Bolivian Declaration of Independence
He then asked the Santa Victoria cavalry squadron to stand down at once, leaving the city's entire garrison of 800 men in the hands of the independents.
[1] Lieutenant Colonel Pedro Arraya and troopers from the Santa Victoria and American Dragoons cavalry squadrons went to Chayanta, where they also pledged their support to the Patriot cause in La Paz.
In Vallegrande, the Second Battalion of the Infantry Regiment Fernando VII (with 200 men) also rebelled, deposing Brigadier General Francisco Javier Aguilera on 26 January.
On 29 January 1825, General José Miguel Lanza (coming from nearby rural zones known as the Republiqueta de Ayopaya) took the city of La Paz and declared the independence of the provinces of Upper Peru.
On 6 February, Field Marshal Sucre - at the head of the Liberation Army - crossed the Desaguadero River, which was the border with Peru, and entered La Paz the next day.
Royalist general Pedro Antonio Olañeta stayed in Potosí, where he was welcomed late in the month by soldiers of the "Union" Infantry Battalion coming from Puno under the command of colonel José María Valdez.
Olañeta abandoned Potosí on 28 March, just before the independent vanguard led by Arralla advanced to liberate the rich mining town.
At this point, the majority of royalist troops of Upper Peru refused to continue fighting against the powerful army of Sucre and switched allegiances.
On 7 April, Sucre received an official letter sent by Álvarez de Arenales from Mojo (near Tupiza), informing him of the commission he had been given by the government in Buenos Aires on 8 February to treat (negotiate) with the realista leaders in the provinces of Upper Peru to end the war: "...on the basis that they need to remain at complete liberty to agree on what best suits their interests and government."
However, the destiny of the new republic was subject to three possibilities: Even though the governments of Buenos Aires and Peru recognized this third alternative, Bolívar understood that to encourage at that moment an act of sovereignty of this nature—conspiring against the interests of Gran Colombia—as the territory of the Royal Audience of Quito could expect the same treatment as Charcas.
The General Constituent Congress of Buenos Aires, by degree on 9 May 1825, declared that "although the four departments of Upper Peru have always belonged to this state, it is the will of the general constituent congress that they remain at full liberty to decide their fate, as they believe will suit their interests and their happiness," clearing the way for the independence of Upper Peru as an independent entity.
Finally, the president of the Assembly - José Mariano Serrano - and a commission wrote the "Act of Independence", which bears the date 6 August 1825 in honor of the 1st anniversary of the Battle of Junín won by Bolívar in Peru, and a few days before the 16th anniversary of the events of 1809, whose introduction states as follows: "The world knows that Upper Peru has been on the American continent, the altar on which was spilled the first blood of the free and the land where the last of the tyrants lays.
By the time Bolívar got the news of the decision, he felt flattered by the young nation, but until then he hadn't accepted willingly Upper Peru's fate as an independent republic because he was worried about its future, due to Bolivia's location in the center of South America; this, according to Bolívar, would create a nation that would face many future wars, which curiously did happen.
The same scene repeated when the Liberator arrived to Oruro, then to Potosí and finally to Chuquisaca, where he received full honors by Armed Forces formations as he formally took over the office of Commander in Chief, and met with Sucre and the rest of cabinet.
As these represented a significant part of Imperial Spain, it lost its historic territory to the screams of war for the independence of ancient Charcas (Upper Peru).
