Final Years

Simón Bolívar died on December 17, 1830, near Santa Marta, Colombia. Prior to his death, he praised his sister as possessing "much talent", so any rancor over the management of his affairs was forgotten. María Antonia, her sister Juana, and the three children of their late brother Juan Vicente --- Juan, Felicia, and Fernando - were named heirs in his will. María Antonia and Juana received two-thirds of his estate and his niece and nephews the remaining one third.64  After Bolívar's death, María Antonia retired to her estate at Macarao, but scandals tarnished her name. In 1833, she was accused of forging a deed of gift from her late brother for 30,000 pesos in an attempt to defraud her sister Josefa. When María Antonia refused to pay the agent 250 pesos for the transaction, the fraud was discovered, but, in the end, the charges were dropped. In 1836, she became enamored of a young creole to whom she gave 8,000 pesos. They quarreled, and she accused him of robbing her. He was sent to jail, but when their letters became public he was acquitted and their affair became common knowledge.65 María Antonia's last deed for her brother was to arrange the return of his remains to the Chapel of the Holy Trinity in Caracas as per his will, but she died on October 7, 1842, before this was accomplished.66