marie

  “There is no such thing as good faith,” etc.: SB, “Una mirada hácia la america española,” in Pérez Vila, Doctrina, 286–87.

  “I hope you haven’t forgotten”: SB to O’Leary, Babahoyo, Sept. 28, 1829, O’L, XXXI, 526.

  He wanted to leave, etc.: Mosquera testimony, Causa contra el presidente, 590.

  In July of 1829, etc.: Restrepo, IV, 186. He was in Puerto Cabello in August; Páez, 548.

  But the fundamental distrust between Granadans, etc.: Santander, Apuntamientos, 21–22.

  “March at once!,” etc.: O’L, XXVII, Part I, 123.

  a seven-month internment: Santander, Apuntamientos, 55.

  Bolívar’s council of ministers had feared: Restrepo, IV, 185.

  she engaged a spy to ferret out: Montebrune to Sáenz, Guaduas, Nov. 19, 1828, quoted in Cordovez Moure, 748; also in Murray, Simón Bolívar, 69.

  He swore that he had opposed, etc.: Santander to SB, Bocachica, Dec. 18, 1828, quoted in Proceso Seguido al General Santander (Bogotá: Biblioteca de la Presidencia de la República, 1988), Prólogo.

  protection from Andrew Jackson: Santander to Jackson, Bocachica, May 19, 1829, quoted ibid.

  corresponded with him in jail: Santander, Apuntamientos, 55; also Cordovez Moure, 1206.

  Even Páez, Santander’s archenemy: Blanco-Fombona, in O’Leary, Bolívar y la emancipación, 683 fn.

  The lion of the Apure assured Santander: Páez to Santander, Puerto Cabello, Aug. 20, 1829, in Páez, Autobiografía, I, 550.

  they wanted fiefdoms equivalent to their aspirations: Liévano Aguirre, 501.

  “The second man to head the Republic,” etc.: SB, “A Panoramic View of Spanish America,” DOC, XIII, 493; also in SBSW, II, 741–48.

  Páez’s missive was respectful, etc.: Páez to SB, Caracas, July 22, 1829, Documentos para los anales, II, 132–34; also in Páez, Autobiografía, I, 509. As for reading the meaning, see Liévano Aguirre, 498–99.

  “I give you my word of honor,” etc.: SB to Páez, Popayán, Dec. 15, 1829, Documentos para los anales, 134–37.

  “You will now suspend completely,” etc.: SB to Vergara, Popayán, Nov. 22, 1829, SB, Obras completas, III, 365.

  “Just leave congress to do its duty”: SB to Urdaneta, Popayán, Nov. 22, 1829, ibid., 367, 370.

  Ministers proffered their resignations, etc.: Restrepo, IV, 244; also O’Leary’s notes in Sept. 1829, Detached Recollections, 16–17.

  Both Páez and Santander, though ardent enemies: Larrazábal, Vida, II, 513 fn.

  If he had been more decisive on the question, etc.: Restrepo, SB’s minister of the interior and a loyalist, was critical of SB on this score. Perhaps rightfully, he blames SB for not making a stronger attempt to clarify his position and kill the monarchical campaign from the outset (José Manuel Restrepo, quoted in Guerra, La convención de Ocaña, 82; also in Restrepo, Historia de la revolución, III, 534; also quoted in Larrazábal, Vida, II, 511). President Belaunde of Peru, who wrote amply on Bolívar, feels that his last years reflect an essential weakness: He vacillated when he should have been firm. But for Belaunde, SB’s weakness is only human (Belaunde, xiii).

  had exacted a punishing price: SB, “A Panoramic View,” DOC, XIII, 493.

  An uprising had come and gone, etc.: Before O’Leary’s campaign to quell the rebellion, SB had tried a number of strategies to pacify Córdova. He had offered to promote him to minister of the navy, but the general had only scoffed, as there was no navy to speak of in Colombia. SB had then offered him a diplomatic post in Holland. Córdova ignored that, too.

  gave Páez the most felicitous opportunity, etc.: Posada Gutiérrez, I, 226–30; also Larrazábal, Vida, II, 525.

  He sent his agents out into the provinces: DOC, XIII, 706.

  “and down with Don Simón”: Ibid.

  O’Leary and a thousand seasoned veterans, etc.: Posada Gutiérrez, I, 208.

  O’Leary was quick to act, etc.: Ibid., 208–9.

  a notorious drunk named Rupert Hand: Ibid.

  two thrusts of the sword: FJB, Archivo O’Leary, Marinilla, Oct. 17, 1829, quoted in Polanco Alcántara, 1014; also Posada Gutiérrez, I, 209.

  just as Saturn had swallowed his children: I owe this image to Masur, Simón Bolívar, 659.

  In the end he would be blamed for all of it: Posada Gutiérrez, I, 209–10.

  The torment of that reality, etc.: Larrazábal, Vida, II, 521–24.

  Bolívar wrote to his minister of interior: Restrepo, IV, 260; also Documentos para los anales, I, 481.

  Graffiti filled the walls, etc.: DOC, XIII, 714 ff.

  Páez declared that he would go to war, etc.: Páez to SB, Caracas, Dec. 1, 1829, Páez, Autobiografía, 557–59.

  When the Liberator entered the capital, etc.: Posada Gutiérrez, I, 230.

  four thousand soldiers lined the way, etc.: Ibid., 230–31.

  a wasted specter with lackluster eyes, etc.: Ibid.; also Masur, Simón Bolívar, 669–70.

  It was apparent to everyone, etc.: Posada Gutiérrez, I, 231.

  CHAPTER 18: THE GENERAL IN HIS LABYRINTH

  Epigraph: “If my death can heal and fortify the union”: SB’s last words, Restrepo, IV, 412.

  “the admirable congress”: Ibid., 319; also Larrazábal, Vida, II, 519.

  a twenty-one-gun salute, etc.: Posada Gutiérrez, I, 233.

  Fray Domingo de Las Casas: Cousin of the great humanist Bartolomé de Las Casas. Groot, I, 48.

  an air of anticipation hung over the crowd, etc.: Posada Gutiérrez, I, 233; also Larrazábal, Vida, II, 521.

  “I am seeking”: SB to Castillo Rada, Jan. 4, 1830, SBC, IX, 227, quoted in Mijares, 553.

  After receiving Communion, etc.: Posada Gutiérrez, I, 233.

  gallery of mediocrities: I owe this image to Lynch, Simón Bolívar, 271.

  the foresight to convoke this gathering, etc.: SB, “Manifesto Justifying the Dictatorship,” Bogotá, Aug. 27, 1928, SB, El Libertador: Writings, 141–42.

  Congress welcomed him, lauded him: Posada Gutiérrez, I, 233–4.

  “I withdraw in utmost confidence”: Ibid.

  was visibly wounded: W. Turner, report to the British Foreign Minister, PRO/FO 18/68, no. 75, quoted in Madariaga, 617.

  he clutched his head in dismay: Ibid.

  “I, too, had my desperate hour,” etc.: Flores to Urdaneta, Quito, March 27, 1830, O’L, IV, 288–89.

  “Spare me, I beg you, the disgrace”: SB, “Mensaje del Libertador,” Bogotá, Jan. 20, 1830, SBO, III, Discursos, 145–53.

  Now, more than ever, he warned: Ibid.

  “Today, I cease to rule”: Larrazábal, Vida, II, 521.

  “Colombians! I have been the victim”: Ibid., 521–22

  He met with foreign diplomats: Ibid., 529; also Posada Gutiérrez, I, 231.

  wrote to his ambassador in London, etc.: SB to J. Fernández Madrid, Bogotá, Feb. 13, March 6, 1830, SB, Fundamental, I, 609–13.

  retired to his house at La Quinta: Liévano Aquirre, 502.

  She received him with customary cheer: Ibid.

  Congress rejected his resignation, etc.: DOC, XIV, 123–24.

  recalling his earlier blunders with Páez: Masur, Simón Bolívar, 671.

  “I’ve asked Colombia to speak up”: SB to Alamo, quoted in Larrazábal, Vida, II, 512.

  attack of what he called black bile: Ibid., 532; Posada Gutiérrez, I, 250; Madariaga, 621.

  a country retreat a few miles southwest: This was the Villa Fucha, mentioned in Posada Gutiérrez, I, 251; Madariaga, 621; Mitre, Emancipation of South America, 468.

  It was clear to all except perhaps Bolívar: Mijares, 555.

  Ever since he had confided, etc.: SB to O’Leary, Guayaquil, Aug. 21, 1829, O’L, XXXI, 483–86.

  By the end of March, he realized, etc.: Larrazábal, Vida, II, 541.

  fetched little more than $2,000: Larrazábal reports that when SB sold his personal silverware to the government mint, it produced $2,535, which represented all the money SB had. Larrazábal, Vida
, II, 541.

  Europe or a stopover in Curaçao or Jamaica: SB to Gabriel Camacho, Guaduas, May 11, 1830, quoted ibid., 542–43.

  lay in his copper mines in Aroa, etc.: SB refers in many letters to his attempts to sell these. See especially SB to Alamo, Soatá, March 26, 1828, O’L, XXXI, 54–55; SB to Ibarra, Bogotá, Aug. 28, 1828, ibid., 192–93; SB to Briceño Méndez, Popayán, Feb. 5, 1829, ibid., 316–17. SB aspired to private life as early as 1825, even as he was making a victory tour of Upper Peru, and counted on the sale of Aroa to support him: SB to Peñalver, Potosí, Oct. 17, 1825, and Magdalena, March 4, 1826, O’L, XXX, 182.

  the equivalent of $10 million: SB had asked Lord Cochrane to go and see the mines himself, in order to confirm their estimated worth of $500,000 (SB to Cochrane, Oct. 18, 1825, Escritos, 188). The dollar in 1830 would be worth $20 today (“Comparative Value of the U.S. Dollar,” http://mykindred.com/cloud/TX/Documents/dollar/). The mines represented an annual income of the equivalent of $250,000. “Bolívar Empresario,” a monograph by the Venezuelan historian Antonio Herrera-Vaillant, www.hacer.org/pdf/Bolívar.pdf, 17, 21.

  owned outright by the Bolívars since 1773: This was when Juan Vicente Bolívar, SB’s father, confirmed ownership. The mines were inherited by SB’s grandmother, Josefa Marín de Narváez, whose family had owned them since the 1600s. P. Verna, Las minas del Libertador (Caracas: Ed. de la Presidencia de la República, Imprenta Nacional, 1976).

  He had claimed he didn’t care about money: There is much on the record to support this, e.g., SB to Santander, Lima, Oct. 30, 1823, SBO II, 829: “I have always thought that he who labors for liberty and glory should have no other compensation than liberty and glory.” For an interesting analysis of SB’s disposition to money, see Herrera-Vaillant, 8–12.

  when Venezuela outlawed the sale: Ibid., 47–49.

  “a despot with criminal designs”: Bermúdez, Proclama, Feb. 16, 1830, in Larrazábal, Vida, II, 540.

  a tyrant with an evil brain: Arismendi, Bando, Feb. 25, 1830, in Larrazábal, Vida, II, 540.

  “Give up trying to defend me,” etc.: SB to Alamo, Popayán, Dec. 6, 1829, DOC, XIV, 26–27.

  unable to eat or sleep: Posada Gutiérrez, I, 250.

  “María Antonia, don’t be a fool,” etc.: Liévano Aguirre, 503.

  Even his old mistress in Paris: Fanny du Villars to SB, Paris, April 6, May 14, 1826, O’L, XII, 293–300.

  But Bolívar had always been profligate, etc.: Mijares, 556–57; Ducoudray Holstein, 94; Petre, 428.

  Páez announced that Venezuela’s sovereignty, etc.: Restrepo, IV, 267–71.

  He worked himself into a temper, etc.: Masur, Simón Bolívar, 672–73.

  came to tell him that this was madness: Restrepo, IV, 309.

  What was he now then?, etc.: Ibid.

  “Come live in our hearts,” etc.: Flores (and forty-two other signatories) to SB, Quito, March 27, 1830, in Larrazábal, Vida, II, 537.

  Having returned to Bogotá in March, etc.: Restrepo, IV, 299.

  Not one vote had been cast: Ibid., 312; also Larrazábal, Vida, II, 538.

  a Bolívarian went on to win, etc.: This was Eusebio Canabal. Restrepo, IV, 299; also Posada Gutiérrez, I, 307.

  the announcer was shouted down, etc.: Restrepo, IV, 299.

  had tampered with the election: Posada Gutiérrez, I, 307–8.

  On May 7, three days after congress unveiled, etc.: Ibid., 317–18.

  move into the house of one of his generals, etc.: General Herran’s house. Larrazábal, Vida, II, 539.

  milling about the streets, shouting taunts: Restrepo, IV, 312–33.

  Caicedo, insisted on spending the night: Ibid., 317.

  hurried goodbyes in a dim corridor, etc.: Rumazo González, 263.

  Their parting was sad and sweet, etc.: Murray, Simón Bolívar, 74; Lynch, Simón Bolívar, 274.

  striding into the chill of morning: Rumazo González, 263.

  His hands trembled, etc.: Posada Gutiérrez, I, 322.

  He rode off, escorted by a phalanx, etc.: Larrazábal, Vida, II, 540.

  “Hey, Sausage!”: Groot, III, 460.

  the fog-hung morning, etc.: Rumazo González, 263.

  “He is gone, the gentleman of Colombia”: Col. Campbell, quoted in Larrazábal, Vida, II, 540.

  enemies had circulated a rumor, etc.: Posada Gutiérrez, I, 321; also Restrepo, IV, 318–19.

  Vice President Caicedo had been powerless: Caicedo was in charge in the absence of Mosquera, the president-elect, who was still making his way to the capital from Popayán.

  Protesters yelled anti-Bolívarian slogans, etc.: Slatta and Lucas de Grummond, 291.

  “When I came to your house,” etc.: Sucre to SB, Bogotá, May 8, 1830, O’L, I, 571.

  Bolívar was in the northern town of Turbaco, etc.: SB to Sucre, Turbaco, May 26, 1830, in Itinerario documental, Homenaje al Dr. Vicente Lecuna, Caracas, 1970, 349.

  he had had to wait for a craft, etc.: Ibid.

  “My love, I am glad to report”: SB to Sáenz, Guaduas, May 11, 1830, SBC, IX, 265.

  at the peak of the rainy season, etc.: H. Chisholm, “Colombia: Fauna and Flora,” in Encyclopedia Britannica, VI, 704.

  the relentless, fetid heat of the coast, etc.: Posada Gutiérrez, I, 392, 397.

  an annual pension equivalent to $15,000, etc.: According to Restrepo, $30,000; Restrepo, IV, 317–18. Peso to dollar value: Consular Reports, vol. LX, GPO, Washington, DC, 1899, 663.

  The scant money he had raised: Posada Gutiérrez, 393.

  his passport was slow in coming: SB to Caicedo, Turbaco, June 1, 1830, SBC, IX, 272.

  a British packet boat was on its way, etc.: Posada Gutiérrez, I, 397.

  learned that it would be full of women: SB to Mosquera, Cartagena, June 24, 1830, SBC, IX, 275.

  Bolívar wouldn’t hear of it, etc.: Posada Gutiérrez, I, 397, and for all subsequent details about this incident. Also see SB to “mi General,” Cartagena, June 29, 1830, SBC, IX, 277.

  took advantage of the ship’s route to Caracas: SB to Leandro Palacios, Cartagena, Aug. 14, 1830, SBC, IX, 285.

  a slew of letters and a bit of remarkable news: Rivolba, 64.

  the tragic news he received on the morning of July 1: Larrazábal, Vida, II, 547.

  he had been ambushed, etc.: “Sucre,” República del Ecuador, Diario Oficial, Quito, May 24, 1889, no. 61, 1–3, and for all subsequent details in this paragraph.

  Days later, a band of suspects, etc.: L. Villanueva, Vida del gran mariscal de Ayacucho (Caracas: Tip Moderna, 1895), 567–72.

  The directive Obando had given: The head assassin, Apolinar Morillo, when questioned, quoted Obando as saying in the presence of Com. Antonio María Alvarez: “The country is in great peril of being taken over by tyrants, and the only way to save it is to get rid of General Sucre, who is coming from Bogotá to force Ecuador to crown the Liberator. To this end, it is necessary that you march this very day to join José Erazo [the second assassin] in Salto de Mayo.” L. Villanueva, Vida del gran mariscal (Caracas: Moderna, 1895), 570; see also Restrepo, IV, 611–12. (Restrepo’s version of the testimony is stronger, quoting Morillo as saying: “The only way to save Ecuador is to go to Salto de Mayo, find Sucre, and kill him.”)

  “Maybe Obando will go ahead” etc.: Editorial, El Democrata, June 1, 1830, quoted in Documentos para los anales, IV, 544.

  General Flores . . . was also accused, etc.: L. Urdaneta, “Relación desnuda, July 24, 1830,” BOLANH, 28, no. 111 (July–Sept. 1945), 347–48. SB later said, “Some claim that [Sucre’s assassination] was carried out on Flores’s orders, but this is false.” SB to Madrid, Cartagena, July 24, 1830, SBC, IX, 284.

  “Holy God! . . . If there is justice, etc.”: SB, upon hearing about Sucre’s assassination. Rumazo González, 266.

  That night, Bolívar’s condition worsened: He experienced a severe pulmonary attack within hours of hearing the news about Sucre. Larrazábal, Vida, II, 560.

  an insuperable sense of dread: Bolívar to Flores,
Cartagena, July 1, 1830, SBC, IX, 279.

  He had agonized over his mistress’s welfare, etc.: Ibid.; also Larrazábal, Vida, II, 549.

  but it was his fearless warrior: Bolívar to Flores, July 1, 1830, SBC, IX, 279.

  “Be careful. . . . Mind your safety,” etc.: Ibid., 280.

  She was dressing like a Mameluke, etc.: Cordovez Moure, 752.

  she began a calculated campaign: L. A. Cuervo, Apuntos historiales (Bogotá: Editorial Minerva, 1925), 201.

  referred to as “the Foreigner”: Editorial, Aurora, June 10, 1830, in Rumazo González, 269–70.

  But the effigies that appeared on the plaza, etc.: The scene is described in the government hearing about Sáenz’s alleged misbehavior. “Documentos inéditos,” Boletín de Historia y Antiguedades, Bogotá, no. 47, May–June, 1960, 373–402; also Rumazo González, 267–96; and Murray, For Glory and Bolívar, 75–76.

  Manuela rode to the plaza, etc.: Rumazo González, 269–70; Murray, For Glory and Bolívar, 76, and for subsequent details.

  “An unhinged woman, a devotee,” etc.: Editorial, Aurora, quoted in Rumazo González, 269–70.

  Manuela decided to watch from her perch, etc.: “Documentos inéditos.”

  “Down with despots!”: Ibid.; also Rumazo González, 269–70; Murray, For Glory and Bolívar, 76.

  A mounting fury rose in Manuela, etc.: “Documentos inéditos,” 390–93.

  a resounding din rocked the air, etc.: Ibid.; Rumazo González, 270; Murray, For Glory and Bolívar, 76, and for subsequent details.

  “You think that man is president?” etc.: “Documentos inéditos.”

  a voluptuary who took on lovers, etc.: There were rumors (persisting through history) that Manuela had love affairs with other men, most notably Nimian R. Cheyne. None of these rumors was substantiated, and indeed she never was known to have another lover after her exile from Colombia. Lecuna, “Papeles de Manuela Sáenz,” 497.

  her Quito accent: Rumazo González, 270.

  harassed her for little more than shouting, etc.: Lecuna, “Papeles de Manuela Sáenz,” 517–18.

  made it a matter of state, etc.: Cordovez Moure, 751.

  the sharp-tongued journalist Vicente Azuero: Azuero, who had been exiled along with Santander and others after the attempt on SB’s life, was made minister of the interior. F. Cevallos, Resumen de la historia del Ecuador, IV (Guayaquil: La Nación, 1886), 423.