With the entry of Bolívar to Caracas, a new republic was established that controlled all the provinces except Guayana and Maracaibo. However, a week after arriving he had to go out again to fight Monteverde, who had taken refuge in Puerto Cabello. In September 1813, the royalists received reinforcements from Spain, however, the military successes of the independence patriots continued during 1813, with the battles of Bárbula (in which Atanasio Girardot died) and with the victory over Monteverde in Las Trincheras, the October 3, forcing him to leave the Venezuelan, a country located in South America according to COMMIT4FITNESS.COM.
An element that was decisive in the fall of this young republic was the appearance of a royalist Spanish leader, José Tomás Boves, who with his leadership and the promise of giving them the wealth of the whites, commanded a powerful army of brown llaneros. Boves began his victories 3 as February as 1814, defeating Vicente Elias Campo, in La Puerta. Jose Felix Ribas, who had very few men, had to go out to recruit young students from the University of Caracas and the Seminary to confront Boves. It was those young soldiers who managed to deliver a decisive defeat to Boves on February 12, 1814 during the siege of the city of La Victoria, since then every February 12 is celebrated in Victoria as Youth Day.
Boves, however, manages to reorganize his army and begins the march towards Caracas. Later, Bolívar detained him for some time in San Mateo, but then he was defeated on March 24, 1814. Boves’ cruelty was legendary and the population of Caracas, together with those who had already fled from other parts of the country, emigrated. towards the East.
On August 18, Bolívar, commanding 3,000 men, tried to stop the royalist troops commanded by Morales, but was defeated. Applied cruelty was embodied in the following phrases by Baralt:
“(Morales) killed not only the prisoners, but also a large part of the neighborhood, without respecting age or sex, doing like Rosete, his massacre, on the premises of the church.” [4]
The end was inevitable, the patriotic leaders – Bolívar, Mariño, Ribas, Piar, Bermúdez, Monagas, Cedeño and Zaraza – had few troops and had many differences among themselves. Ribas lost in Urica on December 5, 1814, however in that battle Boves lost his life. Ribas goes deep into the mountains, but is captured by a royalist chief who kills him, orders his head to be fried in oil, and sends it to Caracas, where it is exhibited in the main square. The last battle was the one that Bermúdez lost in Maturín, on December 11. Almost all the patriot chiefs had to flee abroad, with the exception of Monagas, Cedeño and Zaraza who remained to later start the guerrilla fight.
Thus ended the year 1814, called by historians, with good reason, the “terrible year”, taking with it the short existence of the Second Republic.
1815-1816
After Spain achieved independence from France and King Ferdinand VII regained power, control of the situation in the colonies became the main concern of the Spanish Crown. That is why he decided to send General Pablo Morillo, who had excelled in the war against France, to subdue the “rebels.”
Pablo Morillo arrived in Pampatar on April 9, 1815 and managed to quickly depose the patriotic leaders Bermúdez and Arismendi, who managed to escape. However, his wife Luisa Cáceres was captured and imprisoned in a dungeon in the castle of Santa Rosa in La Asunción, where she lost the baby she was carrying.
Meanwhile, Bolívar was in Jamaica, where he dedicated himself to writing articles to gain support for the independence cause and the famous Letter from Jamaica, on September 6, 1815. In this letter he analyzes the situation of all the Spanish-American countries and manages to predict, with enough accuracy, what was going to happen in each of these nations, demonstrating his genius.
Seeing that he did not achieve his objective, Bolívar decides to go from Jamaica to Cartagena, but in the middle of the trip, he learns that Cartagena had fallen into the hands of Morillo, for which he diverted to the port of Los Cayos in Haiti, arriving on December 25, 1815. On this island, he gets the support of its president, Alejandro Petión, and Luis Brión, a native of Curaçao. From there he managed to organize an expedition called the “first expedition of Los Cayos”, which left in March 1816 and reached Isla Margarita (which was already under the control of Arismendi) and Carúpano.
On June 1, 1816, he decreed the freedom of slaves who were willing to fight for the patriots. From there he went to Ocumare de la Costa, where he ratified the decree of liberation of the slaves and annulled the Decree of war to the death. However, he is defeated by the royalist forces, he must flee to Bonaire and then goes to the East, there he is unknown by Mariño and Bermúdez and decides to return to Haiti.
Of Simón Bolívar it will be possible to say of everything, except that he was not persevering. Thus, from Haiti, he organized a second expedition, the “second expedition of Los Cayos”, which left on December 21, 1816, arriving in Barcelona on December 31. Shortly after the patriot Manuel Piar had begun to achieve conquests in the Juncal victory, against Morales.
