In late 1816, Brigadier Manuel Belgrano appointed him Lieutenant Colonel, commander of Fort Abipones in the southeast of his home province, a centre of defense against Chaco Indian attack.

He rejoined the Army of the North shortly before the Arequito mutiny, in which he was not involved, but he supported the movement's leader, Colonel Major Juan Bautista Bustos in their retreat to Córdoba Province.

From there he returned to Fort Abipones, supported by reinforcements sent by the caudillo and governor of Santa Fe Province, Lieutenant Colonel Estanislao López.

But since Aráoz assigned Santiago to a secondary role, supporters of provincial autonomy called for Ibarra's aid, and he occupied the capital.

For lack of a better choice, the rebellious legislature named him Governor on 21 March 1820 and promoted him to Colonel Major, a rank equivalent to General.

Aráoz threatened to regain the rebel province by force, and after the failure of an attempted revolution in Tucumán, in early 1821, invaded Santiago.

He evacuated the capital and surrounding countryside and closed off the water supply to the city, while conducting a guerrilla war against the invaders, who had to retire.

Then Lamadrid was attacked by an army commanded by Quiroga and Ibarra and was defeated again in July 1827 in the Battle of Rincón de Valladares.

But in December 1828, Dorrego was overthrown and executed by Colonel Major Juan Lavalle, leading returning veterans from the wars in Brazil and the Banda Oriental).

His brother Francisco Antonio Ibarra brought together 3,000 men from Santiago in Loreto Department, where he was met and defeated by Colonel Juan Balmaceda.

Several Santiago groups began a guerrilla war and expelled Deheza in April 1831, about the same time that Paz fell into the hands of Brigadier EstanislaoLópez (who, as commander in chief of the forces of the Federal Pact, at war with the League of Interior, had invaded eastern Córdoba and Buenos Aires with forces from Santa Fe in February 1831).

Ibarra did not rush back, and left a landowner named Santiago del Palacio to govern, while the decimated Unitarian army (which had retreated from Cordoba to Tucuman and was commanded by Colonel Major Lamadrid) was beaten four times by Quiroga (and which, after the disaster of Oncativo and forced exile in Buenos Aires, had returned with a handful of men to action, to ravage southern Córdoba, reconquering Cuyo and La Rioja and then moving to northern Argentina with a new army from Rioja, Cuyano and Catarmaca).

When in 1834 war broke out between Tucumán and Salta (which Ibarra discreetly supported), he received in his province a mediator sent by Buenos Aires, General Facundo Quiroga.

During the war against the Peruvian-Bolivian Confederation (led by Marshal Andrés de Santa Cruz), despite his show if support for Rosas in the conflict, Ibarra sent no contingent.

General Gregorio Aráoz de Lamadrid (sent from Buenos Aires to recover the weapons used by Heredia in war against Marshal Santa Cruz) began operations against Santiago.

In late October this year, one of its divisions commanded by his nephew, Manuel Ibarra, collided on the banks of the river Salado with Solá column, defeating and chasing to the border with Salta.

He participated, under the command of Uruguayan Brigadier Manuel Oribe, in the Battle of Famaillá (1841) as head of the left wing of the federal army, and used to place Gutierrez in the Tucumán government.

On the occasion of the Anglo-French blockade of the Río de la Plata, Ibarra filed a proclamation to the people of Santiago dated 13 April 1845 .

After a short civil war among his heirs, one of them, Manuel Taboada, came to dominate the politics of Santiago for the next twenty-four years, aligned with the Unitarians.