Antonio José de Sucre, in full Antonio José de Sucre Alcalá (born February 3, 1795, Cumaná, New Granada [now in Venezuela]—died June 4, 1830, Berruecos, Gran Colombia [now in Colombia]), liberator of Ecuador and Peru, and one of the most respected leaders of the Latin American wars for independence from Spain. He served as Simón Bolívar’s chief lieutenant and eventually became the first constitutionally elected leader of Bolivia.
At the age of 15 Sucre entered the struggles for independence in Venezuela and Colombia. He displayed great skill at military tactics, and by 1820 he had become chief of staff to the Venezuelan leader of Latin American revolt against Spanish rule, Simón Bolívar. That same year he was promoted by Bolívar to the rank of general and assigned to free southern Gran Colombia (now Ecuador) from Spanish control. Leaving Colombia with a small army, Sucre marched along the coast to Guayaquil and proclaimed it a protectorate of Colombia. Then he marched to Quito, 10,000 feet (3,000 metres) above sea level, where he defeated Spanish royalist forces on May 24, 1822, at the Battle of Pichincha. Proceeding southeast, he joined his army with that of Bolívar to form a force of about 9,000 men that won the Battle of Junín in Peru on August 6, 1824. Bolívar left the rest of the campaign in the hands of Sucre, who went on to rout a 9,000-man royalist army at the Battle of Ayacucho in Peru on December 9. This victory effectively assured the independence of Peru. A few insubordinates still held Charcas in Upper Peru (now Bolivia); early in 1825 Bolívar ordered Sucre to dislodge them, which he did. Reference: http://www.britannica.com/
