Cristóbal Mendoza of the Republic of Venezuela. In 1813 Mendoza fled a royalist invasion and moved to Grenada, and soon after he joined Simon Bolivar's effort to liberate South America from Spanish rule. Bolivar appointed Mendoza the governor of Mérida in May 1813, and Mendoza was appointed governor of Caracas several months later. Fleeing Venezuela again in 1814 when José Tomás Boves conquered Caracas, Mendoza moved to Trinidad, where from 1819 and 1820 he was an active political writer for the "Correo del Orinoco". In 1826, Francisco de Paula Santander appointed Mendoza as Mayor of the Department of Venezuela in the empire
Congress of the People (South African political party) would diversify the political landscape and pull South Africa from being an effectively dominant-party system. COPE has attracted the support of a wide range of well-known South Africans from various sectors, including Sipho Ngwema, former head of communications for the Scorpions who is now the party's media liaison chief, and cleric Allan Boesak who ran in the 2009 election as COPE's Western Cape premier candidate. Other prominent supporters include the wife of Vusi Pikoli, the former head of the National Prosecuting Authority, and Simon Grindrod, former deputy president of the Independent Democrats. Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, former deputy president under Thabo Mbeki,