The most important members of the Liberal Party of Guatemala and liberal enemies of the conservative regime moved to Los Altos, who no longer had to emigrate to El Salvador, having a pro-liberal state practically in his country agglutinated [2] Interim Governor Valenzuela, in office after Gálvez had excused himself, could not do anything to stop this and the Central American Federation approved the sixth state on 5 June 1838 with a provisional junta formed by Marcelo Molina Matta, José M. Gálvez and José Antonio Aguilar, with Agustín Guzmán as Army commander in chief.

[3] In December 1838, Molina Matta was formally elected as Governor of Los Altos and set to work immediately on developing the roads and infrastructure of a port on the Pacific Ocean and to improve his relationship with the federal government in El Salvador.

Carrera defeated General Agustin Guzman when the former Mexican officer tried to ambush him and then went on to Quetzaltenango, where he imposed a harsh and hostile conservative regime for liberals.

[10] Finally, General Guzmán, and the head of state of Los Altos, Marcelo Molina, were sent to the capital of Guatemala, where they were displayed as trophies of war during a triumphant parade on February 17, 1840; in the case of Guzman, he was shackled, still with bleeding wounds, and riding a mule.

The new liberal regime allied itself with the Aycinena family and swiftly passed a law where they emphatically ordered to execute Carrera if he dared to return to Guatemalan soil.

[15] In the meantime, on the eastern part of Guatemala, the Jalapa region became increasingly dangerous; former president Mariano Rivera Paz and rebel leader Vicente Cruz were both murdered there after trying to take over the Corregidor office in 1849.

[15] Upon learning that officer José Víctor Zavala had been appointed as corregidor in Suchitepéquez, Carrera and his hundred jacalteco bodyguards crossed a dangerous jungle infested with jaguars to meet his former friend.

When they met, Zavala not only did not capture him, but agreed to serve under his orders, thus sending a strong message to both liberal and conservatives in Guatemala City, that realized that they were forced to negotiate with Carrera, otherwise they were going to have to battle on two fronts: Quetzaltenango and Jalapa.

Guzmán could only get a short-lived truce from the revolt leaders: León Raymundo, Roberto Reyes, and Agustín Pérez; the rebels sacked Jalapa on June 3 and 4.

They were chased by Carrera and his forces on the eastern part of the country, but played their strategy well and were able to go directly to Guatemala City, leaving the Guatemalan Army still looking for them in the East.