Tipping Bolívar's Pedestal

Too tall a pedestal for Bolívar?

Few things are more annoying - or more deceptive - than turning heroes of history into gods. And few people have been carried closer to godliness than the Liberator Simon Bolivar.

Bolívar was unquestionably a great hero. He led the revolution which freed much of South America

Do they deserve to be heroes?

from oppresive Spanish rule, replacing tyrrany with nascent democracy and leading to the end of slavery.

But Bolívar was also a man with imperfections and contradictions, which have been generally sanitized from history (Bolívar's womanizing is an exception, but that's also admired in Latin culture).

In a corner of the Museo Nacional, which is full of Bolívar busts, portraits and quotes, there's a small exhibition calling into question the prefection of the Great Man.

Naval hero José Prudencio Padilla
was executed by Bolívar's supporters.

The episode involves another revolutionary hero, José Prudencio Padilla, who fought and won several naval battles critical to the revolution. Padilla also happened to be a man of mixed-race, which has complicated the story of his relationship to Bolívar.

According to what seems to be history's official version, Padilla opposed Bolívar and apparently betrayed him and even participated in a conspiracy to assassinate El Libertador.

But today Padilla's opposition to Bolívar looks like a principled stand against a man who wanted to make himself into president for life. In that, Padilla was allied with fellow revolutionary hero and Colombian president Francisco de Paula Santander, who famously told Colombians that 'The law will give you freedom.' While Bolívar advocated a centralized government with a strong president - himself - Padilla and Santander supported a system with a strong Congress and powers vested in the provinces.

Mariano Montilla supported Bolívar against
the 'threat' of race mixing.  He sent
Padilla to prison for 'fomenting
racial hatred.'

And Padilla may have been framed because of Bolívar's apparent fear of race-mixing and the influence of people of color. According to the Museo Nacional's exhibition "Bolívar and other generals feared that people of African descent would seize power and eliminate the dominant class."

In 1828, shortly after Bolívar escaped an asassination attempt, Padilla was arrested and executed by Bolívar's forces.

Bolívar apparently recognized his error and repented for his treatment of Padilla, writing in a letter that same year "...what most torments me is the just clamor by with which...Padilla's people will complain. They will say with great justice that I have not been weak but in favor of that infamous white man..."

By then, of course, it was too late.

I wonder what Venezuela's mixed-race Pres. Hugo Chávez, who worhsipped Bolívar, thot about this. Rather, I bet, he conveniently ignored it.

Racism isn't the only one of Bolívar's flaws which has been generally forgotten. He also ordered acts which we'd consider severe war crimes, but back then were likely accepted as a normal part of war.

Letter by Bolívar: 'I have not been weak,
but in favor of that infamous white man...'

North America's heroes were also, of course, deeply flawed men. Many owned and traded slaves while writing soaring rhetoric about the equality and freedom of mankind. They directed the displacement and near genocide of Native Americans.

All these were men of their time and it's not fair to evaluate them by today's standards. But neither do their deserve sanctification.


By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours