A Civil War (1826-1829) had brought the Liberal General Francisco Morazán to power.

In 1832, public order was disturbed, as revolutionary unrest broke out, almost at the same time, in three places in the Republic of El Salvador, on the coasts of Northern Honduras and in Soconusco.

[1] When President Morazán learned that the Head of El Salvador, Jose Maria Cornejo, had contacts with exiled Conservatives, and conspired to change the order of things established by triumph of the liberal party in 1829, he moved to Santa Ana, in January 1832, where he received, from the rebel leader, a strict order to leave that territory.

General Morazán, with enough troops, and aided effectively by the governments of Guatemala and Nicaragua, chaired by Mariano Gálvez and Dionisio Herrera respectively, marched to El Salvador, defeated Cornejo on the following March 14 in the plains of Jocoro, and forced him to take refuge in the capital of the State, which he decided to defend at all costs.

Cornejo and his main chiefs and officers were imprisoned in Guatemala, and he was replaced as Head of State of El Salvador by Mariano Prado.