Angostura, Congress of
Angostura, Congress of
Congress of Angostura, convoked by Simón Bolívar in order to place the patriot regime in Venezuela on a formal legal footing. At the opening session, held at the Orinoco River port of Angostura (today Ciudad Bolívar), on 15 February 1819, Bolívar delivered a major address in which he warned against imitation of Anglo-American institutions and called for a new constitution featuring a hereditary Senate and a "moral power" with special responsibility for education and morals. The Congress failed to act on these two suggestions but did produce a Venezuelan constitution and confirmed Bolívar as supreme commander.
The Congress had token representation of New Granadans, in line with Bolívar's strong commitment to union with the neighboring colonies. In December 1819, following the patriots' victory at Boyacá, the Congress formally proclaimed the union of all the former Viceroyalty of New Granada as the Republic of [Gran] Colombia. The Congress dissolved on 19 July 1820.
See alsoBolívar, Simón .
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Vicente Lecuna, comp. and Harold A. Bierck, Jr., ed., Selected Writings of Simón Bolívar, 2 vols. (1951), vol. 1, pp. 173-197, for Bolívar's address.
Gerhard Masur, Simon Bolivar, rev. ed. (1969), chap. 19.
Additional Bibliography
Lynch, John. Simón Bolívar: A Life. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2006.
Mendizábal, Francisco Javier de. Guerra de la América del Sur, 1809–1824. Buenos Aires: Academia Nacional de la Historia, 1997.