The name with which the biggest interclub tournament in South American football was baptized does not honor an official group or an institution, but rather the group of leaders of the independence processes of the countries of South America. The main ones were Simón Bolívar and José of San Martín, who acted in the independence process of several countries, engaged in a greater ideal of liberation, which also aimed at the formation of a great Pan-American nation. But leaders of a less warlike character are also considered liberators, such as Dom Pedro I, the Brazilian liberator, who proclaimed independence in a peaceful process, motivated more by the small quarrel he had with his father, the then king of Portugal, Dom João VI, than that properly as part of a popular ideal of liberation.
Simón Bolívar earned the nickname El Libertador after an event much more turbulent than the Grito do Ipiranga: after a period of exile in Colombia, Bolívar and his troops invaded the city of Mérida, Venezuela, on May 23, 1813, ushering in the country’s independence. A curious fact is that Venezuela, where Bolívar was born, has a bad record in the championship in honor of the heroes, the Copa Libertadores de América
READ TOO:
– Did the Vikings really come to America?
– Who discovered America before Columbus?
– Why did the lands of Spain in America become several countries?
– What were the bloodiest duels in the Libertadores?