Just as had occurred during the American Revolution, the revolutions in South America split loyalists who continued to support the Spanish monarchy and those who wanted independence. To stem the intense infighting and conflict that frequently resulted, Bolívar became a temporary dictator in Venezuela, Peru, and president of the newly-formed Gran Colombia. Read this article, which describes the power dynamic between revolutionaries and royalists. How did this type of conflict impact the revolutionary movements?
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