[citation needed] Navarro arrived in Venezuela in 1872, shortly after President Antonio Guzmán Blanco had consolidated his rule at the Battle of San Fernando de Apure [es].

The editor of La Opinión Nacional, a pro-government daily, suggested that the newly arrived (and politically neutral) Navarro would be the perfect choice to immortalize the event.

The huge painting hung in the Senate chambers at the Palacio Federal Legislativo until 1889, when it disappeared; probably destroyed by opponents of the former President who vandalized statues and portraits of him throughout the country.

Bereft of patronage (and possibly no longer welcome), Navarro resigned his teaching position at the Academy of Fine Arts and departed for Rio de Janeiro with his wife and children.

[2] Although the school was successful, Navarro could not maintain a sufficient income from the limited local demand for art so, after five years, he relocated to Rio de Janeiro, where he worked primarily as a portrait painter.