First Upper Peru Campaign - Defeat

Defeat

The order of the Junta not to proceed to the Viceroyalty of Peru was a de facto truce that would last while not attacking Goyeneche. Castelli tried to turn the situation into a formal agreement, which would imply recognition of the Junta as a legitimate interlocutor. Goyeneche agreed to sign an armistice for 40 days until Lima was issued, and used that time to be strengthened. On 19 June, with the truce still in effect, an advanced royalist troop attacked positions at Juraicoragua. Castelli declared the truce broken and declared war on Peru.

The royalist army crossed the Desaguadero on June 20, 1811, starting the Battle of Huaqui. The Army waited near Huaqui, between the plains of Azapanal and Lake Titicaca. The patriotic left wing, commanded by Diaz Velez, faced the bulk of the royalist forces, while the center was hit by the soldiers of Pio Tristan. Many patriotic soldiers recruited at the Upper Peru surrendered or fled, and many of the recruits in La Paz switched sides during the battle. The Saavedrist Juan José Viamonte was instrumental in the defeat, by refusing to join the conflict.

Although the casualties of the Army of the North were not substantial, it was left desmoralized and disbanded. The inhabitants of Upper Peru left them and welcomed the royalists back, so the army had to quickly leave those provinces. However, the resistance of Cochabamba prevented the royalists from proceeding to Buenos Aires. Castelli moved to the post of Quirbe, and received orders to return to Buenos Aires for trial. However, upon learning of such orders they had already been replaced by others: Castelli should be confined at Catamarca, while Saavedra himself took charge of the Army of the North. Saavedra was deposed as soon as he left Buenos Aires, and confined in San Juan. The First Triumvirate, who took government by then, required Castelli to return.

Once in Buenos Aires, Castelli was in a situation of political isolation. The triumvirate and the newspaper La Gazeta accused him of defeat in Huaqui and seek punishment as deterrent. His former supporters were divided between those who joined the ideas of the Triumvirate and those no longer able to do much. Castelli suffered from tongue cancer during the long trial, which made him progressively difficult to speak, and died on October, 1812, with the trial still open.