Colombia for the new Republic. Simón Bolívar became the first President of Colombia, and Francisco de Paula Santander was made Vice President. However, the new republic was unstable and three countries emerged from the collapse of Gran Colombia in 1830 (New Granada, Ecuador and Venezuela). Colombia was the first constitutional government in South America, and the Liberal and Conservative parties, founded in 1848 and 1849 respectively, are two of the oldest surviving political parties in the Americas. Slavery was abolished in the country in 1851. Internal political and territorial divisions led to the dissolution of Gran Colombia in 1830. The so-called
Simon Bolivar Buckner Confederate soldier with the rank of lieutenant general. The following year, he visited his son, who was stationed in Texas, and toured old Mexican–American War battlefields where he had served. In 1912, his health began to fail. He died on January 8, 1914, after a week-long bout with uremic poisoning. He was buried in Frankfort Cemetery in Frankfort, Kentucky. Simon Bolivar Buckner Simon Bolivar Buckner (April 1, 1823 – January 8, 1914) was an American soldier and politician who fought in the United States Army in the Mexican–American War and in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War.