Colombia’s President Ivan Duque kicked off five years of celebrations on Tuesday to commemorate his country’s 200 years of independence from Spain.
August 7, 2019 marks the 200th anniversary Colombia’s formal independence from Spain. And on Tuesday, Duque and Vice President Marta Lucia Ramirez, rural eastern Colombian town of Pore, Casanare, for the first of the ceremonies preceding the bicentennial celebration.
It was in Pore that revolutionary generals Simon Bolivar and Francisco de Paula Santander, and the Provincial Congress of the revolution proclaimed their intentions to form a new government separate of the Spaniards in 1818.
Eight years after their initial “cry for independence” in 1810, the revolutionary army left Pore and ultimately defeated their colonial masters during the legendary Battle of Boyaca.
Duque and Ramirez unveiled the official logo of the coming years’ celebration, set to take place all over Colombia, and commemorated the beginning of the bicentennial with a speech and a parade.
Este año conmemoramos el Bicentenario de nuestra independencia. Y tú, ¿cómo sueñas a tu país en los próximos 100 años? #MásColombianoQueNunca https://t.co/1jvkZq2asn pic.twitter.com/EbvxAc4KsR
— Bicentenario Colombia (@BicentenarioCo) December 16, 2018
Duque and Martinez laid a wreath to pay homage to the “llaneros,“ the indigenous herders from Colombia and Venezuela who worked with Bolivar and revolutionary forces to fight Spanish colonization.