Rafael José Urdaneta y Faría (Maracaibo, Venezuela, October 24, 1788 – Paris, France, August 23, 1845) is a hero of the Latin American wars of independence in several countries in northern South America.
Urdaneta was born in the province of Maracaibo in Venezuela to an elite family of Spanish descent. Prior to the independence war he was a student of Latin and philosophy, and a pay officer for the viceregal troops in Bogotá, New Granada.
After th...
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Rafael José Urdaneta y Faría (Maracaibo, Venezuela, October 24, 1788 – Paris, France, August 23, 1845) is a hero of the Latin American wars of independence in several countries in northern South America.
Urdaneta was born in the province of Maracaibo in Venezuela to an elite family of Spanish descent. Prior to the independence war he was a student of Latin and philosophy, and a pay officer for the viceregal troops in Bogotá, New Granada.
After the establishment of a junta in Caracas, Urdaneta joined its military in the fight against royalist areas. After years of service to the patriotic cause, y he became one of Simón Bolívar's closest collaborators and was promoted to general in the republican army.
Having served as Secretary of the Military and Defense and a senator on numerous occasions in Gran Colombia (a union which included today's Venezuela, Colombia and Ecuador), Urdaneta notably took control of the presidency in September 1830, hoping, in part, of having saving the country...
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