Ramtin Arablouei and Randa Abdel-Fattah

Towards the end of his life, Bolivar contracted tuberculosis.

Angry about the extremely centralized government Bolivar has put in place, which consolidated all the power in his hands alone, Bolivar was on thin ice across South America, especially in Colombia.

And finally, the ice broke.

On December 10, 1830, Bolívar gave his final speech in Santa Marta, Colombia.

From there, he planned to take a ship to an island and live out the rest of his life in exile.

My final wishes are for the happiness of the country.

If my death contributes to the cessation of factions and the consolidation of the Union, I will step peacefully into the grave.

One week later, on December 17th, 1830, Bolivar died, unceremoniously and alone.

Soon after Bolívar's death in 1830 in Colombia, actually his name was banned.

Bolívar was remembered as a disgraced leader, a revolutionary turned tyrant.

He left much of South America in disarray, with no clear plan for who would follow in his footsteps to lead all those countries he'd ruled over.

So he became basically all things to all people.

Leader after leader across South America, but especially in Venezuela, invoked Bolívar, using his legacy as a political tool.

I think Chavez understood very well that Bolívar could be deployed very malleably because that was ultimately the legacy of Bolívar for Venezuelan politics.

To be this catch-all figure that could stand for many things simultaneously.

You can go from...

Bolivar the nationalist to, once we have a lot of oil money and can project more broadly, Bolivar the Pan-American.

We can go from Bolivar the participatory Democrat to Bolivar the, no, there's one leader here and the leader is me.

In 2012, Chavez was on the campaign trail, running for a third term in office.

His work of art was not yet complete.