Antonio Nariño

Antonio Nariño (* 1765 in Santa Fé de Bogotá, † 1824 in Villa de Leyva ) was an ideological pioneer and former military leader in the South American wars of independence in the former Viceroyalty of New Granada, now Colombia.

Life

In 1794 he translated the French declaration of human and civil rights into Spanish and distributed it privately printed with friends. Copies of it were circulating throughout South America. For this he was arrested several times, but he also succeeded several times to escape the Spanish prison, and after some time in exile, he returned to New Granada.

After the occupation of Spain by Napoleon in 1807 South American juntas were formed, which pursued despite official loyalty to Spain, or at least to the deposed king of Napoleon a policy towards independence. Nariño scored as President of Cundinamarca ( around the capital, Bogotá ) some military successes against the royalist Spaniards, but it soon came to rivalries between the leaders of the independence movement, which weakened their position. Nariño came in 1814 in Spanish captivity, and when he was released again after the revolt of General Rafael del Riego, other leaders had enforced, in particular Simon Bolívar, the then President of Colombia was. Nevertheless, Nariño was mentioned for the Colombian national hero and in the last stanza of the Colombian national anthem.