Ramtin Arablouei and Randa Abdel-Fattah

you know, darker-hued, working-class person who had actually, you know, had the gall to follow through on his critiques of government and gone to jail for it after taking responsibility for a failed coup.

The differences could not be starker between status quo or radical change.

Hugo Chavez's message just galvanized them.

And that sort of began the Chavez era.

After Bolivar was named president of Gran Colombia, he and his army set out fighting battle after battle across South America, losing some but winning many, first liberating Colombia, then Venezuela.

Moves down to Ecuador, liberates Ecuador.

Peru was up next.

Bolívar was appointed dictator of Peru and went on to liberate Panama and even has a country named after him, Bolivia.

So now the Spanish were gone.

South America was free from colonial rule and Bolívar was victorious.

He was looking out on a massive, diverse army of followers with the world seemingly at his feet.

And even though the continent was scarred by years of fighting, it was a hopeful moment.

Gran Colombia could now be fully realized, in theory.

So yes, his moment of triumph happens, but it's very short-lived.

It turns out, while Bolívar was busy liberating all those countries, that little crust on top, the criollo elite, the group he himself was a part of, had grown more and more angry with him.

Not only in Venezuela, but throughout South America,

resentful of what the independence movement had become, and concerned about what their positions would be in this new order.

Plus Bolivar faced another challenge.

He had brought together all these different people, former slaves, cowboys from the plains, indigenous people, and now he had to figure out how to get them all to follow the same rules.

Cracks were forming in Bolivar's dream of a democratic, pan-South American state.