Antonio Ricaurte Antonio Ricaurte ( June 10 , 1786 in Villa de Leyva , Colombia – March 25 , 1814 in San Mateo , Venezuela ) was a patriot of the Independence of Colombia and Venezuela and captain of Bolívar ' s army . He is remembered as the martyr of the Battle of San Mateo , where , in a heroic action , he blasted an enemy stronghold by immolating himself . Early life . Antonio Ricaurte was born into a family with a military tradition . He was the son of Esteban Ricaurte and María Clemencia Lozano , who was the daughter of Jorge Lozano de Peralta , Marquis of San Jorge , renowned collaborator of the Revolt of the Comuneros of 1781 against the rule of the Spanish Crown . He studied at the San Bartolomé School in Bogotá between 1799 and 1804 , and later married Juana Martínez Camacho , niece of patriot Joaquín Camacho , who mentored him into the colonial bureaucracy and through whose influence Ricaurte was appointed chamber scribe and secretary of the Accounts Tribunal of the Viceroyalty of Nueva Granada . Early military career . He participated in the revolutionary acts of July 20 , 1810 , in Bogotá , as a rebel against the colonial regime ; for his bold performance , his comrades gave him the nickname " El Chispero " ( " the spark lighter " ) . The commanders of the revolution entrusted him with the mission of keeping watch over the Viceroy Antonio Amat y Borbón at the Accounts Tribunal . When the patriot militias were organized , Ricaurte was incorporated to the infantry battalion of the National Guard , with the rank of lieutenant . During the first years of the United Provinces of New Granada , when a division between centralists and federalists occurred , Ricaurte supported Antonio Nariño and the centralists and fought on their side in the first civil war of New Granada . He fought the battle of Alto de la Virgen in Ventaquemada , where his troops were defeated on December 2 , 1812 . Subsequently , on January 9 , 1813 , he participated in the battle of San Victorino in Santafé , which gave the triumph to the centralists . War of Independence . In 1813 he was recruited in the army of New Granada under the then brigadier Simón Bolívar , to fight for the liberty of Venezuela , in what is known as the " Admirable Campaign . " In this first " Liberating Army , " he fought at the battles of La Grita ( April 13 ) , Carache ( June 19 ) , Niquitao ( July 2 ) , and Taguanes ( July 31 ) among others . Battle of San Mateo . In 1814 a series of battles between patriots and royalists took place in a region called " Valles de Aragua " ( Valleys of Aragua ) , in what is now Venezuela . The main house of the San Mateo estate , property of Simón Bolívar , was placed under the custody of Ricaurte and a small troop of fifty soldiers . During the royalists ' attack , the army under the royalists ' Second Commander Francisco Tomás Morales took hold of most of the estate , including the main house , which was used as the principal ammunition depot . Realizing how the battle of San Mateo would be lost if the main house remained in the hands of the royalists , Captain Ricaurte ordered his men to leave and lit a barrel of gunpowder inside one of the ammunition storage facilities of the main house , thus killing himself and a large number of the royalist troops who were readily occupying the precincts . During the momentary disorder which followed the explosion , Bolívar seized the opportunity and launched an attack to regain control of the main house and later the whole of the estate . The Battle of San Mateo ended with the resounding triumph of the patriots ' army . It was later estimated the royalists lost more than ten times as many soldiers as the patriots during the battle . Legacy . Antonio Ricaurte was a fervent freemason and to date the Lodge of Zulia State , Venezuela , is named in his honor . Ricaurte Municipality in Cojedes is named for him . Captain Ricaurte ' s heroic action is also remembered in the last verse of Colombia ' s National Anthem :