Simón Bolívar's Final Days at Quinta de San Pedro Alejandrino

Gran Colombia (later known as Greater Colombia) was founded in 1819 by Venezuelan military leader Simon Bolivar as a unified country encompassing much of southern Central America and northern South America. For a short time, it was powerful and prosperous, widely respected as one of the most important nations in the Spanish Americas. However, political instability resulted from conflicts between Bolivar and former ally Francisco de Paula Santander over centralism versus federalism. The state dissolved in 1831, splitting into modern Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela, and Panama.

Gran Colombia was a short-lived republic (1819-1831) that united modern-day Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, and Panama under Simón Bolívar's vision of a unified Latin American nation; however, internal conflicts including regionalism, military caudillism, ideological differences between Bolívar's militarism and Santander's civilism, and opposition from the Catholic Church, combined with Bolívar's death in 1830, led to its fragmentation into three independent republics.

In 1821, the Gran Colombia was created, uniting present-day Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela, and Panama under the leadership of Simón Bolívar, known as 'El Libertador.' The union aimed to strengthen these nations against European powers and ensure resistance against potential reconquest. This political union gave rise to the term 'bolivarianism,' which remains a significant political concept in Latin America today.

Gran Colombia was a federation in South America from 1819 to 1831 encompassing what are now Colombia, Ecuador, Panama, and Venezuela. Founded by leaders including Simón Bolívar to gain independence from Spanish colonial rule, it was inspired by French Revolutionary ideals and Enlightenment thinkers. It had a republican presidential system with Bolívar as first president. Despite its grand vision, the federation experienced political divisions, economic difficulties, and conflicts among leaders. It officially dissolved in 1831 with Venezuela's secession, followed by Ecuador and New Granada (Colombia). Panama remained part of Colombia until gaining independence in 1903.

The Gran Colombia was a political experiment uniting territories that had never been a single state, with radically different geographies and regional elites. Bolívar, a military visionary, believed Latin America needed strong centralized government to survive in a world of empires. Santander, a jurist, believed laws were more important than generals. Their alliance initially functioned effectively, but tensions grew as Bolívar prioritized military power over institutions. The 1828 Convention of Ocaña led to Bolívar's self-declaration as dictator. The September Conspiracy of 1828 permanently damaged his relationship with Santander. The Gran Colombia faced structural problems: it was too large, too diverse, and too poor to maintain as a political unit. Regional elites looked toward their own capitals rather than Bogotá. Venezuela proclaimed separation in September 1830, followed by Ecuador. Bolívar's designated successor Antonio José de Sucre was assassinated in June 1830. Bolívar resigned on May 4, 1830, and died on December 17, 1830, in Santa Marta, having failed to achieve his continental dream.

Centralism is a political doctrine that concentrates administrative, judicial, and economic power in the capital, reducing local state power. Federalism, in contrast, distributes power between a central government and autonomous regional governments under a common constitutional framework. These opposing ideologies created the political conflicts that contributed to Gran Colombia's dissolution.

This segment presents a heated debate between federalist and centralist factions in the Mexican Congress. Federalists argue for a decentralized republic with individual liberties, while centralists advocate for strong national authority and guidance from the Catholic Church and Spain. The centralist position is criticized for relying on 'lies and betrayals' from across the Atlantic, while federalists are accused of making false promises. The debate illustrates how revolutionary ideals from France influenced political discourse in newly independent Latin American nations.

The opposition between centralism and federalism was decisive in understanding Gran Colombia's history. Centralism refers to the concentration of power and political functions in a single province that acts as the administrative and governmental head, with other cities and regions functioning as satellites. Federalism seeks to distribute power and functions among different provinces, allowing local authorities to be appointed and local laws enacted while maintaining a common system. This tension shaped subsequent political processes in Latin America.

Peru was unique among Latin American nations of its size and demographic weight in never attempting federalism. While countries like Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, and Venezuela experienced intense tensions between centralism and federalism, Peru's elites consistently viewed federalism as a danger to national disintegration. The closest Peru came to this was the Confederation of Peru-Bolivia, which divided the country into northern and southern republics. Peru's centralism was not as dominant in the early 19th century as it became in the late 19th and 20th centuries, with competition between Lima and southern cities like Arequipa and Cuzco being intense.

After the Empire ended, Congress chose a Republic as the new form of government, sparking a fundamental political dispute between two groups. Federalists were liberal groups seeking to divide Mexico into free and sovereign states with separation of powers, where each state would elect its rulers through popular vote. Centralists were conservative groups wanting to divide the country into departments or provinces that would submit to a central power, with the president appointing state rulers who would obey central laws. Centralists preserved Old Regime ideas of zero democracy and centralized power.

The glory of Bolívar's empire proved unsustainable. As Bolívar attempted to suppress rebellions in Ecuador and Peru, the Colombian Congress removed him from presidency and revoked the constitution. Meanwhile, he quarreled with Vice President Santander, who joined the opposition. Bolívar declared himself dictator of Gran Colombia and called a new constituent assembly. When the assembly began moving toward federalism contrary to his expectations, he staged an autogolpe (self-coup) on August 27, 1828, proclaiming himself President Libertador with dictatorial powers. On September 25, 1828, a group of students invaded the presidential palace in Bogotá to assassinate Bolívar. His companion Manuela Sáenz saved his life by convincing him to escape through a window while she pretended to help the assassins search the building, leading them astray until they lost patience and attacked her instead. This final humiliation proved the breaking point for Bolívar, who had already suffered serious health problems for years. He resolved to leave politics entirely rather than continue causing division among the nations he had fought to liberate. As Bolívar fought external threats, ministers secretly negotiated with France, which had restored the Bourbon monarchy. When plans emerged to crown a French royalist as king of Colombia, public outrage erupted. Venezuela decided to secede as an independent nation. On January 20, 1830, Bolívar finally resigned as president, though acceptance took three months.

Simón Bolívar's political career in Colombia ended in 1830 when he was forced to resign as president after the Congress Admirable elected Joaquín Mosquera as president and Domingo Caicedo as vice-president, despite Bolívar's efforts to maintain power to defend Colombia from Venezuelan invasion; this resignation was influenced by Bolívar's illness, the military's dominance in government, foreign diplomatic pressure, and the realization that Venezuela would never accept the constitution, leading to the dissolution of Gran Colombia.

But the dream was dissolving as it was formulated. In Venezuela, José Antonio Páez, the llanero caudillo, rebelled against the government of Bogotá. In Lima, the Colombian officers quartered mutinied against the vitalicia constitution and derogated it. In La Paz, Marshal Andrés de Santa Cruz marched backward. Peru expelled the Gran Colombian troops. The idea itself of federation sank in a succession of military pronouncements. And within Gran Colombia itself, the dispute between Bolívar and Francisco de Paula Santander, vice president and defender of federalism, fractured the ruling bloc. The year 1828 was the beginning of the end. Bolívar, seeing the Republic bleeding in factions, proclaimed himself dictator through an organic decree. He dissolved the Convention of Ocaña and concentrated all power in his hands. The measure unleashed a wave of opposition. On the night of September 25, a group of young officers rebelled by Santander's supporters stormed the Presidential Palace of Bogotá with the intention of assassinating the liberator. Bolívar was sleeping in his rooms. His companion of the last years, the Quiteña Manuela Sáenz, woke him upon hearing the shots, handed him a saber, opened the window of the second floor, and while he jumped to the street, she herself went out to contain the conspirators. Bolívar spent hours hidden under a bridge of the San Agustín River, wet, trembling from cold and fever. Manuela saved him. He called her from then on the liberator of the liberator. The repression that followed was harsh. Fourteen conspirators were shot. Santander, condemned to death, saw his sentence commuted to exile, but the moral wound of the attempt weighed on the liberator until the end of his days. He understood that the homeland for which he had risked everything now wanted him dead. In the letters he wrote during 1829, the tone became increasingly somber. He recognized that he had plowed the sea, sown desert, and his work was dissolving between his hands. On April 4, 1830, in an ambush laid in the mountains of Berruecos in southern Colombia, Antonio José de Sucre, the lieutenant whom Bolívar considered his natural successor, the victor of Pichincha and Ayacucho, was shot dead. The news reached the ears of the liberator in Cartagena de Indias. He spent a day without speaking, without eating. For him, the death of Sucre was also his own. The man called to continue the Bolivarian project had fallen by an anonymous bullet on a lost path. In those final months, Bolívar embarked on a last journey. He resigned the presidency on May 4, 1830. The new government of Bogotá granted him a modest pension. He embarked on the Magdalena River in a slow goleta, escorted by a few faithful. His intention was to reach the port of Cartagena de Indias and from there sail to Europe, to some quiet destination where he could write his memoirs and forget. But the body did not accompany him. Tuberculosis advanced implacably. At each stop on the river he felt weaker. When he reached the coast he could not continue. Don Joaquín de Mier y Benítez, a Spanish merchant owner of a property near Santa Marta, offered him hospitality. On December 1, he disembarked in Santa Marta and was lodged in the customs house. On December 6, he was transferred in a litter to the Quinta de San Pedro Alejandrino. He had 11 days left. He received the visit of the French doctor Alexandre Próspero Reveren, who left a detailed diary of the agony. He confessed with a priest, made his will, and requested that his books, medals, and papers be delivered to his friends. He had no fortune left, only a few ounces of gold and the pension recently granted. On December 17, 1830, at 1:03 PM, the liberator exhaled his last breath. He had no fortune left, only a few ounces of gold and the pension recently granted. He had no fortune left, only a few ounces of gold and the pension recently granted. He had no fortune left, only a few ounces of gold and the pension recently granted.

In Colombia, Vice President Santander reminded Bolívar that expenditures for the army alone amounted to more than twice the revenue the state was receiving. In Venezuela, General Páez urged him to establish a monarchy and crown himself king to bring order to political chaos. Bolívar worked on the constitution of Bolivia, establishing freedom of speech, equality before the law, abolishing slavery and all forms of social privilege, while creating a presidency for life to limit anarchic tendencies. While Venezuelans welcomed strong presidency, Colombians saw it as opening the path for tyranny. The Congress of Panama opened in June 1826 to consider unification, but broke up without progress. Meanwhile, the longer Bolívar stayed in Lima, the more unpopular he became, and a foiled assassination plot in July prompted him to leave Peru in early September. He was troubled by news that Páez had declared Venezuela's independence from Colombia, frustrated by Bogotá's efforts to undermine Bolívar's authority. As he made his way to Bogotá, Bolívar began to realize the degree of his unpopularity, demonstrating the difference in opinion between Bolívar and Santander regarding authority versus rule of law. When Vice President Santander stripped Bolívar of extraordinary powers in June 1827, the Liberator gathered loyal troops and marched on Bogotá. On September 10, 1827, Bolívar arrived in the Colombian capital and announced there would be a constitutional convention six months later to discuss presidential authority. While Bolívar considered it beneath his dignity to canvass for support, Santander mounted an effective political campaign. By May 1828, Santander's supporters agreed on a draft limiting presidential powers and creating a federal nation of twenty provinces. On June 10, 1828, Bolívar's supporters withdrew from the convention, leaving it one short of quorum and dissolving the body. During the impasse, one of Bolívar's generals staged a demonstration with 800 men and forced the council of ministers into giving Bolívar dictatorial powers, which he assumed in early September to popular acclaim. The office of vice president was abolished, and Santander was sent away as ambassador to the United States. Despite Santander's absence, his supporters remained a thorn in Bolívar's side, and Bolívar survived two assassination attempts. During the second attempt on September 25, 1828, his mistress Manuela Sáenz helped him escape out of a window before leading conspirators on a futile search, emerging badly beaten. Although Bolívar had survived the assassin's bullet by hiding under a bridge for three hours, his already frail health continued to deteriorate. He received news of a rebellion in the province of Ecuador. In December 1828, he gathered strength to lead an army 600 miles over the Andes and dispatched General José Maria Córdova to suppress the rebellion. While negotiating a peace treaty with Peru, Bolívar learned that Córdova had turned against him, though the rebellion was suppressed and its leader killed. The disheartened Liberator vowed to resign the presidency at the constitutional congress scheduled for January 1830.

Bolívar began to be accused of wanting to become a dictator. His adversaries claimed he did not want a democratic federation but rather an empire disguised as a federation, commanded by himself. Distrust grew, and his allies began to distance themselves one by one. In 1828, Bolívar survived an assassination attempt at his own residence, which marked the beginning of the end. Without popular support, without loyal allies, and with the Gran Colombia disintegrating, Bolívar resigned from power in 1830.