 The novel revolves around the fictionalized figure of Bolívar and includes many minor characters who are part of the General 's travelling party , whom he meets on his journey or who come to him in his memories and dreams of his past . Sometimes they are identified by particular <unk> or tied to small but significant events . They include , for instance , General José María <unk> , a member of the entourage , whose right arm was amputated after a combat wound , and who once revealed a military secret by talking in his sleep . At other times , they are <unk> for the General 's now failing powers : Fernando , for example , the General 's nephew , is " the most willing and patient of the General 's many clerks " , and the General wakes him " at any hour to have him read aloud from a dull book or take notes on urgent <unk> " . One of the least developed of the minor characters is the General 's wife , María Teresa Rodríguez del Toro y <unk> , who had died , readers are told , in mysterious circumstances shortly after their marriage . The General has " buried her at the bottom of a water @-@ tight oblivion as a brutal means of living without her " ; she only <unk> enters his memories in the book 's last chapter . According to <unk> , she is " upstaged " by Manuela Sáenz , whose later history García Márquez recounts as if she instead were the General 's widow . María Teresa 's death , however , marked the General 's " birth into history " , and he has never tried to replace her . 
