 Bolívar 's fate is known from the beginning , and García Márquez constantly uses images which foreshadow this ending . For instance , a clock stuck at seven minutes past one , the exact time of the General 's death , appears repeatedly in the novel . This sense of fate is introduced in the epigraph , which comes from a letter written by the historical Bolívar to General Santander on August 4 , 1823 : " It seems that the devil controls the business of my life . " As Palencia @-@ Roth points out , the word used for devil here is demonio rather than the more familiar diablo . Demonio derives from the Greek word daimon , which can equally mean divine power , fate , or destiny . Accordingly , the General succumbs to his fate and accepts his death as destiny . 
