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?
Upon her return to Venezuela, María Antonia made peace with her brother and cautiously accepted the new republican administration and leadership. She quickly abandoned her loyalty to the crown and realistically accepted the new order of things. María Antonia was a pragmatist above all and her conservative support of the king, when many were supporting the patriot cause, may have been to protect her wealth and property, and because she believed that the Spanish forces would ultimately defeat the patriot army, she felt she would then come out on the winning side. In fact, to prove her loyalty to the republican government, she cautioned Bolívar not to accept monarchical schemes that were presented to him. José Antonio Páez wanted to create an empire with Bolívar as the head and in the autumn of 1825, he sent a delegation to Peru with this offer. In a letter to Bolívar, she wrote:
. . . But always say what you said in Cumaná in 1814, that you would
be a liberator or dead. That is your true title which has raised you
above great men and will keep for you the glories that you have
acquired at the cost of so many sacrifices: hate anyone who proposes a
crown to you for he seeks your ruin. Remember Bonaparte or Iturbide and
many others you know, I am very satisfied with your way of thinking and
I believe you incapable of permitting similar things, but I cannot but
declare the feelings of my heart, because of the interest I have in
your happiness.25
Bolivar acknowledged her warning and heeded it. In a letter to Francisco Paula de Santander, Vice President of Gran Colombia, her wrote: "my sister tells me that there are three parties in Caracas, monarchists, democrats and pardocrats, that I must be the Liberator or die is her advice. This is the advice to follow even if I knew that, in doing so, all of humankind would perish".26 Bolívar was interested in María antonia's opinions, trusted them, and paid heed to her advice. He did not hesitate to quote her to his political confreres.
Simón and María Antonia Bolívar, both during and after the war for independence, had an egalitarian and an interdependent filial relationship. In the aftermath of Venezuelan independence and the absence of Bolívar as he led the independence armies in Ecuador and Peru, María Antonia kept him informed of political events, she gauged the mood of the country, and she reported what she saw and heard. She was his most trusted source and he asked her for political news as his letter of July 1825 indicated. He wrote: "Always send me news about politics and everything else, because what you tell me is most accurate".27