Latin Americans Leaders Remember Birth of Simon Bolivar

Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro, Bolivia's President Evo Morales and other progressive leaders in Latin America honored Wednesday the 236th anniversary of the birth of Simon Bolivar and highlighted his struggle for the independence and sovereignty of the Latin American peoples.

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"We commemorate the 236th anniversary of the birth of the Liberator Simon Bolivar; our father and a daily source of inspiration and commitment," said Maduro at an event in which he ordered to start the "2019 Simon Bolivar Liberating Campaign," which is a set of military training exercises carried out throughout the Venezuelan territory.

"We, Bolivarians, continue with the libertarian ideal lit in our hearts in defense of the homeland," the Venezuelan president stressed.

On July 24, 1783, Simon Bolivar, the most important leader of South American independence movements, was born in Caracas, which belonged at that time to the New Granada, a territory under the rule of the Spanish empire.

As a member of a wealthy family, he was able to receive a good education, mostly guided by Simon Rodriguez and Andres Bello, two intellectuals who approached Bolivar towards the ideas of the French revolution and encouraged in him a commitment to the freedom of those who were born in the Americas.

In 1807, the young leader used his fortune to organize an army and fight against Spanish rule. He thus began a war of independence that expanded throughout what are now Venezuela, Colombia, Panama, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia.

In 1819, while the independence battles were still being fought, Bolivar formed the "Great Colombia," a single nation which began bringing Venezuela and Colombia together but aspired to create a "Great Homeland" for all South Americans, an idea also embraced by the late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez two centuries later.

"We remember the birth of Simon Bolivar, the Liberator, builder of the Great Homeland, father of six nations and our first president," Morales said and stressed that his struggle for independence and freedom is still a mandate to the Latin Americans who must avoid being subjected again to any empire.

Due to the magnitude of his political and military feats, Bolivar remains alive in the daily memory of peoples which always remember him in their national symbols, songs, poems, schools, children's names and murals.