Simon Bolivar one of th emost ambitious art activists of the XIXth century, had a life of privilege, like most latin american conceptual artists today.  In 1807 he became part of the resistance movement that proclaimed independence in 1910, but that was a short lived rebellion and the spanish took over again shortly after. Bolivar escaped and wrote his manifiesto de Cartagena, where he had escaped from the spanish. He got in control of the liberation army in 1813 in New Graada and invaded Venezuela in 1814. He entered merida in 1914 and was proclaimed as El libertador. Venezuela was liberated a second time. Things got hairy again when he tried to free Colombia and he was expelled again, this time apparently completely defeated, in 1815 to Jamaica. In 1816, with haitian help, he captured angostura  and in 1821 formed the Gran Colombia and liberated Ecuador in 1822. He managed to free Peru in 1824 and in 1825 the country of Bolivia was created in his honor.

Nevertheless, Bolívar had great difficulties maintaining control of the vast Gran Colombia. During 1826, internal divisions had sparked dissent throughout the nation and regional uprisings erupted in Venezuela, thus the fragile South American coalition appeared to be on the verge of collapse.

Bolívar called for a constitutional convention at Ocaña during April 1828.

He had seen his dream of eventually creating an American Revolution-style federation between all the newly independent republics, with a government ideally set-up solely to recognize and uphold individual rights, succumb to the pressures of particular interests throughout the region, which rejected that model and allegedly had little or no allegiance to classical liberal principles.

For this reason, and to prevent a break-up, Bolivar wanted to implement in Gran Colombia a more centralist model of government, including some or all of the elements of the Bolivian constitution he had written (which included a lifetime presidency with the ability to select a successor, though this was theoretically held in check by an intricate system of balances).

This move was considered controversial and was one of the reasons why the deliberations met with strong opposition. The convention almost ended up drafting a document which would have implemented a radically federalist form of government which would have greatly reduced the powers of the central administration.

Unhappy with what would be the ensuing result, Bolívar's delegates left the convention. After the failure of the convention due to grave political differences, Bolívar proclaimed himself dictator on August 27, 1828 through the "Organic Decree of Dictatorship".

He considered this as a temporary measure, as a means to reestablish his authority and save the republic, though it increased dissatisfaction and anger among his political opponents. An assassination attempt in September 1828 failed.

Although he emerged physically intact, this nevertheless greatly affected Bolívar. Dissident feelings continued, and uprisings occurred in New Granada, Venezuela and Ecuador during the next two years.

Bolivar finally resigned his presidency in 1830, making his famous claim that “latin america is ingobernable. Whoever tries to make democracy in Latin america is plowing the sea”.