Caudillo Caudillo ( ; ; Old Spanish : " cabdillo " , from Latin " capitellum " , diminutive of " caput " " head " ) usually describes a political - military leader at the head of an authoritarian power . The term translates into English as " leader " or " chief " , or more pejoratively as " warlord " , " dictator " or " strongman " . " Caudillo " was the term used to refer to the charismatic populist leaders among the people . " Caudillos " have influenced a sizable portion of the history of Latin America . The term originally referred to military power : " Indíbil and Mandonio " , Viriathus , Almanzor ( sometimes in the modern historiography ) , Don Pelayo and other fighters of the Reconquista , even Simón Bolivar , Francisco Franco , Juan Perón etc . , but in Latin America another sense has developed : the caudillo lawyer and politician Jorge Eliécer Gaitán was honored with the title " Caudillo of The Colombian People " ( and other nuances with a significance mostly demagogic ) and even without state responsibilities like " cacique " in Spain and oligarchical – plutocratic power . Origin . The related caudillismo is a cultural phenomenon that first appeared during the early 19th century in revolutionary South America , as a type of militia leader with a charismatic personality and enough of a populist program of generic future reforms to gain broad sympathy , at least at the outset , among the common people . Effective " caudillismo " depends on a personality cult . The root of " caudillismo " lies in Spanish colonial policy of supplementing small cadres of professional , full - time soldiers with large militia forces recruited from local populations to maintain public order . Militiamen held civilian occupations but assembled at regular times for drill and inspection . Their salary from the Crown was a token ; their reward was in prestige , primarily because of the " fuero militar " ( " military privilege " ) , that exempted them from certain taxes and obligatory community work assignments ( compare the feudal corvée ) , and more significantly , exempted them from criminal or civil prosecution . Away from colonial capitals , the militias were at the service of the " criollo " landowners . Leadership . Charismatic image . Typically , the caudillos took it upon themselves to attain power over society and place themselves as its leader . Caudillos were capable of commanding large numbers of people and holding the attention of large crowds with growing excitement . In the late Roman Republic men like Gaius Marius along with his army of devoted scholars were populist commanders who had strong personal ties with their soldiers , and imagery of revived Roman values is often brought to bear in support of " caudillismo . " A similar phenomenon in Italy from the 13th to the 16th century repeatedly brought to power the " condottieri " , the charismatic leader of a band of mercenaries , when institutions of power temporarily failed . Gaining of support . In the upheavals of the decades of revolution and its aftermath , leaders who were able to draw to themselves bands of loyal followers and keep them well armed and otherwise well cared for could assume the title of " general . " Caudillos began to attain this power in the course of the Spanish American wars of independence , where the militias did much of the fighting and earned a heroic reputation . The caudillos used their small armed bands to overthrow the vulnerable newly independent states in South America . These caudillos were not always welcome , but they were not publicly condemned either . Some were large landowners ( " hacendados " ) who sought to secure their private interests , but more typically they began as vigilantes keeping the local peace for the hacienda , then gained independence of action and developed an anti - oligarchic public stance and finished by supporting an acquiescent establishment that included the Catholic Church . Government structure . Since the caudillo typically held power by controlling a patronage network that brooked no rival structure , some caudillos took up an anti - clerical stand . Many of the caudillos used their newly gained power , which was unchecked because it was extra - constitutional , to promote their own wealth and interests . At the height of " caudillismo " , as in Venezuela , the national army was rendered superfluous by the personal armies of the caudillos : in 1872 Venezuela ' s federal troops were dismissed entirely .