Francisco de Paula Santander (1792-1840), a Colombian general and statesman, was one of the leaders of Spanish American independence. He later served as first constitutional president of the Republic of New Granada.

Francisco de Paula Santander was born on April 12, 1792, at Rosario de Cúcuta near the Venezuelan border. His family were cacao planters, members of the local gentry. When the independence movement began in 1810, he was a law student at Bogotá, but he soon left his books to join the patriot forces. Although the first independent government was crushed in 1816, Santander escaped to the eastern plains, or Ilanos, and there helped organize a base of continuing patriot resistance.

Accepting the leadership of the Venezuelan Simón Bolívar, Santander took part in the expedition that climbed the Colombian Andes, won the decisive victory of Boyacá (Aug. 7, 1819), and finally expelled the Spaniards from...