CARLOS MANUEL PIAR - A GREAT CURASALENO KILLED FOR WANTING RACIAL EQUALITY FOR AFRO-CURASALENOS!

CARLOS MANUEL PIAR - A GREAT CURASALENO KILLED FOR WANTING RACIAL EQUALITY FOR AFRO-CURASALENOS!

HISTORY LOST

MANUEL CARLOS PIAR 
(1774-1817)

Carlos Manuel Piar was a military officer in The Venezuelan war for independence against Spanish rule, General Manuel Carlos Piar exemplified both the struggle for independence against Spain and his fight against Spanish and Dutch colonial dominance in the racial caste system in the colonial Dutch Caribbean Island of Curacao and in colonial South America.

Piar was born in Willemstad, Curaçao on the 24th of April 1774 to a mixed race Dutch Euro-Caribbean Curasaleno mulatto mother; Maria Isabel and Fernando Piar Lottyn; a merchant seaman, of Canarian origin. Two (2) weeks shy of his 24th birthday, he married María Martha Boom.

Piar grew up of humble origin and belonging to the caste of the "pardos", he had a difficult education imposed by the class limitations of colonial society. However; this did not prevent him from achieving self-taught education, a solid culture, that was recognized by his contemporaries. He was able to speak several languages, among which were French, Dutch, Spanish and English.

At the age of 10 years old, Piar went to La Guaira with his mother, but had to return shortly thereafter to Curaçao, and he would not return until the outbreak of the Revolution in 1810. 

At the age of 23 years old, Piar participated in La Guaira; "Conspiracy of Gual and Spain".

At the age of 30, Piar enlisted in the National Guard, fought the English (UK aka Britain) on Curaçao. At 33 Piar was in Haiti, where he helped in the Haitian Revolution. 

By the early years of the 19th Century he became increasingly interested in Latin American independence struggles which promised both freedom from Spain and racial equality in Curacao from Netherland. In 1810, Piar moved to Venezuela and was immediately offered the post of second lieutenant in the revolutionary army.

In the events of April 19th, 1810, in which the Caracas junta; of which he was a part; dismissed Captain General Emparán, and he began his military career in the Venezuelan Navy. He had a meteoric career start, much to the point that the following year he was made commander of a gunboat. 

On March 26th, 1812, Piar participated in the battle of Sorondo, in the waters of the Orinoco.

After the capitulation of General Francisco de Miranda , in 1812, Piar had to flee to the island of Trinidad. There, with the rank of Colonel, he was one of the military commanders who signed the Chacachacare Act and undertook an expedition aimed at liberating Venezuela; the expedition landed in Güiria in January 1813. Under the command of General Santiago Mariño, he participated in the Cumaná campaign. He was in charge of the defense of Maturín, who succor victoriously before the attacks of Governor Lorenzo Fernandez de la Hoz, Remigio Bobadilla, Antonio Zuazola and Domingo de Monteverde.

Once the war ended in eastern Venezuela, Piar returned to his duties as a sailor and organized a squadron with which he carried out the blockade of Puerto Cabello, in 1813. Already with the rank of Brigadier General, he fought annually next in the provinces of Cumaná, Barcelona and Caracas. On October 16, 1814 he suffered a heavy defeat at El Salado at the hands of José Tomás Boves .

He took part in the expedition of Los Cayos, in the naval combat of Los Frailes. On September 27, 1816, he defeated Francisco Tomás Morales at the Battle of El Juncal; from there he marched towards Guayana, where he initiated the liberation operations of said province.

Four years after arriving in Venezuela, Piar was again promoted, this time to aide of revolutionary general Santiago Mariño. Displays of his military prowess in battle soon caught the attention of the rebel leader Símon Bolívar, and Piar was subsequently elevated to the position of general in charge of the revolutionary stronghold of Maturín in 1816, at the age of 42.

As an opponent of the Spanish system of racial distinctions and an ardent loyalist to the revolutionary cause in South America, General Piar incorporated Bolívar’s philosophy of “War to the Death.” He won important battles against the Spanish at Juncal (September 1816) and San Felix (May 1817). In the battle at Juncal his outnumbered forces overcame a Spanish attack. At San Felix Piar’s “War to the Death” philosophy exemplified his capacity for brutality in battle. Using arms and supplies taken from Spanish monks whom he later massacred in the Caroní River territory, Piar’s campaign at San Felix ended with his forces killing the entire Spanish force that opposed his troops.

At the beginning of 1817 he established the city of Angostura and on May 12 of that year he was promoted to General in Chief of the Army, after the Cariaco Congress on May 8th, 1817, dismissed Simón Bolívar as its sole leader. 

Piar organized a revolt against the racial caste system of the Dutch and Spaniards, that revolutionary leaders, despite earlier promises, was not able to topple and dismantle. His confrontations with the Simon Bolivar, led him to request his withdrawal, which was granted on June 30th 1817.  Moving back to Maturín, Piar gathered black and mulatto troops for a push against Bolívar’s army and according to lost records, his next move was to carry the fight to Curacao to liberate the island of Dutch rule and bring racial equality to the small dutch colony that was about 59 miles off the shore of Venezuela and his original natal "birth" place.

According to lost records, Carlos Manuel Piar was lured into a "Dutch trap" that lead him to Guyana; where he believed he would find support among the army to confront Bolivar. As a result Carlos Manuel Piar was captured in Aragua de Maturín on September 26th 1817 by General Manuel Cedeño, who took him to Angostura.

On October 15th, 1817 a Council of War, commandeered by Venezuelan Simon Bolivar; sentenced General Piar to death and accused him of: 

• Insubordination, 
• Desertion, 
• Sedition and 
• Conspiracy. 

On October 16th, 1817, at high noon, Carlos Manuel Piar; was militarily executed by shooting him in front of the western wall of the cathedral of Angostura.

According to history lost, there ended the revolution of Curacao from Dutch colonial rule and racial equality; before it ever even started!

REFERENCE:

1. http://www.mcnbiografias.com/piar-manuel-carlos
2. Escamilla, L. (2009, August 18) Manuel Carlos Piar (1782-1817). Retrieved from https://www.blackpast.org/global-african-history/piar-manuel-carlos-1782-1817
3. http://lkkk.link/leaders-of-curacao-old

SOURCE:
George Washington Crichfield, American Supremacy: The Rise and Progress of the Latin American Republics and Their Relations to the United States Under the Monroe Doctrine (New York:  Brentano’s, 1908); J.A. Rogers and John Henrik Clarke, ed., World’s Great Men of Color, Volume II (New York:  Simon and Schuster, 1996).

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