In early 1814, Royalist commander José Tomás Boves had gathered a large army, composed of Llanero's, Indigenous warriors and liberated slaves.

On 28 February 1814, his first cavalry detachments arrived in the surroundings of the city of San Mateo and assaulted the trenches that defended the entrance to the valley, but the narrow terrain and the concentration of the Republican fire caused many casualties among the llaneros who were forced to retreat.

[5] The main house of the San Mateo estate, property of Simón Bolívar, was placed under the custody of Ricaurte and a small troop of fifty soldiers.

Realizing that the battle of San Mateo would be lost if the main house fell into the hands of the Royalists, Captain Antonio Ricaurte ordered his men to leave, and lit a barrel of gunpowder inside one of the ammunition storage facilities of the main house, thus killing himself and a large number of the Royalist troops which were readily occupying the precincts.

During the momentary disorder which followed the explosion, Bolívar seized the opportunity and launched an attack to regain control of the main house and later the whole of the estate.