Simón Bolívar

Bolívar, Simón (1783–1830), South American soldier and statesman responsible for several liberation movements against Spanish authority. After several abortive attempts during the 1810s, he led the liberation of Venezuela in 1821 and created the federal state of Greater Colombia, including what is now Venezuela, Colombia, and Ecuador. He went on to liberate Peru (1824) and to form the republic of Bolivia (1825). Bolívar envisaged a united South America, but secessionist movements arose, and Peru and Bolivia turned against him in the 1820s. Venezuela and Ecuador seceded from Greater Colombia in 1829, and in the following year Bolívar resigned as president. Today he is regarded as the liberator of South America, one of the great heroes of its history.

See also: Venezuela.