Montes along with Brigadier Juan de Sámano defeated the quiteño Patriots rebels at the Battle of Ibarra and restored the authority of the Crown in Quito.

Montes furious with Sámano replaced him and named General Melchor Aymerich as commander of the Spanish royalist forces in the province, however he too was defeated and Nariño and his army had reached the gates of Pasto by late 1814 but were subsequently defeated with his weakened army retreating back to Popayán and Nariño himself was captured by royalist forces.

Montes who also received support in supplies and troops from the Viceroyalty of Peru decided to launch an offensive on the New Granadan patriots appointing Lieutenant Colonel Vidaurrázaga as commander of the army who subsequently occupied Popayán on December 29, 1814.

Montes understood that he required the services of Sámano, who was in Quito awaiting legal proceedings for his defeats in Alto Palacé and Calibío (1814).

He called Sámano back to service and offered Camilo Torres Tenorio, in charge of the Federal Executive branch of the United Provinces of New Granada, an honorable surrender that was energetically rejected.

Around those days, the military expedition of Lieutenant General Pablo Morillo arrived from Spain, made up almost entirely of ex-combatants from the war against the French on the peninsula.

Morillo surrounded and took Cartagena de Indias and occupied Cachirí, while Sámano, who had left Pasto with 1,400 men, was fortified a few leagues from Popayán.

A few months later, the invasion of the Hundred Thousand Sons of Saint Louis took place, as a result of which the liberal authorities fled from Murcia province.