simon_bolivar_el_liberator

If I was only alive today I would have liberate my people from the
suffering
of the communist dictator in my home land of Venezuela.

EL LIBERTADOR
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Simón José Antonio de la Santísima Trinidad Bolívar was born in
Caracas on July 24, 1783, to don Juan Vicente Bolívar y Ponte and doña
Maria de la Concepción Palacios y Blanco. An aristocrat by birth,
Simón Bolívar received an excellent education from his tutors,
especially Simón Rodríguez. Thanks to his tutors, Bolívar became
familiar with the works of the Enlightenment as well as those of
classical Greece and Rome.

By the age of nine, however, Bolívar lost both his parents and was
left in the care of his uncle, don Carlos Palacios. At the age of
fifteen, don Carlos Palacios sent him to Spain to continue his
education.

Bolívar left for Spain in 1799 with his friend, Esteban Escobar. En
route, he stopped in Mexico City where he met with the viceroy of New
Spain who was was alarmed with the young Bolívar argued with
confidence on behalf of Spanish American independence. Bolívar arrived
in Madrid on June of that same year and stayed with his uncle, Esteban
Palacios.

In Spain, Bolívar met Maria Teresa Rodríguez del Toro y Alaysa whom he
married soon afterwards in 1802. Shortly after returning to Venezuela,
in 1803, Maria Teresa died of yellow fever. Her death greatly affected
Bolívar and he vowed never to marry again. A vow which he kept for the
rest of his life.

After losing his wife, Bolívar returned to Spain with his tutor and
friend, Simón Rodríguez, in 1804. While in Europe he witnessed the
proclamation of Napoleon Bonaparte as Emperor of France and later the
coronation of Napoleon as King of Italy in Milan. Bolívar lost respect
for Napoleon whom he considered to have betrayed the republican
ideals. But it was in while in Italy that Bolívar made his famous vow
atop Mount Aventin of Rome to never rest until America was free.

Bolívar returned to Venezuela in 1807 after a brief visit to the
United States. In 1808 Napoleon installed his brother, Joseph, as King
of Spain. This launched a great popular revolt in Spain known as the
Peninsular War. In America, as in Spain, regional juntas were formed
to resist the new king. Unlike the Spanish junts, however, the
American juntas fought against the power of the Spanish king, not only
the person of Joseph Bonaparte.

That year, the Caracas junta declared its independence from Spain and
Bolívar was sent to England along with Andrés Bello and Luis López
Mendez on a diplomatic mission. Bolívar returned to Venezuela on June
3, 1811, and delivered his discourse in favor of independence to the
Patriotic Society. On August 13 patriot forces under the command of
Francisco de Miranda won a victory in Valencia.


should help liberate Venezuela because their cause was the same and
Venezuela's freedom would secure that of New Granada. Bolívar received
assistance from New Granada and in 1813 he invaded Venezuela. He
entered Merida on May 23 and was proclaimed "Libertador" by the
people. On June 8 Bolívar proclaimed the "war to the death" in favor
of liberty. Bolívar captured Caracas on August 6 and two days later
proclaimed the second Venezuelan republic.

After several battles, Bolívar had to flee once more and in 1815 he
took refuge in Jamaica from where he wrote his Jamaica Letter. That
same year, Bolívar traveled to Haiti and petitioned its president,
Alexander Sabes Petión, to help the Spanish American cause. In 1817,
with Haitian help, Bolívar returned to the continent to continue
fighting.

The Battle of Boyaca of August 7, 1819 resulted in a great victory for
Bolívar and the army of the revolution. That year, Bolívar created the
Angostura Congress which founded Gran Colombia (a federation of
present-day Venezueal, Colombia, Panama, and Ecuador) which named
Bolívar president. Royalist opposition was eliminated during the
following years. After the victory of Antonio José de Sucre over the
Spanish forces at the Battle of Pichincha on May 23, 1822, all of
northern South America was liberated. With that great victory, Bolívar
prepared to march with his army across the Andes and liberate Peru.

On July 26, 1822, Bolívar met with José de San Martín at Guayaquil to
discuss the strategy for the liberation of Peru. No one knows what
took place in the secret meeting between the two South American
heroes, but San Martín returned to Argentina while Bolívar prepared to
fight against last Spanish bastion in South America.

In 1823 Bolívar took command of the invasion of Peru and in September
arrived in Lima with Sucre to plan the attack. On August 6, 1824,
Bolívar and Sucre jointly defeated the Spanish army in the Battle of
Junín. On December 9 Sucre destroyed the last remnant of the Spanish
army in the Battle of Ayacucho, eliminating Spain's presence in South
America.

On August 6, 1825, Sucre called the Congress of Upper Peru which
created the Republic of Bolivia in honor of Bolívar. The Bolivian
Constitution of 1826, while never enacted, was personally written by
Bolívar. Also in 1826, Bolívar called the Congress of Panama, the
first hemispheric conference.

But by 1827, due to personal rivalries among the generals of the
revolution, civil wars exploded which destroyed the South American
unity for which Bolívar had fought. Surrounded by factional fighting
and suffering from tuberculosis, El Libertador Simón Bolívar died on
December 17, 1830.

jonathan

The people od Venzuela will stop "Cuban Invasion" of Venezuela
and will stop "CUBANIZATION " of your home land. They will
get these Marxisit-Leninist political activisits who are acting as
Cuban doctors out of Venezuela soon ....

Read this article below.
Is this a Venezuela that you invisioned Simon?

Children in clown costumes perform tricks for pocket change at street
corners. A teenage dropout sells fish by the highway and engineers
drive taxis. Indians abandon their ancestral lands to beg in the
cities.

Venezuela's economic crisis, the worst in decades, has spared no one
posing the greatest challenge to President Hugo Chavez's grand design
of bridging the gap between wealthy and poor in this South American
nation.

Venezuela's economy shrank by 9 percent in 2002. Many economists
predict a 10 percent contraction this year, the worst in Latin
America.

Out-of-work nurses offer blood-pressure checks at sidewalk tables for
a small fee. People hawk pirated videotapes, DVDs, and even cell fone
calls, charging pennies a minute. A firing freeze imposed by Chavez is
widely ignored because companies just can't afford to keep workers.

Even Venezuela's abundant oil its reserves are among the world's
largest cannot stop the slide in such places as Maracaibo, Venezuela's
western petroleum capital.

Wilmer Jose Villalobos celebrated his 13th birthday, then quit school
so he could sell fish on a Maracaibo highway.

"I liked school. But now I need to make money. Some of my friends are
doing it too," said Villalobos, who stands for hours under the
tropical sun, holding up a string of fish he sells for 1,000 bolivars
(63 cents).

In January, Chavez imposed foreign currency controls to defend the
evaporating bolivar. The move increased foreign reserves but stopped
the flow of U.S. dollars, thus restricting imports ranging from food
to machinery.

Officially, a dollar costs 1,600 bolivars. Its real worth is close to
3,000 bolivars.

Tens of thousands lost their jobs when Chavez fired half the
36,000-strong work force of the state oil company. A ripple effect
prompted hundreds of oil contractors and suppliers to lay off
personnel or close their doors.

Jaime Torres is a laid-off 47-year-old chemical
engineer-turned-cabbie.

"The company I worked for provided me with a driver. Now I'm driving a
taxi," Torres said. "There's no sign the situation will improve
anytime soon. It's very frustrating."

Torres wanted to leave Maracaibo for the United States or Spain. But
his wife refused, unwilling to abandon family ties.

Immigrants who left Italy or Spain decades ago are applying to go
back. In Caracas, lines form daily outside foreign consulates. Many in
those lines are elderly.

One out of four Venezuelans is jobless, the government says. But the
state counts anyone who works more than one hour a week as employed.

Tourists who prefer more stable destinations have deserted Venezuela's
pristine beaches, Andean peaks and rain forest.

Their absence is especially felt in Sinamaica, a lagoon of Wayu and
Anu Indian towns built on stilts north of Maracaibo. Tourists used to
crowd boats to see Sinamaica's "palofitos," or wood and palm-thatch
homes.

Now boatsman Juan Cardenas spends his days just killing time.

"On a Saturday or Sunday, I used to do six or seven boat tours," said
Cardenas, who charges $15 for a one-hour tour. "Nowadays, I'm lucky if
I do one."