En búsqueda de un punto fijo para la república. El cesarismo liberal (Venezuela-Colombia, 1810-1830)

Abstract

The liberal revolutions in Spanish America are essentially the result of the adoption of modern constitutions based on the equality of citizens. In Venezuela as well as in Colombia, the new born states declared several times the rule of dictatorship and martial law. How did patriots arrive at the proclamation of the state of exception in which the army exercised the reality of power? Is the Bolivarian Cesarism the consequence of the war, the result of the strengthening of non liberal tendencies of Liberalism, or the consequence of a resurgence of the Ancien Regime? By analysing the theme of the «fixed point», this article attempts to understand how independent elites searched to stabilize the revolution in a sustainable order, and the reasons for their failure which ultimately led to the dissolution of Gran Colombia.