2016: In a Racist Act, The Portraits of Simon Bolivar were Removed from the National Assembly

Simon Bolivar was born in Caracas, Venezuela on July 24, 1783.He was a soldier who led the revolution against Spanish rule in Venezuela, Columbia, Ecuador, Peru, Panama, and Bolivia and is known as El Libertador. Bolivar is buried in the National Pantheon in Caracas. Since 1879, the national currency of Venezuela has been the Bolivar. The full official name of Venezuela is the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. This name was adopted in 1999 under the new constitution established by President Hugo Chavez.

Most historical accounts say tuberculosis killed Bolivar. But in 2010 Chavez ordered investigators to exhume his body to determine if he was poisoned. A report in 2012 said the investigation was inconclusive. A 3D image of Bolivar’s head was created using multiple scans of his skull and forensic facial reconstruction methods. Other details were added in manually- like Bolivar’s skin color, tissue thickness, and bone density. Chavez unveiled the 3-D image on July 24, 2012 saying “Venezuelans were jubilant to see Bolivar’s ‘real face’ at last”. The 3-D image was placed on Venezuela’s currency and on portraits placed in government buildings. The unveiling of the 3-D image was widely-covered by the international press (NY Times, Reuters, BBC, CNN) [1]-[4].

On January 6, 2016, the new opposition majority members of the National Assembly moved in to the Legislative Palace. Newly-elected NA President Henry Ramos Allup ordered the removal of all of the portraits of Hugo Chavez. He also said: “And take that fake Simon Bolivar, that should go too.”[5] His words were in a video that was widely-circulated on social media that same day. While the National Assembly workers were carrying out the portraits, pro-government supporters protested the action.

In a nationally-televised speech on January 15, 2016, Allup explained why the portraits of Bolivar had been removed. Allup said that the portraits made Bolivar less white than he really had been- that Bolivar’s features had been “mulaticized.”[5] His remarks were seen as racist: “He put his racist concern with the degree of Bolivar’s whiteness on display in a speech that he knew was being aired on every TV network in Venezuela.” [6]   




1.      CNN, A 3-D look at Latin American liberator, July 25, 2012

2.      Reuters, Venezuela’s Chavez unveils #D image of Hero Bolivar, July 24, 2012

3.      New York Times, Bolivar, Back and Better than Ever, July 26, 2019

4.      BBC, Chavez unveils Simon Bolivar’s Reconstructed 3-D Face, July 24, 2012

5.      New York Times, Will the Real Simon Bolivar Please Send Up?, January 13, 2016

6.      Emersberger, J and J Podur, Extraordinary Threat, Monthly Review Press, 2021.

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