Remaining loyal to Linares for most of his administration, once the dictator had lost most support and was betrayed by his Minister of War, José María de Achá, Villegas turned on his former benefactor.

This is how I saw Villegas, through reports during his time in prison and during the journey to the gallows, proud, without affectation, calm without pretense; he had a very well-tempered soul, and perhaps that is why his philosophical ideas were daring and unshakable, as he demonstrated later.The political landscape changed in Bolivia with the fall of Córdova and the rise of Linares.

He participated in the battles of San Juan on September 15, 1862, and the assault on the barricades of La Paz on October 16 of the same year, receiving a wound in the latter engagement that incapacitated him from the early moments.

Those who did not accept the government of this leader declared themselves in perpetual insurrection, always dominated and always resurging, or went into exile.While in Peru, Villegas received the appointment of Consul in the Peruvian port of Callao, where he distinguished himself in his duties.

Both of these positions were granted by Eliodoro Camacho, who signed documents on behalf of Villegas with his name:[22][23]The President of the Republic is very pleased with the report you provide on the defeat of the rebels in Sipesipe on the 7th of this month, both because this event reveals the strength the Government has in the public opinion of the Nation, and because it expresses the inadequacy and insignificance of the revolution that comes to disturb the normal course that the country was beginning to take.

Heartily congratulating you on the favorable success you have achieved against the rebels afflicting that Department for forty days, I am pleased to repeat myself as your attentive and reliable servant.—Eliodoro Camacho—Ministry of War La Paz.— February 1, 1875.Villegas' victory at Sipesipe was important for the Government.

However, despite such a crushing victory inflicted upon the rebels, the revolution continued to spread across the country:[24]By your communication addressed to the Prefecture of Oruro, this Ministry comes to know that you vacated the Capital of that Department with the forces under your command, in the early morning of the last 29th due to the gathering of those from Cliza and Colquechaca.

In the meantime, he directs: 1st—That the incorporation of the Bolívar Squadron with the Constitutional Battalion, you take supreme command of the forces to operate immediately against the enemy, in the way most convenient to defeat them and in a manner that best ensures the success of victory.

These instructions, of a general nature, do not limit you in any way to take measures that good judgment advises in exceptional circumstances that could not be foreseen and that are left to your good sense and military expertise.—God save you.—Eliodoro Camacho.—Frías.Despite the victories achieved by the Frías administration and Villegas in different parts, riots and uprisings were growing in number, and much of the Department of Cochabamba was in turmoil, with notable and prestigious figures leading the insurgents, such as Belisario Antezana, Quintín Quevedo, and Miguel María Aguirre, who could effectively combat the forces of the then-constituted Government.

He appointed Jorge Oblitas as Secretary General and later formed his cabinet composed of the following ministers: José M. del Carpio for Foreign Relations and Government, Ignacio Salvatierra for Finance and Industry, Agustín Aspiazu for Justice, Worship, and Public Instruction, Carlos de Villegas for War;[27] these individuals mitigated the disorder in the administration".

He fired more revolver shots, injuring two soldiers, after which he received a volley and died with unparalleled courage, unfortunately in the service of a bad cause because the blood shed in defense of a tyrant is sterile.This is how Ibañez describes the initial events of the Santa Cruz revolution, illustrating the bloody nature of the uprisings that plagued Bolivia during the era of caudillismo.

[33] The next day, Dr. Ibañez summoned the people, through a public notice, to a meeting, and the document by which he was invested with political and military authority and granted the necessary powers for the situation is signed by more than 700 signatures!

2.°—All individuals who directly or indirectly participated in the revolutionary movements in the mentioned Department since October 1 of last year will be judged by verbal military tribunals and sentenced according to article 115 of the Penal Code.

3.°—The properties of the insurgents are, according to articles 18 and following of the cited Code, subject to civil liability, and both the Administrators of the Fiscal and Municipal Treasury and private citizens who have been harmed by the revolutionaries must initiate legal action to make it effective.

6 of "The Official Departmental Bulletin" published in that Capital, you have recorded in it the different administrative arrangements issued by that Chief in the form of supreme decrees, an attribution reserved exclusively for the constituted Executive Power.

His surprise is all the greater, Mr. Supreme Chief, because the aforementioned Decree is in open contradiction to the Supreme Decree sanctioned on January 19 of the current year, by which the Government declared the city of Santa Cruz under siege, where individual guarantees were suspended by this single fact, whose immediate and legal consequence founded the reason for the precepts set forth in articles 2.° and 3.°, whereby the insurgents must be judged in verbal military tribunals, and their properties are subject to civil liability for their crimes.

Granting guarantees to those who have caused so much harm to national interests is not acceptable in the face of a competent force with which you were entrusted, not only to unveil the conspiracy but also to enforce the penal sanction to which the Government subjected them by supreme determination to which you contributed with your own signature, in your capacity as a Minister of State.

For the reasons stated and to safeguard morality and the need to punish the criminals, please be ordered by the President of the Republic to give the most exact compliance with the Supreme Decree of January 19 of the current year.—I take this opportunity to reiterate to you my expressions of esteem.—God save you.—Daza.—J.

In fact, according to an anonymous source, the two men had a quite dramatic meeting:[46]Villegas and Ibañez had a long conference, after which, it was seen that the Supreme Chief, who had been a political colleague of the federal leader, withdrew with tears in his eyes, silent and sad: the two friends had embraced and cried together, both were victims: Villegas of obedience and military discipline, and Andrés Ibañez of the rigor of a law dictated by the disastrous government of Daza.The verbal Council of War sentenced them to death, and the sentence was executed.

The official document in which Villegas participated in the capture of the federalists is as follows:[47]Sir: I have the honor to address this Ministry from this point, about fifteen leagues more or less from the dividing line with the Empire of Brazil, via Mato Grosso, to inform you that in the early morning of today, the gang led by Andrés Ibañez was surprised, and he fell into our hands, as well as his accomplices Francisco Javier Tueros, José María Prado, Manuel Valverde, and seven others of lesser importance.

This fortunate circumstance that restores and ensures the empire of order throughout the territory of the Republic is mainly due to the zealous effort and hurried march that we have made from the port of Canoas, on the San Miguel River.

Upon leaving Santa Cruz, Villegas, after completing the arduous mission entrusted by Daza, addressed the inhabitants of that department in a proclamation summarizing his wishes and justifying his behavior.

[50] The news of the occupation of Antofagasta by Chilean forces on February 14, 1879, reached La Paz on the 20th of the same month; by the 23rd, many people already knew about it, although Daza did not act, for unknown reasons, until the 26th when he declared that the country was in danger.

With the loss of Pisagua, the allied army, which had regrouped in Iquique, was in a desperate situation, blocked by the Chilean fleet at sea and trapped in the middle of a desert lacking resources, cut off by the enemy who had taken the town of San Francisco.

In the entire journey of the ravine that a stream of pretty color and bad taste moistens, there are patches of alfalfa, and the last one, stopped at Cuya by the sand dunes, as happens in the valleys of Chile when entering the Pacific Ocean, forms a swampy meadow inhabited by swarms of tasty and red shrimp.

[57] Around dawn on November 18, the tired battalions laid down to sleep on the frozen sand or under the makeshift covers of boards and mats from the nitrate works scattered in the Negreiros canton.

Suddenly, shots were fired in the slope of the hill without explicit order, without an attack plan, and the Chilean batteries began to crush the lines of the allies, whose weapons were useless at such a distance.

[64] Vicuña Mackenna says of the battle: "It is true that the inexperienced Ayacucho (Lima troops) dispersed in a guerrilla near the salt flats and among the pens and mills scattered there to support the attacking columns of Colonel Lavadenz, who led the brave Espinar towards the San Francisco ridge, defended but not dominated by the cannons of the fearless Salvo".

[65] Villegas took the lead of his battalion, Illimani, and in a closed column, swept by shrapnel and shot in the back (due to the indescribable confusion in which the rear bodies entered), marched to San Francisco, whose office they occupied, organizing a second attack.

[66] The 3rd in line, placed on the plain, contributed greatly to dispersing General Villegas's column, assaulting the Bolivians from behind as they ascended because there was a moment when, mistaking the uniforms, those on the summit stopped shooting because they confused the enemy with a Chilean regiment."