Four years before his death on December 17th 1830 at the age of 47 in Santa Marta, now in modern day Colombia on the Caribbean coast, the Liberator of South America from the Spanish Empire, Simon Bolivar, made the following prophesy:
"The United States of North America are destined by providence to plague America with misery in the name of freedom"
For something said in 1826, almost 170 years ago, it could not have been more accurate. Bolivar sensed from his dealings with the US at that time what the future held for the newly formed independent countries of the continent. He also saw it in light of the 1823 Monroe Doctrine which made it legal for the US to invade any country south of the Rio Grande and to ensure that "America is for the Americans" - in other words the Americas are for North Americans and no one else in the western hemisphere. Cental and South America would never belong to the people who inhabited them if the United States had their way. The US only nominally recognized these countries independence from Spain several years after Spain itself had recognized it!
