THE RACIAL LEGACY OF THE ENLIGHTENMENT IN SIMON BOLIVAR'S POLITICAL THOUGHT

This article offers a critical complement to Diego von Vacano's differential characterization of Bolivar's political thought and his understanding of race through a comparative analysis between Bolivar's views and those of certain philosophers of the Enlightenment. Indeed, von Vacano argues that Bolivar's contributions to republican theory have traditionally been ignored by the Anglo-American tradition. Though von Vacano is right in underscoring that Bolivar's political thought deserves more attention since it contains valuable contributions that stand in "contradistinction to prevalent discourses in European and American intellectual history", this article argues that, if we reconstruct the genealogy of Bolivar's political thought by tracing it back to Montesquieu and Rousseau, it turns out to be very different in some respects from the views voiced in European discourses, but is also bears the imprint of certain racist assumptions and biases. This article also offers a brief diagnosis of the tensions that are found in Bolivar's political thought.