The following year he was assigned to the Expeditionary Army of Costa Firme which participated in a military expedition to South America led by Field Marshall Pablo Morillo.

There he unsuccessfully defended Angostura against Manuel Piar in April 1817, and led the loyalist forces down the Orinoco River as they fought their way to the Atlantic Ocean.

He participated in the negotiations between Bolívar and Morillo and the later meeting in Santa Ana, where the two signed a six-month truce and a treaty regularizing the rules of engagement.

In collaboration with his intendant, Dr. José Domingo Díaz, whom he knew from his days in Venezuela, La Torre's main concern was preventing a rebellion on the island.

Carefully controlling the government, he instituted a policy which he called "dance, drink and dice" (baile, botella y baraja, similar to the Romans "bread and circuses"), implying that a well entertained population will not think about revolution.