On March 31, Venezuela commemorates the 202 years of the Les Cayes expedition to Haiti (1815), undertaken by Liberator Simón Bolívar to obtain Haiti's help and continue its struggle for independence and freedom in Venezuela.

On this day, the President of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro Moros, on behalf of the Government and the Bolivarian people, "expresses to the sister Republic of Haiti its fraternal congratulations for this expedition which marked the independence and the libertarian process of Venezuela."

Historians recall that Bolivar whose army was at the time in rout, after a few months in Jamaica, eager to resume the fight, decided to seek help in Haiti. He arrived in Les Cayes December 28, 1815, then went to Port-au-Prince where January 2, 1816, he was received by President Pétion. At a second meeting, Pétion promised Bolivar his unconditional help, allowing him to recruit Haitian volunteers to resume his liberation struggle. It was during this second meeting that Bolivar asked "Do I have to let know to the posterity that Alexandre Pétion is the liberator of my country ?" Pétion repl replied, "No, promise me to abolish the slavery of the blacks where you will command."

Note that the late Commander Hugo Chávez on January 17, 2010, evoking the independence of Venezuela, had not hesitated to describe as "author of our freedom" Alexandre Pétion.

Maduro points out that President Pétion "thanks to his revolutionary spirit" has provided Bolivar with essential assistance "to enable him to embark on a new stage in the liberation of Venezuela [...] This expedition is of historical importance for having allowed the liberation of the East of the country and paved the way for the final triumph of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela," concluding "The support of the brotherly people of Haiti to our independence is worthy of admiration and that is why we will always have a historic debt with our Haitian brothers. "

SL/ HaitiLibre