5.21- The Third Sister

The episode traces the closing stages of the Andean campaigns in 1821–1822, focusing on the operational and personal dynamics between Simón Bolívar, Vice President Francisco de Santander, and Antonio José de Sucre. The host explains that Bolívar, who preferred military command, left civilian governance of Gran Colombia to Santander in October 1821, a division that produced continual tension as Bolívar demanded men and materiel for southern operations. Bolívar left Bogotá on December 13, 1821 with roughly 4,000 troops but was forced off his preferred sea-ferry plan by exaggerated reports of Spanish reinforcements, producing an arduous mountain march and the bloody, pyrrhic Battle of Bumbaná in April 1822 that cost some 600 casualties.