Ayacucho: Victory over Oppression and Treason

Published at: 09/12/2024 12:11 PM

The Battle of Ayacucho commanded by the Venezuelan general Cuman és, Antonio José de Sucre, under the direction of the Liberator Simon Bolivar, was executed on December 9, 1824, on the Ayacucho plateau , in the Peruvian highlands, 3500 m high. There, the patriotic weapons were filled with glory and won a great triumph that meant the independence of Peru and with it, the expulsion from its territory, of the largest and most undefeated Spanish army in South America. Ayacucho sealed the liberation of America from the domination of the Spanish Empire.

It was a triumph that followed the battle of Junín, commanded by the Liberator himself, four months earlier, on August 6 , 1824, also executed in the Peruvian highlands, in the Junín plain at an altitude of 4000 m. With the battle of Junín, Bolívar opened the campaign in Peru after overcoming a disease known as Tabardillo, with which he was very serious, to the point that those who saw him thought he would die.

But it was not only the tabardillo that our Liberator had to overcome in Peru, but even more serious: the betrayal of the Peruvian rulers who had summoned him to help them and who then negotiated behind Bolívar's back with the Spaniards to make peace between them; giving Bolívar the treatment of invader and monster who wanted to appropriate Peru.

It should be remembered that the process of independence in Peru was initiated by San Martín, who found himself in very difficult circumstances to continue the war; he had no support from either Argentina or Chile, the former for political reasons and the latter for lack of economic resources, and finally he suffered a coup d'etat in Peru, so he decided to withdraw.

With the withdrawal of San Martín, the Peruvian rulers decided, themselves, to lead the war to complete independence and launched into several military actions, where they had great defeats and lost the army that had left them “The Protector of Peru”, as they called San Martín. They therefore requested the support of Argentina and Chile, which was denied them; Ribas Agüero, president of Peru, tried to avoid having to call only Bolivar; since the Peruvian oligarchy rejected the republic as a system of government, they feared social equality and the expropriations carried out by the Liberator. But only Colombia was able to give them the support.

Finally, Bolívar goes to Peru, at the request of the National Congress, in the midst of a very complicated internal situation of confrontation between the Executive and the Congress, with two presidents: Ribas Agüero, dismissed by Congress as a traitor and Torre Tagle, his successor, also a traitor; a crisis that worsened until the congress appointed Bolivar Dictator with all powers and they disbanded themselves. In that circumstance, our Liberator assumed that commitment, first because of his conviction that he could not turn back, because for him the security of Colombia lay in removing the Spaniards from Peru; besides, he considered it very difficult to get the Colombian army out of Peru without losing it, in the midst of so many betrayals.

And as if the situation were not complicated enough, another problem was added, the betrayal of the Vice President of the Republic of Colombia: Francisco de Paula Santander, who on several occasions delayed and denied the resources that the Liberator requested for the war, which was not enough for him, but he maneuvered until the Colombian Congress, just a couple of months before the battle of Ayacucho, would take away the special powers of president of the Republic in the campaign, to lead the army Colombian.

Bolívar, “the man of difficulties”, as he described himself, after overcoming the tabardillo and discarding the support of Santander, set out to organize a large army, relying on the forces that came from Colombia and recruits from the villages of the Sierra del Peru, he managed to gather 9000 men, an effort that meant: recognition of the terrain, recruitment of soldiers and their training, relying on the peoples of the Sierra to manufacture uniforms, ponchos for the cold, weapons, water, infrastructure of camps and road shelters, horses, mules, cattle for food, marches through mountain gorges where every man of cavalry carried a mule in addition to his horse, crossing the cold Peruvian Andes, in slow and painful marches. Thus, “The United Liberation Army” was born, made up of Colombians, Peruvians, Argentines and European volunteers.

After Junín, victorious, Bolívar was preparing for a new battle when he received the infamous resolution of the Colombian Congress, which removed his command over the Colombian army, the work of envy and conspiracy of those who only wanted to prevent his triumphs.

SUCRE, GENERAL COMMANDER OF THE UNITED ARMY.

The Liberator accused the coup and appointed Sucre: General Commander of the Army, and divided the army into two parts: the Sierra Army and the Costa Army. Sucre is in the Sierra where most of the Spanish army was located and Bolívar is in charge of the coast. Torre Tagle's betrayal had meant the loss of Lima, which was recovered by Bolívar on his return to the coast and in Lima he waited for the results of General Sucre's performance in the Sierra, where our general achieved a great victory that fulfilled the efforts and sacrifices of Bolívar and the Colombian army .

So the battle of Ayacucho took place in the midst of adversities caused by the betrayal of the presidents of the Peruvian government: Rivas Agüero and Torre Tagle, and that of the Colombian vice-president, Francisco de Paula Santander. The patriots had to go into battle without their greatest leader to face a professional army that was far superior and undefeated in fourteen years, and whose location on the battlefield was more favorable. They were better equipped and were about 2000 more men directly commanded by Viceroy La Serna and General Canterac.

It was a great patriotic victory, where José María Córdoba, a young man from New Granada, played a very outstanding performance, who uttered the famous phrase: “soldiers, weapons at their discretion, at the pace of victors!” , the cavalry under the command of the English general Miller had the same figure. The Irish Colonel O'Connor, in his memoirs, is credited with choosing the location where they were located for the battle.

The battle lasted just 2 hours as a result of a strategy carefully designed by General Sucre, to overcome a superior force even in those disadvantageous conditions; 4 marshals, 10 generals, 16 colonels and lieutenant generals were arrested: Canterac and Viceroy La Serna, who commanded the battle; 1800 men died, 700 wounded and nearly 2000 prisoners were arrested, Canterac was among the wounded, while 340 men died and 609 wounded on the patriot side.

Canterac, commander in chief of the Spanish army accompanied by the patriotic general La Mar, despite the realistic surrender, requested a capitulation that was generously granted to them by General Sucre in honor of the 14 years during which they were undefeated in Peru, which was carried out in accordance with the guidelines of the “Treaty for the Regularization of the War” that was signed in Trujillo.

THE GLORY OF AYACUCHO

Bolívar received the news eight days later with a letter from Sucre telling him: “My general, the war is over and the freedom of Peru is complete, I am happier to have filled out your commission than for nothing (...) As a prize for me I ask that you keep your friendship with me...” This letter reflects the heart of Sucre, his human quality, his modesty, his love and admiration for Bolívar , nothing to fade away, nor to contest for the rule of Bolivar as others did on previous occasions, he was only 29 years old. Historian Rumazo González, quoted by Luis José Acosta, says that Bolívar received the news when the food was being served and without being able to contain his emotion he jumped on the table toasting with overflowing joy.

Bolívar from his headquarters in Lima on December 25, addressed a beautiful proclamation to the United Liberation Army, which among its paragraphs reads:

“Soldiers: you have given freedom to South America, and a quarter of the world is the monument of your glory: where have you not won ? South America is covered with the trophies of your courage; but Ayacucho, similar to Chimborazo, raises his head held high above everyone.

Soldiers: Colombia owes you the glory that once again brings life, freedom and peace to Peru. La Plata and Chile also owe you immense advantages. The good cause, the cause of human rights, has won with your weapons its terrible struggle against the oppressors; so contemplate the good you have done to humanity with your heroic sacrifices.”

It also issued a Decree with several measures aimed at recognizing the army and its men, as well as the protection of the families of dead soldiers, and it also orders the construction of a monument in the Ayacucho camp, which was built 150 years later in 1974, under the nationalist and anti-oligarchic government of General Juan Velasco Alvarado.

In Bolívar's biography of the Grand Marshal of Ayacucho during his lifetime, he writes:

“The Battle of Ayacucho is the pinnacle of American glory and the work of General Sucre. Her layout has been perfect, and her execution divine. Skillful and prompt maneuvers destroyed the fourteen-year-old victors, and a perfectly constituted and cleverly commanded enemy... General Sucre is the Father of Ayacucho: he is the redeemer of the children of the sun; he is the one who has broken the chains with which Pizarro enveloped the empire of the Incas. The posterity will represent Sucre with one foot in Pichincha and the other in Potosí, carrying in his hands the cradle of Manco-Cápac and contemplating the chains of Peru broken by his sword”.

The historian, Augusto Mijares , says: “The truth is that the Peruvian campaign was not won in Junín and Ayacucho, although both actions were so brilliant. It was won in those short months when Bolívar rebuilt the strength of the Peruvian nation and formed the invincible army with which he ventured across the Cordillera Blanca.”

The other vital success that Bolívar made in support of Ayacucho's triumph was to select General Sucre to start the Southern Campaign, bringing to light a brilliant young soldier that only Bolívar, with his ability to know men, had discovered, and so in 1819 he said to O'Leary: “He is one of the best officers in the army (...) Strangely enough, his abilities are not known or suspected, I am determined to bring to light persuaded that One day it will rival me”

With the triumph of Ayacucho, Bolívar continued his march to Potosí, where in the presence of Simón Rodríguez before whom, in 1805, he had taken his oath of the Sacred Mount, this time he uttered the following words: “We have been winning from the Atlantic coast, and fifteen years of a struggle of giants (...) we have overthrown the edifice of tyranny, quietly formed in three centuries of usurpation and violence... Potosí... three hundred years the Spanish treasury”

Ayacucho is great!! , to paraphrase the Puerto Rican politician and intellectual, Eugenio María Hostos, we say with him: Ayacucho will one day cease to be glory, to be a service to humanity, it is a triumph of America against Spain, and its radical objectives have not yet been achieved, namely: the South American Confederation, the unity that guarantees that no people in our America can be overwhelmed and isolated in the fight with an empire. Ayacucho is a right and a commitment of the peoples of our America to move together towards the future.

MARIA MAGDALENA ZAMBRANO

Bolivar Insurgent Cultural Movement, Edo History Network. Bolívar

Bibliography:

Indalecio Liévano Aguirre- “Bolivar”

Luis José Acosta, “Bolivar for All.”

Augusto Mijares, “The Liberator”

Simon Bolivar 's Selected Pages, Summary of the Life of General Sucre