Simon Bolivar

Born: Thursday, 24 July 1783
Died: Friday, 17 December 1830

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Simon Bolivar was a military leader and Freemason who lived the motto of "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity" as President of Spanish Speaking South America.

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Brother Simon Bolivar is one of the most influential known Freemasons in the history of the world. Born to an educated family in Venezuela in 1783, Simon was sent to Europe to be educated in the midst of the Napoleonic wars. It is there he encountered the Enlightenment, and it’s prime engine - Freemasonry. He was initiated into Lautaro Lodge in Cadiz, Spain. It was there he would meet many of the Masonic Brothers who would join him in liberating Latin America from Spanish tyranny.

The masonic motto of Liberty, Equality, Fraternity was flowing all over Europe with the armies of Napoleon, and Bolivar was inspired to bring the torch of the enlightenment to his native South America. Returning home in 1804, he began his illustrious career as a military hero. A great war of independence broke out in 1808, and Bolivar was at the front lines, commanding a ship, and later an army.

The war of independence had many ups and downs, retreats, and calls for aid. After almost 15 years, in 1821, Bolivar crushing the largest Spanish expeditionary force ever assembled at the battle of Carabodo, essentially ending Spanish rule in South America. Thereby, he brought his long cherished Masonic deals of representative government and individual liberty to the people. He would serve as President, or Influencer, of all of Spanish Speaking South America until his death in 1830, and received the 33rd Degree of Freemasonry in 1824, just as the last of the Spanish were being driven from the continent. Bolivar's legacy is one of liberation, and he is rightly remembered as a hero throughout South America to this day.