1 She and husband Cosmo Duff Gordon were accused in the press of bribing crew to row faster after 12 were saved in their boat, which was built for 40. 2  Tabloids of the day dubbed it the 'Money Boat' though a British Wreck Commissioner's inquiry would later clear the couple of wrongdoing.
Updated March 30, 2017. Simon Bolivar (1783-1830) was the greatest leader of Latin America's independence movement from Spain. A superb general and a charismatic politician, he not only drove the Spanish from northern South America but also was instrumental in the early formative years of the republics that sprang up once the Spanish had gone.
Venezuela has been characterized by the persistent presence of political and financial corruption in public administration. In 1813 and, later, in 1824, national hero Simon Bolivar felt it necessary to issue decrees defining corruption as âthe violation of the public interest.â He established the death penalty for âall public officers guilty of stealing 10 pesos or more,â including âthose judges who disobey these decrees.â