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Venezuela became independent in 1811 and Bolivar, being a minor -
though self-aggrandizing - political figure, had little to do with it.
After his first major military defeat, in defending the coastal town
of Puerto Cabello against royalist insurgents out to oust the newly
independent Venezuela, he advocated the creation of a professional
army (in the Cartagena Manifesto). Far from being a revolutionary he,
justly, opposed the reliance on guerrilleros and militiamen.
He then reconquered Caracas, Venezuela's capital, at the head of a
small army and declared himself a dictator. He made Congress award him
the title of El Libertador (the Liberator). The seeds of his
personality cult were sown. When he lost Caracas to the royalists in
yet another botched campaign, he retreated and captured Bogot?, the
capital city of Colombia in December 1814.
After a series of uninterrupted military defeats, Bolivar exiled
himself to Jamaica. In a sudden conversion, he published the Jamaica
Letter (1815) in which he supported a model of government akin to the
British parliamentary system - yet, only following a phase of "guided
leadership" (identical to Hitler's "Fuhrerprinzip").
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