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.
The newly founded Peruvian Congress named Bolivar dictator of Peru giving him the power to organize the military. With the help of Antonio Jose de Sucre they defeated the larger Spanish army in the Battle of Junin on August 6 th, 1824 and the Battle of Ayacucho on December 9 th of the same year, consolidating the independence of Peru and Alto Peru. Alto Peru was later established as Bolivia.