Congress of Angostura: Guide to a Destiny Forged by the Power of the People

On February 15, 1819, the first Constituent Congress of Venezuela was installed in the city of Angostura, which was convened by the Supreme Chief of the Republic of Venezuela and Captain General of the Armies of Venezuela and New Granada, the Liberator Simon Bolivar, with the purpose of drafting a constitution that would build the new state of the nascent Colombian State.

“Sir. Blessed is the citizen who, under the coat of arms of his command, has summoned National Sovereignty to exercise his absolute will! I, then, count myself among the most favored beings of Divine Providence, since I have had the honor of bringing together the representatives of the people of Venezuela in this august Congress, source of legitimate authority, repository of sovereign will and arbiter of the destiny of the Nation”, were the words of Father Libertador, who was the orderly speaker of the installation of what is known today as the Congress of Angostura.

This congress marked a precedent in universal political history, for having prepared a constitutional text expanding the ideas that had marked Western constitutionalism, which were inspired by the theories of Juan Jacobo Rousseau and Montesquieu; breaking paradigms by constituting Moral Power as a fourth Power and where freedom and equality of all men were stipulated without any conditioning, regardless of their race, color or descent.

It is at this Congress that the Father of the Fatherland, making use of his keen eye and his ability to move into the future, marks the destiny for this vast land, for which we must fight until we reach it.

“Flying through the next ages, my imagination is fixed on future centuries, and watching from there, with admiration and amazement, the prosperity, the splendor, the life that this vast region has received, I feel overwhelmed and it seems to me that I already see it in the heart of the universe, extending over its extended shores, between those oceans that nature had separated, and that our Homeland brings together with long and wide channels. I already see it serving as a link, as a center, as an emporium to the human family; I see it sending to every corner of the earth the treasures that shelter its mountains of silver and gold; I see it distributing health and life through its divine plants to the suffering men of the ancient universe; I see it communicating its precious secrets to wise people who do not know how much greater the sum of lights is than the sum of the riches that nature has lavished on it. I already see her sitting on the throne of freedom, holding the scepter of justice, crowned with glory, showing the ancient world the majesty of the modern world. ”

Simon Bolivar, February 15, 1819

Mazo News Team