Simón Bolívar

Simón José Antonio de la Santísima Trinidad Bolívar y Ponte Palacios y Blanco, also colloquially as El Libertador, or Liberator of America, was a Venezuelan military and political leader who led what are currently the countries of Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Panama to independence from the Spanish Empire.

Bolívar was born in Caracas into a wealthy family and, as was common for heirs of upper-class families in his day, was sent to be educated abroad at a young age, arriving in Spain when he was 16 and later moving to France. While in Europe he was introduced to the ideas of the Enlightenment, which later motivated him to overthrow the reigning Spanish in colonial South America.