For these reasons Venezuela has never k
a free and reasonable election and the government has fallen into the
hands of men, either opposed to the cause, weak or immoral. Partisan
spirit decided everything and, consequently, it disorganized us more
than circumstances did. Our divisions, and not the Spanish Army,
brought us back to slavery."
Summarizing the causes of the fall of Venezuela, he attributed it in
the first place to the nature of its constitution; secondly, to the
discouragement of the government and people; thirdly, to the opposition
to the establishment of a regular military organization; fourthly, to
earthquakes and superstitions strengthened by those calamities, and fifthly
and lastly to
"the internal dissensions, which, in fact, were the deadly poison which
carried the country to its doom."
Then he appealed with persuasive eloquence to Nueva Granada for help,
arguing that it was indispensable for Nueva Granada to reobtain the freedom
of Caracas, pointing out that as Coro, as an enemy, had been enough to
destroy the whole of Venezuela, so Venezuela as a center of Spanish
power would suffice to recover Nueva Granada for the Spanish crown. The
possession of Caracas by Spain was a danger for all Spanish America. Then
he showed the possibility of a military undertaking, starting from Nueva
Granada, and expressed his faith that thousands of valiant patriots would
join the ranks of the army of liberty as soon as it set foot in Venezuela.
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