 Like the Patriarch in García Márquez 's The Autumn of the Patriarch , Bolívar was an absolute dictator . The Patriarch is never identified by name ; Bolívar , too , is identified chiefly by his title . Bolívar also invites comparison with Colonel <unk> <unk> in One Hundred Years of Solitude : both characters believe the wars they have <unk> have been fruitless and overwhelming , and both face numerous attempts on their lives , but eventually die of natural causes . In his belief that life is controlled by fate , the General resembles <unk> in One Hundred Years of Solitude and Santiago <unk> in Chronicle of a Death <unk> . 
