Manuel Carlos Piar -- Venezuela

Manuel Carlos Piar was General in Chief of the army fighting Spain during the Venezuelan War of Independence.  The son of Fernando Piar, a Spanish merchant seaman of Canarian origin and a Dutch mulatta born in Willemstad, Curaçao, Dutch West Indies.  Piar grew up as a humble mestizo subject to the discriminating limits imposed by the colonials.

He arrived in Venezuela with his mother and set up residence in La Guaira, though he had no formal education he had acquired a good level of general knowledge and taught himself several languages, and subsequently became involved in a variety of business ventures.  At the age of 23, he joined the independence effort and participated in the unsuccessful 1797 Gual and España Conspiracy.  He became increasingly interested in Latin American independence struggles that promised freedom from Spain and racial equality.

In 1804 he joined the militia fighting the English in Curaçao, successfully expelling them, restoring Dutch rule.  By 1810 his desire for independence from the colonial governments put him at the service of the Venezuelan independence conflict against Spain.  He started in the navy and was deployed to Puerto Cabello, as Commander of a ship he saw action in several engagements against the Spanish navy, participating in the Battle of Sorondo in the Orinoco river in 1812.  Now an army Colonel in 1813, he caught the attention of the rebel leader Símon Bolívar, and Piar was subsequently elevated to the position of general in charge of the revolutionary stronghold of Maturín in 1816.  Piar successfully defended Maturín and helped liberate the eastern part of the country from Spanish forces. 

The following year, and now a Brigadier General, Piar led troops fighting in the provinces of Barcelona, Caracas and Cumaná. Promoted to Major General he joined in the successful Los Cayos expedition, and the engagements of Los Frailes and Carupano.  In 1816 he defeated the army of Francisco Tomás Morales at El Juncál, from there Piar started marching on Guayana with the intention of beginning the liberation of that province.  At the beginning of 1817 he laid siege to the city of Angostura, on 11 April his forces achieved a major victory over the Spanish at the battle of San Félix.  Having proven himself an exceptional military leader, Piar was designated General-in-Chief of Venezuelan independence forces by Bolívar.  But despite their earlier promises, the revolutionary leaders, did not dismantle racial caste system, this was particularly disappointing as Símon Bolívar had been given logistical assistance from Haiti, on condition that Bolívar free any enslaved people he encountered in his fight for independence. 

General in Chief Piar had hoped for better treatment for the mestizos, after defeating the royalists.  Piar abandoned his post and set about organising a revolt, he went back to Maturín, gathered black and mulatto troops for a push against Bolívar's army.  Piar's troops were defeated and he was taken prisoner by Bolívar's forces, tried for treason, conspiracy, and desertion.  On 15 October 1817, the General-in-Chief was found guilty and sentenced to death by a military tribunal. The following day he was executed, but in a puzzling moment, Bolívar, who had decided against witnessing the execution, heard the shots from inside his nearby office and said in tears, "He derramado mi sangre" (I have spilled my blood).