Bolívar Loses His Sword - Once Again

Simon Bolivar, swordless, on Plaza Bolivar.

In January 1974, the M-19 guerrillas introduced themselves to Colombia with a dramatic gesture: They invaded the Quinta de Bolívar in La Candelaria and stole Libertador Simon Bolivar's sword.

Simon's swordless
sword hand.

With the sort of dramatic, media-friendly flourish the M-19 were known for, they then announced
that 'Bolivar's sword had returned to battle' - presumably for democracy, sovereignty and social justice.

In the M-19's hands, the sword seems to have been hidden in a brothel, in the homes of various Colombian artists and intellectuals, and then smuggled to revolutionary Cuba. Meanwhile, after several more dramatic actions, the M-19's career turned tragic in 1985 when its assault on the Justice Palace became a bloodbath.

When the M-19 signed a peace treaty with the government and demobilized in 1991, its leaders gave back to the Colombian nation what they claimed was the same sword they had stolen.

Today may be a less dramatic and idealistic time for Coombia. So, perhaps appropriately, one of Bolivar's swords was stolen last week, apparently for much more pragmatic reasons.

A missing manhole cover on Plaza San Victorino, which someone has covered with a piece of concrete.

The sword in question this time is the one on Plaza Bolivar, in front of City Hall, the Supreme Court and Congress. But, rather than a symbol of revolution, this blade apparently was taken to a scrap dealer, who tossed it onto a heap of metal to be melted down.

It's a mystery how the sword was stolen on Colombia's most important public plaza, which is

A plastic non-recyclable manhole cover
on Jimenez Ave., near where a girl fell thru
and drowned several years ago.

patrolled by guards and monitored by cameras. Authorities vowed to capture the culprit.

Sadly, the incident was no aberration. In Bogotá, virtually any piece of metal which can be picked up or ripped away from its moorings will be, often by crack addicts desperate to buy another hit.

The other day, the doorhandle disappeared from our house. A few years ago, when I lived around the corner, someone ripped stole our metal plate house number.

Unfortunately, metal theft can cause more than just inconvenience. A couple of years ago, a little girl fell into a manhole whose cover had been stolen and drowned in an underground river.

In a city with lots of poverty and drug addiction and poor law enforcement, this is not an easy problem to solve. But authorities could make selling stolen scrap more difficult by doing sting operations. Since nobody has the right to sell a city manhole cover, any scrap dealer who buys one is committing a crime, and should have his business shut down.

Several years ago, someone stole one of Saint Frances de Assisi's adoring animals from a plaza in north Bogotá. Was the poor metal deer melted down?

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

Simón Bolívar - The Flawed Man

Bolívar - a great man,
and a flawed one.

I recently read the Bolívar, the biography of Simón Bolívar, by Marie Arana. The book is pretty long, at just over 600 pages, but interesting and readable. And it provides a rounded, warts-and-all portrait of a man who has been transformed into a demigod by certain, mostly leftist, Latin American leaders.

Bolívar was by any measure a 'great man.' Overcoming huge challenges, he led (and drove) the armies which freed a half dozen nations in northern South America. Bolívar is often compared to George Washington, but Bolívar's accomplishments were, in many ways, much greater. Washington had only to drive out the British, but Bolívar had to deal with rival rebels, rebellions amongst other Americans, disease and even an earthquake.

While Washington's forces were overwhelmingly white and protestant, Bolivar managed to hold together a fighting force with huge racial and cultural differences.

Did Bolívar suffer remorse
for his massacres?

In contrast to the U.S. revolution, South America's was messy and fractured, with rival leaders, loyalist regions (which the British never enjoyed. In North America, the loyalists simply departed to Canada) and shifting loyalties, as whole regions switched allegiances.

And there was Bolívar's weakness for the ladies, which stole time from warmaking.

But Bolívar was clearly a much better general than Washington. Washington, according to some historians, lost more battles than he won, and won the war by managing to continue fighting until the British got exhausted and went home. Bolívar, in contrast, was a daring and ingenious tactician, who carried out almost superhuman feats, such as driving his army over high mountain passes to fall upon the unsuspecting Spanish.

Revolutionary pioneer Francisco de Miranda died in a Spanish
prison after Bolívar and others betrayed him to
the Spanish army.

George Washington and one of his
black slaves. The rebellion Washington led
protected slavery, while Bolívar's
started it toward its end.

The revolution Bolívar led also brought a much more fundamental change to South America than the North American 'revolution' did. Great Britain was, after all, something of a democracy in the 1700s, while Spain in the early 1800s was still an absolutist monarchy. (That's why I even wonder whether the North American colonies' rebellion should even be called a 'revolution.') And Bolívar's revolution was willing to make some fundamental changes which Washington's revolution was not - namely ending slavery and the slave trade, albeit not immediately. (Altho some would that Bolivar's motivation was partly pragmatic, to get the people of color, slave and free, onto the rebels' side.) In contrast, the U.S.'s Founding Fathers, terrible hypocrites many of them, wrote eloquently about the rights of man and human liberty and equality, but did nothing to end slavery and even protected the slave trade.

Deceased Venezuelan strongman
Hugo Chavez worshipped Bolívar.

But what is refreshing about Arana's book is that it includes Bolivár's mistakes and misdeeds - some of them
horrific ones. Take, for example, Bolívar's betrayal of revolutionary pioneer Francisco de Miranda to Spanish forces. Miranda died four years later in a Spanish prison.

South America's revolution was scarred by huge, wholesale savagery on both sides, including massacres of civilians and prisoners - which I haven't heard of in North America's revolution, which sounds gentlemanly in comparison. Bolívar massacred at various times Spanish prisoners of war, Spanish citizens for the crime of being Spaniards, and even a group of priests.

But at the revolutions' ends, Bolívar's comparison to Washington is less flattering. Bolívar seems to prove the old saying about power corrupting. In the end, Bolívar wanted to be made dictator of La Gran Colombia. Washington famously rejected being made king, served as president for two terms and then retired to his plantation (freeing his slaves in his will).

History may contain a sort of justice. Washington died a revered figure. Bolívar died almost a fugitive on the Colombian coast waiting for a ship to carry him to Europe for tuberculosis treatment.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

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

How Britain Created Colombia

Daniel O'Leary, a soldier from Ireland
who also preserved Simon Bolivar's personal
documents for history. 

Of course, that's probably an exaggeration. But I thought about it while looking at some English miniatures now on display in the National Museum in Bogotá.

The technique of creating miniatures probably came to Colombia with the Royal Botanical Expedition of 1783 to 2016, led by Celestino Mutis, which created miniatures to record plants encountered during the travels. After the expedition's end, artists sought other ways to earn money, such as making portraits of the wealthy.

One of the tiny portraits on display shows Irishman Daniel Florence O'Leary. He was an aide-de-camp under Simon Bolivar and perhaps the most famous member of the British Legion, a volunteer force which fought alongside Bolivar against the Spanish empire. The British effort was not altruistic, of course: they wanted to weaken a rival empire and rule the world - which they eventually accomplished.

England's King George IV: A dissolute,
unprincipled man, but nevertheless
admired by Colombians.

Even after the colonies had broken away from Spain's rule, their real independence wasn't assured. France, which practically controlled Spain, considered trying to reconquer the colonies. And a coalition of Europe's conservative monarchies talked of sending members of European royal families across the ocean to rule the New World. (The only place where this was actually tried was Mexico, where the French installed the Austrian Maximilian I. Maximilian lasted only three years, however, before being overthrown and executed by Benito Juarez.)

An unidentified member of the British Legion. 

Latin America's independence was tentative and uncertain until the British Empire, pushed by Foreign Secretary George Canning, recognized Colombia, Argentina and Mexico. Canning, naturally, did not act out of altruism. He wanted to weaken France, which controlled Spain, and open the Latin American markets for the British Empire's trade. Canning made no bones about this:

British Foreign Secretary George Canning,
whose recogintion of the nations of
Latin America made their independence certain.

"Spanish America is free," he said, "and if we do not mismanage our affairs she is English ... the New World established and if we do not throw it away, ours."

"I resolved that if France had Spain it should not be Spain with the Indies," Canning explained the next year. "I called the New World into existence to redress the balance of the Old."

The British Cemetery in Bogotá,
created for the British Legion veterans.

But if Canning acted out of Britain's interests, he evidently did have liberal, progressive sentiments. He had also opposed tyrranical governments in Naples and the Netherlands, advocated expanded rights for Britain's Catholics and opposed slavery.

A plaque on Plaza Bolivar in Bogotá
comemorating the British Legion.

Previously, the United States had recognized Colombia in 1822 and the next year U.S. Pres. James Monroe issued his famous doctrine opposing further European colonization or interference in the Americas. But the U.S. was a weak nation: It was Britain that mattered.

A tomb in Bogotá's Central Cemetery carries the surname O'Leary - possibly a descendent of revolutionary hero Daniel O'Leary, who is buried in Caracas, Venezuela?

A plaque in the British Cemetery says that a fence was built from the British Legion's muskets. 

Related post: A Patch of England in Bogotá.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

Bolivar's Birthday Party

Scenes from today's celebration of Simon Bolivar's birthday. Bolivar, of course, led the armies which freed northern South America from Spain, and half of the streets, plazas, parks, currencies and even nations in this region are named after him.

Even tho Bolivar's been idolized, he was a mixed bag. In the end, he wanted to be made dictator for life. Bolivar also famously denounced the young United States - but pursued alliances with England, then the world's super power.

Posters for a competing celebration of Bolivar's birthday, this one also celebrating populist leader Gaitan and Venezuelan Pres. Hugo Chavez. 

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

Of Great Men and Mausoleums

A new space ship on the block? An illustration of what Simon Bolivar's new tomb is to look like. 

More than likely, a few of the presidents and prime ministers in Cartagena this weekend for the Summit of the Americas secretly believe themselves to be Great Leaders.

Bolivar's current burial place isn't too bad. 

None, however, are likely to match the stature of Simon Bolivar, el Libertador, who led the armies which freed much of South America from Spanish colonial rule.

Bolivar was born in Caracas, Venezuela, became the Gran Colombia's first president, and died in Santa Marta, Colombia in 1830.

Unquestionably a great war leader, altho his performance in peacetime was more questionable (he ultimately wanted to be made president for life).

And he's been well memorialized for his accomplishments: innumerable parks, plazas, cities and avenues are named for him, as is the nation of Bolivia and Venezuela's currency. Venezuelan Pres. Hugo Chavez even added 'Bolivarian' to the name of his country.

But just in case the world forgets Bolivar's greatness, Chavez is building him a towering mausoleum.

Bolivar ally-turned-rival Santander got this modest
tomb in Bogotá's Central Cemetery, altho he's
since been reburied in his hometown of Cucuta.

The mausoleum looks a bit like a humongous skateboard ramp - (and perhaps one day after our civilization has crumbled, the structure will be used that way). It will cost some $80 million, soar 170 feet high and be voluminous enough for 1,000 people to attend events inside - presumably in the otherworldy presence of Bolivar himself.

Argentine ex-Pres. Nestor Kirchner's mausoleum. 

And those building Bolivar's new mausoleum, which looks like it might launch into space at any moment, might want to be cautious. Venezuelan pundits have observed that several of the people involved in Bolivar's disenterment and reburial a few years ago died soon after.

On the other hand, Pres. Chavez, who sometimes seems to believe himself to be the New Bolivar, is apparently gravely ill with cancer. Perhaps he'll soon lie alongside his idol, ready to join him in space, or under skateboarders' wheels.

But not all leaders have felt the need of glorious tombs (and who knows whether Bolivar did), and some very humble tombs have nevertheless become places of veneration.

Bolivar's mausoleum would tower over the still-impressive one built last year for Argentine Pres. Nestor Kirchner, who will be remembered by history for, well...just give me time and I'll think of something. This page compare's Kirchner's tomb to the very modest burial sites of historical figures such as Winston Churchill, Mahatma Ghandi and Martin Luther King - who will be remembered for something.

All of which may contain a lesson: It's not about the size, guys.

Colombian Pres. Alfonso Lopez Michelsen (in office 1974-8) got only this weedy patch of grass in Bogotá's Central Cemetery. 

This communist leader in Bogotá's Central Cemetery got this expensive tomb made from imported marble. Does ideological consistency end at the grave?

This 'Founder of the fatherland' apparently died poor and got only this headstone. 

Astronomer Julio Garavito made it onto Colombia's 20,000 peso bill, and his tomb in the cemetery attracts believers who expect him to help them get rich. 

Believers ask Bavaria brewery founder Leo Kopp for favors by whispering in the ear of the sculpture on his tomb. 

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

Extreme Haircutting

Hair cutting high above La Candelaria, with a Transmilenio bus behind.

La Peluqueria is a hair salon/art gallery/clothes store/art gallery/music venue and women's collective in La Candelaria. These days, the peluqueras are taking their scissors outside and doing their cutting in unlikely locales.

The other day, they found lofty company on the monument holding revolutionary leader Simon Bolivar in the center of the Plaza del Periodista.

What would El Libertador have thought about sharing his pedestal for an afternoon with these crazy young people? Perhaps he would have approved, since the event was part of a commemoration of the 200th anniversary of Colombia's independence.

Of course, El Libertador has been less than sacrosant. He was relocated twice, due to road work, before being brought to La Plaza del Periodista. And, he does receive occasional visits from grafiteros, as their scrawlings show.

La Peluqueria is a hair salon/art gallery/clothes store/art gallery/music venue and women's collective in La Candelaria. These days, the peluqueras are taking their scissors outside and doing their cutting in unlikely locales.

The other day, they found lofty company on the monument holding revolutionary leader Simon Bolivar in the center of the Plaza del Periodista.

Checking out a kid's hair. 

What would El Libertador have thought about sharing his pedestal for an afternoon with these crazy young people? Perhaps he would have approved, since the event was part of a commemoration of the 200th anniversary of Colombia's independence.

Of course, El Libertador has been less than sacrosant. He was relocated twice, due to road work, before being brought to La Plaza del Periodista. And, he does receive occasional visits from grafiteros, as their scrawlings show.

La Peluqueria's colorful front. 

Tags left by previous visitors. 

El Libertador. 

Impromptu actors near Simon Bolivar. 

A torch lights up Simon Bolivar's bell.

Night sets on La Plaza del Periodista.

At work inside La Peluqueria. 

Haircutting in the La Concordia neighborhood, with Bogotá's Eastern Hills in the background. 

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours