Alexandre Petión: Example of Courage and Struggle for Peoples' Freedom (+Christmas)

On April 2, 1770, Alexandre Petión was born in the city of Port-au-Prince, leader of the cause of Haitian independence and the first president of this nation who became, under his command, the first “Black Republic” to declare his freedom and the second in the American continent.

This Haitian hero adopted the pseudonym Petión in honor of Petión de Villeneuve, who was a member of the Convention and the Society of Friends of Blacks, after being sent to France where he studied. Returning to his native island, he participated between 1798 and 1799 in the campaign of expulsion of the British and the Spanish.

After his participation in several decisive battles for independence, including the fight against the French who tried to betray the independence cause, Petión rose to the first judiciary of the Haitian nation in 1807, when he was elected by the nascent senate of the Republic of Haiti.

From this position, he founded the Petión Lyceum in Port-au-Prince. In 1816, he was proclaimed president for life and drafted a model constitution for the Republic, establishing the basis for the recognition and independence of Haiti.

This distinguished Haitian revolutionary was decisive for the emancipatory feat promoted by the Liberator Simon Bolivar, who after the fall of the Second Republic, went into exile in Jamaica from where he was called by Petión to attend the Haitian territory, where he informed him of his decision to support the South American cause on the condition that the abolition of slavery be decreed.

253 years after his birth, Venezuelans remember this distinguished fighter for the freedom of peoples, and just as the noble people of Petión did yesterday, the sons of Bolivar continue to give their unconditional support to the battered Haitian people who refuse to perish with force as the old and new empires intend.

Mazo News Team