He collaborated with the advance of the Army of the North towards Upper Peru in that year and in 1813, providing it with numerous horses and mules, and capturing deserters.

One Sunday in February, after mass, Burela gathered his countrymen, complaining about the depredations that the army of the royalist general Joaquín de la Pezuela carried out against the natives.

With his gaucho and with those weapons he formed a large squad of militiamen, with whom he placed himself under the orders of the chief of an outpost of the Army of the North established in Guachipas, later Colonel Apolinario Saravia.

He supported the northward advance of the Army of the North, under the command of José Rondeau, and fought under Güemes in the Battle of Puesto del Marqués.

In April 1817, he defeated the royalists in the battle of El Bañado, in which he destroyed half the enemy army, which had left Salta to gather supplies, and achieved the death of Colonel Sardina.

In 1821 he accompanied Güemes and Heredia in their campaign against the governor – entitled "president" – Bernabé Aráoz, of the province of Tucumán, which ended in an absurd defeat.