During his participation in a ceremony to commemorate the 177th anniversary of the death of Liberator Simón Bolívar at the National Pantheon, President Hugo Chávez voiced again his assumption that, rather than dying of tuberculosis, the Liberator was killed.

(Colombian independence hero Francisco José de Paula) "Santander did not hesitate when he was proposed to kill Bolívar," he said.

Years later "gringos started to take hold of all of this (Latin American) territory and took possession of the lands, corporations and even of peoples."

The head of state accused the United States also of "trying to claim that Bolívar sought to crown himself a king; that he meant to bring a European prince to run the government (…) The psychological war. Many people ended by believing that tale."

In his opinion, "the oligarchies of Venezuela and Colombia" covered up the circumstances under which Bolívar died.