Manuel Carlos María Francisco Piar Gómez (April 28, 1774 – October 16, 1817) was General-in-Chief of the army fighting Spain during the Venezuelan War of Independence.

The son of Fernando Alonso Piar y Lottyn, a Spanish merchant seaman of Canarian origin [1] and María Isabel Gómez, a Dutch woman born to an Afro-Venezuelan father and a Dutch mother in Willemstad, Curaçao, Piar grew up as a humble quadroon subject to the discriminating limits imposed by the social norms of colonial times.

By 1810 his military experience and his desire for independence from the colonial governments put him at the service of the incipient Venezuelan rebellion against Spain.

Back in Venezuela in 1813 as an army Colonel, he successfully defended Maturín and helped liberate the eastern part of the country from Spanish forces.

On April 11 his forces achieved a major victory over those commanded by Spanish General Miguel de la Torre at the Battle of San Félix.

Few days after Piar seize the Capuccine missions of Guayana releasing Tumeremo, the Spanish survivors were imprisoned and sentenced to death.

In what is one of the independence struggle's darkest episodes, Bolívar ordered Piar arrested and tried for desertion, insubordination, and conspiring against the government.

In a puzzling moment, Bolívar, who had decided against witnessing the execution, heard the shots from inside his nearby office and said in tears, "He derramado mi sangre" (I have spilled my blood).