"
In a letter to Santander, the Liberator expounded:
"I am convinced, to the very marrow of my bones, that our America can
only be ruled through a well-managed, shrewd despotism."
The National Geographic describes how:
"William Tudor, the American consul at Lima, wrote in 1826 of the
'deep hypocrisy' of Bol?var, who allowed himself to be deceived by the
'crawling, despicable flattery of those about him.' Later, John Quincy
Adams would define Bol?var's military career as 'despotic and
sanguinary' and state baldly that 'he cannot disguise his hankering
after a crown.' In Bogot? the U. S. minister and future president,
Gen. William Henry Harrison, accused Bol?var of planning to turn Gran
Colombia into a monarchy: 'Under the mask of patriotism and attachment
to liberty, he has really been preparing the means of investing
himself with arbitrary power.' "
When, in 1828, a constitutional convention in Colombia rejected
amendments to the constitution that he proposed, Bolivar assumed
dictatorial powers in a coup d'etat.
Now, Bolivar was the oppressor. He has murdered, or exiled his
political rivals throughout his career.
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