Antonio José de Sucre, named the “Liberator of Ecuador and Peru,” was a chief lieutenant of Simon Bolívar during the wars of independence against Spain. He began his military career at the age of 15 and quickly became involved with the republican (as opposed to the royalist pro-Spanish) cause. His most famous victory came at the battle of Ayacucho, where royalist forces, expecting to face a disorganized and scattered republican army, foolishly spread their forces thin and charged Sucre. Sucre’s soldiers held firm, and destroyed the royalist’s flanking maneuver before it could get into position. The battle secured the independence of Peru and highland South America.

Sucre then became the first elected leader of upper Peru – what is now Bolivia, and defeated several pro-Spanish attempts to retake the silver-rich region. But after victory, local generals fell to fighting amongst themselves. Sucre’s attempt to appropriate Catholic land for the new nation in particular offended conservative elements in South America. He was ambushed and assassinated in 1830, as a part of a rival’s scheme to create an independent Ecuador.