Angostura Debates What Independence Should Become

In February 1819, delegates assembled in the settlement of Angostura along the Orinoco River to establish a national legislature for the reconstituted Republic of Venezuela. Convened by Simon Bolivar during the ongoing South American wars of independence, the meeting represented the second legislative congress in Venezuela's republican history, following the assembly of 1811. Because Royalist forces continued to hold substantial territory, voting had taken place only in patriot-held regions of southern Venezuela and on Margarita Island. Twenty-six representatives had been chosen, largely in elections held in military camps, and the assembly was formally installed on February 15 with deputies from provinces including Caracas, Barcelona, Barinas, Guayana and Margarita, later joined in July 1819 by representatives from Casanare, the only liberated province of neighboring New Granada.

The delegates from New Granada were selected from among exiles fighting beside the Venezuelan forces. At the opening session on February 15, Bolivar delivered his Address at Angostura, presenting his vision for the emergent state. His proposals drew inspiration from disparate political traditions, including British parliamentary institutions and classical antiquity. Bolivar argued for a strong executive capable of preserving unity while government remained accountable within a constitutional order. His later proposals for a life presidency should not be projected uncritically onto every stage of these debates. He also urged the creation of a hereditary senate modeled on the British House of Lords, alongside a fourth moral branch of government loosely patterned after the ancient Athenian Areopagus.