Antonio José de Sucre
The Great Marshall of Ayacucho
Antonio José de Sucre (
February 3,
1795 â€"
June 4,
1830) was a
South American independence leader, and one of
Simón BolÃvar's closest friends, generals and statesmen.
Antonio José de Sucre was born in
Cumaná,
Sucre (state),
Venezuela, then part of the
Spanish Viceroyalty of
Nueva Granada and of the Captaincy-General of
Venezuela to a wealthy and prominent family. There is some dispute as to his origin. According to Carlos Iturriza Guillén in his book "Algunas Familias de Cumana", a noted Venezuelan
genealogist, Sucre is a descendant of a French-Flemish family named "Succre" or "Sucere" that arrived in America, namely in
Cuba in the person of Charles de Succre, appointed by the King of
Spain, at the time the ruler of
Flanders, to be the Governor of Cuba. However, according to the German "Lexikon des Judentums" he is a descendant of a
Bavarian Jewish family named "Zucker".
In
1811 he joined the battles for American independence from
Spain. He proved himself an able military leader. In
1817 he was promoted to the rank of
colonel.
In
1819, at the age of 24, he was given the rank of
brigadier general, making him one of the youngest Generals in the army. After the
Battle of Boyacá, Sucre was made BolÃvar's
Chief of Staff. In
1821 BolÃvar put him in charge of the campaign to liberate
Quito. He won a decisive victory at the
Battle of Pichincha on
May 24,
1822.
Shortly after the Battle of Pichincha, Sucre and BolÃvar entered the now liberated Quito and Sucre was named President of the Province of Quito, much to his chagrin.
Further victories followed over the Spanish forces in
Peru, notably on
August 6,
1824 at the
Battle of JunÃn. On
December 9, Sucre decisively captured the bulk of the Spanish troops and command, including the
Viceroy, at
Ayacucho, ensuring the independence of
Peru and Alto Perú, soon to be founded by Sucre and others as the new country of
Bolivia and thus ending all fighting for independence in Spanish America. As a reward for his efforts, General Sucre was granted the honorary title of "The Grand Marshall of Ayacucho", thus achieving the highest possible title at the age of 29.
Upon the victory at Ayacucho, BolÃvar would write his "Resumen Sucinto de la Vida del General Sucre", a short biography full of flattering comments about his lieutenant. In a letter telling Sucre of the biography he has written, his superior would write:
"Believe me, General, nobody loves your glory as much as I do. Never has a Chief paid more glorious tribute to a lieutenant. At the moment it is being printed, a telling of your life done by myself; being faithful to my conscience I give you all that you deserve. I say this so that you can see that I am fair: I disapprove much what I do not think is right, but at the same time I admire that which is sublime" - Simón BolÃvar, Lima: 21 February, 1825.
Sucre was elected
president of the newly formed nation of
Bolivia in
1826, but he became dissatisfied with local political conflicts. In 1828, during a strong movement against BolÃvar, his followers and the very constitution he had written for Bolivia, Sucre resigned and moved to Quito. He initially intended to retire from politics, a field he was never entirely comfortable in.
In late
1828, on the urging of BolÃvar who always thought of Sucre as his natural successor, as he had told him ealier, "I know some day you will rival me and surpass me", the Congress of
Gran Colombia named him "President of Congress". It was also intended to name him president of the republic as BolÃvar's would-be successor, something that never came to pass, and that it is suspected that Sucre would have turned down anyways.
In February
1829, Sucre was named member of a commission that would travel to Venezuela in order to quell political separatism among some of the local authorities, led by
José Antonio Páez. Difficulties related to this task added to Sucre's continuing dissatisfaction with Gran Colombia's political environment.
In early
1830, when Sucre learned that BolÃvar had resigned and intended to leave the country, he decided to head to
Quito in order to resume his personal life, but was shot from ambush en route in the mountainous region of
Berruecos, near
Pasto, in the south of Colombia, on
June 4 1830.
The details of the murder remain unclear, as there are several different theories available. One of the older and more documented at the time would consider
José MarÃa Obando as the person who ordered the assassination, and one of the alleged assassins was later executed for his apparent role. Later and less documented versions would implicate several different (or additional) individuals, such as
Juan José Flores,
AgustÃn Gamarra,
Francisco de Paula Santander or
Casimiro Olañeta, among others.
Some have argued that the assassination of Sucre was intended to leave BolÃvar without a clear successor. Sucre represented, according to historian Tomas Polanco Alcantara, "the indispensable compliment to Simón BolÃvar". When the news of Sucre's death arrived at BolÃvar's home in Santa Marta it affected his illness greatly, and he is remembered as saying, "Se ha derramado, Dios excelso, la sangre del inocente Abel..." ("It has been spilled, God almighty, the blood of the innocent Abel"), when told of the assassination. Moreover, the Liberator would write of his dear friend's death:
"If he had breathed his spirit upon the theater of victory, with his last breathe he would have given thanks to heaven for having given him a glorious death; but cowardly murdered in a dark mountain, he leaves his fatherland the duty of persecuting this crime and of adopting measures that will curb new scandals and the repetition of scenes as lamentable and painful as this." (Gaceta de Colombia, July 4, 1830).
The department of Sucre in Colombia, and the city of
Sucre in
Bolivia were named after him, as well as the former currency of
Ecuador, the
sucre and the province of Venezuela in which he was born, Cumaná, now known as the state of
Sucre. Some of his
descendants in Venezuela have followed in his military and political footsteps
*
biography and links to related events provided by the Ministry of National Defense of Ecuador*
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